Zilliz & Milvus
>50%
ChatGPT & Gemini Mentions
#1
Organic Traffic Rank
10×
AI-Driven Traffic Growth
01
Client Background
Zilliz is a world-leading vector database company. Its open-source project Milvus is one of the most widely adopted technical foundations in the vector database space, serving global AI application developers and enterprise ML teams. When entering the international market, Zilliz faced Pinecone — an industry giant that had already deeply established brand mindshare and AI corpus presence — and was at a clear disadvantage in both organic search traffic and AI mention rate.
02
Goals & Challenges
Project Goals
The client aimed to achieve two core objectives simultaneously in the international market: systematically increase website organic traffic and registration volume through SEO; and break Pinecone's monopoly position in vector database recommendation scenarios across ChatGPT and other major AI assistants through GEO, converting the AI channel into a sustainable registration source.
Core Challenges
As a first-mover in the vector database space, Pinecone had already built deep brand recognition in the global developer community and accumulated a dominant presence in AI model training data. Zilliz, as an overseas-expanding brand, was virtually absent in the AI recommendation ecosystem, with a stark gap in AI mention rate compared to Pinecone. The core challenge was achieving an AI mindshare reversal against an established competitive moat.
03
Strategy & Execution
Core Insight
AI application developers increasingly use ChatGPT as their first filter when selecting vector databases. Pinecone had nearly monopolized AI recommendations for vector databases, meaning that even if Zilliz had a superior product, it couldn't enter developers' shortlists without appearing in AI answers. GEO's core mission was to systematically shift AI recommendation preferences.
GEO Execution
Systematically analyzed how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other major AI assistants respond to vector database selection questions, identifying the content mechanisms behind Pinecone's high citation frequency. Produced targeted high-authority content including Zilliz vs Pinecone technical deep-dives, performance benchmarks, and real-world use cases, distributed widely through high-authority tech media and developer communities. Simultaneously produced structured FAQ content matrices designed for AI RAG retrieval preferences, creating content assets that achieve dual SEO × GEO hits.
SEO Execution
Completed comprehensive technical SEO audit and keyword matrix development, created high-quality content pages covering vector database selection, performance comparisons, and AI application deployment topics, and systematically built high-quality backlinks to strengthen domain authority.
04
Project Results
Brand share trajectory and the overtake
Share of brand recommendations in ChatGPT answers, against Pinecone
Vertical axis: brand share in ChatGPT answers, unlabelled; four measured months, the crossing marks the overtake
How to read: the vertical axis is relative magnitude with absolute values withheld; the curve expresses shape and timing only, while the magnitudes are listed in the results table below. The curve stops at its peak — later changes in pacing reflect client-side budget and scheduling, not a decline in effectiveness.
| Metric | Change |
|---|---|
| Website Organic Traffic (UV) | Multi-fold growth |
| Registered Users | Multi-fold growth |
| ChatGPT & Gemini Brand Mention Rate | Exceeded 50%, overtaking Pinecone |
| AI-Driven Traffic | 10x growth, with traffic share rising from under 5% to over 50% |
| Google Organic Search Traffic | Surpassed Pinecone, became #1 in the category |
Data source: Google Search Console / Similarweb
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