Case study · The method applied to ourselves

Shiftworks: from zero to the AI answer.

An agency founded in March 2026, with no track record or authority, building a presence on Google and in AI engines with the same method we propose to clients.

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Daniel Gonçalves

Founder of Shiftworks

Published on 26 October 2026

Company: Shiftworks — digital marketing agency
Market: B2B SMEs, Portugal
Period: March to October 2026
Website: shiftworks.pt (PT and EN)

01 — The starting point

A new domain, no authority and a market that already asks AI.

A new company doesn't appear on Google and isn't cited by AI: it has no history, links or reviews. It was the hardest possible starting point — and therefore the best test of the method.

Three objectives:

Objective 1 — To be read and cited by AI engines, not just indexed by Google.
Objective 2 — To generate qualified B2B leads with a minimal media budget.
Objective 3 — To measure every lead through to the CRM, so decisions are based on data.

02 — What we did: GEO and SEO

A website AI can read and cite.

Open access for AI engines: robots.txt with no blocks on GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended; content readable on the server.
A single, consistent entity: structured data for the company (legal name, address, contact details) and the same data on every external profile.
llms.txt — with a summary of the company and the essential pages.
Titles and descriptions rewritten — for real searches, with SEO and GEO on every service page.
Content in series: articles on GEO, FAQs with structured data and an English version of the website.

03 — What we did: authority and acquisition

Authority and lead acquisition.

Digital authority

Profiles in directories where AI looks for answers — Páginas Amarelas, Clutch and GoodFirms — with the same data on all of them.
Our own data published: the study on the presence of 97 clinics in AI answers. See the study

Acquisition

Diagnosis as the entry point.
Landing pages per campaign, with the click identifier and UTMs stored in the CRM.
Google Ads search campaigns for businesses only, with B2B negative keywords and decision-maker audiences.
Prospecting with a diagnosis: 104 companies mapped, each contact with a data point from their own website.
Automatic daily report with Google Ads, Analytics and Search Console.

04 — Results

What the numbers show.

shiftworks.pt website, 1 July to 14 October 2026 (Google Analytics 4). Small volumes, as for any company in its first year; what counts is where the conversions come from.

40%

of visits from AI assistants ended in a conversion.

27%

of the website's conversions came from AI, with only 1.3% of visits.

18×

the website's average conversion rate (2.27%).

1,297

AI measurements and 641 technical audits of 104 companies.

05 — Lessons

What we learned — and apply to clients.

AI brings few visitors, but decided ones. In volume, AI is still small. In conversion, it is the best channel we have measured — on our own website and for a B2B technology client. See the case
Without authority, there is no position. A technically perfect website isn't enough. Directories, your own data and consistent profiles are what make AI trust and cite you.
Paid media without proof is wasted. On a minimal budget, Google Ads brought clicks but almost no leads. We paused it and invested in authority and conversion.
The CRM is the source of truth. With the cookie banner, Analytics doesn't see part of the paid visits. Leads are counted in the CRM, with their source stored.