Helping Kiehl’s Achieve #1 LLM Visibility Through GEO Optimization

Search behavior continues to evolve and consumers are turning to AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity for product recommendations. Instead of using keywords to search on Google, users are now asking more complex and conversational questions, such as “what moisturizer should I use for my oily skin?” or “what is the best retinol for sensitive skin in the UAE?” and relying on AI-generated answers to guide their decisions.

Acquisit and Kiehl’s have been partners for several years and expanded the scope of work with Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) in November 2025, focusing on strengthening Kiehl’s visibility in AI-generated skincare recommendations across the UAE and KSA.

Kiehl’s already had strong products and established brand equity, but needed the right technical infrastructure and content structure to surface more consistently in LLM responses. The opportunity was clear: if consumers were asking AI engines for skincare advice, Kiehl’s needed to be visible and recommended in those answers.

Strategy

Acquisit’s strategy focused on making Kiehl’s easier for AI engines to discover, understand, trust, and recommend. The approach combined technical SEO, content optimization, and GEO intelligence across two priority markets: the UAE and KSA. Moisturizers and Retinol were selected as the initial priority territories, based on their relevance to consumer demand and the strength of Kiehl’s product offering in these categories.

The first layer of the strategy focused on building the right technical foundation. This included correcting invalid schema markup across more than 60 product detail pages, improving crawlability through robots.txt updates, and cleaning URL structures across key category and product pages. These changes were essential because AI engines rely on accessible, structured, and machine-readable information to understand product pages and retrieve them.

The second layer focused on content. Category pages and product detail pages were optimized with clearer descriptions, stronger metadata, and FAQ sections designed around how consumers ask skincare questions in AI models. Content was developed in English and Arabic for both markets, ensuring that Kiehl’s could better match localized search behavior.

The third layer focused on GEO intelligence. Acquisit mapped high-priority AI search territories, localized long-tail prompts, and tracked Kiehl’s visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overview using Peec AI. This allowed the team to understand where Kiehl’s was appearing, where competitors were being recommended instead, and which content gaps needed to be addressed.

Methodology

The methodology followed a structured test-and-learn framework. First, Kiehl’s defined the priority GEO territories, starting with Moisturizers and Retinol, before expanding visibility tracking to Under-Eye. Each territory was translated into market-specific prompts in English and Arabic, reflecting how real consumers ask AI engines for skincare recommendations.

Next, these prompts were tracked across major AI engines using Peec AI. The team monitored visibility, share of voice, sentiment, and ranking position to understand how often Kiehl’s appeared in AI-generated responses and how strongly it was represented compared to competitors.

From there, Acquisit conducted a competitive gap analysis to identify where other brands were being cited instead of Kiehl’s. This included reviewing which publishers and sources were influencing AI responses, such as beauty forums, editorial reviews, and product recommendation lists. These insights helped the team understand whether the next priority should be owned content, technical optimization, or an earned media opportunity.

The final step was activation and iteration. Technical fixes, content updates, PDP rewrites, category FAQs, Ramadan landing pages, and gifting content were rolled out through Q4 2025. Performance was then re-measured to understand how visibility evolved and where the next opportunities were emerging.

Results & Impact

The GEO activation delivered strong results in both markets, helping Kiehl’s move from a limited AI search presence to category leadership across key skincare territories. Kiehl’s achieved #1 LLM visibility ranking across Moisturizers, Retinol, and Under-Eye in both the UAE and KSA, outperforming key competitors.

In Moisturizers, Kiehl’s reached #1 ranking across the UAE and KSA, with 16% visibility and 63% share of voice. In Retinol, the brand also achieved #1 ranking, with 13% visibility and 81% share of voice across both markets. This means that when AI engines mentioned a retinol brand within tracked responses, Kiehl’s accounted for the majority of brand mentions.

The performance was even stronger in KSA, where Kiehl’s achieved 90% share of voice in Retinol, showing near-total category ownership within tracked LLM responses. The Under-Eye territory also showed strong results, with Kiehl’s reaching #1 ranking, 20% visibility, and 69% share of voice across the UAE and KSA, making it the strongest visibility territory among the three categories tracked.

Beyond AI visibility, the activation coincided with a major uplift in organic sessions. Following the GEO and SEO activations deployed in Q4 2025, combined organic sessions across the UAE and KSA increased by 514% from Q3 to Q4. In Q1 2026, organic sessions grew 6x compared to Q1 2025.

Conclusion

This case shows that GEO can be measured, optimized, and scaled and proves that GEO is not theoretical. It is an actionable growth channel for brands that want to stay visible as consumer search behavior shifts toward AI-generated recommendations. By combining technical SEO, content strategy, and AI visibility tracking, Acquisit helped Kiehl’s build a stronger presence across the new layer of search.