From SEO to GEO: I Changed My Name Before AI Made Me Invisible
We’ve crossed a line. AI is no longer a tool we use for search, it’s the one doing the searching for us. It decides who gets mentioned, who gets ignored, and which brands feel trustworthy before anyone even clicks.
I’ve spent the last year helping businesses adapt to this shift. But in 2025, I put that knowledge to the test on myself with the Kalicube Process.
The Kalicube Process™ Helped Me Get My Name In Google And LLMs
I have a very common name, Mariana Franco, shared with thousands of other professionals: actresses, politicians, nutritionists, and athletes. So even though I tried for a long time to rank with my own name, I eventually realized that if I wanted to stand out in the crowd, I had to change it (or at least its spelling).
Considering I make my living as an SEO consultant, this is not the type of image I want to have: unfindable.
So, when I changed the spelling of my name from “Mariana Franco” to “Maryanna Franco”, I wanted Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and every AI assistant to recognize me correctly. So, I couldn’t afford to leave it to chance! I had to teach Google and Assistive Engines all about me: clearly, consistently, and fast.
Spoiler alert: It worked! Within seven days, not only Google knew who I, Maryanna Franco, was but so did all the LLMs around.
I Changed My Name and Taught the Internet Who I Am (Again)
Changing two simple things on my name may look like a tiny thing so how can it have such a big impact?
The secret lies on how it’s done rather than the fact I did it.
Once I made the decision, I got help from Kalicube to collect my whole digital existence and together, we designed a strategy: Entity-first, AI-structured, Kalicube-style.
And it worked, because I applied the same GEO principles I use with clients: clear identity, structured data, and a digital footprint that tells the story machines need to see. And this time, with tons of data to back me up.
Seven days later, I had a clean Brand SERP; Ten days later, every AI tool I tested was returning confident, aligned responses about me under my new name.
And just to be clear I did not run ads or push a PR strategy, I simply structured, and made my digital identity consistent everywhere I existed.
This Isn’t About “Better SEO”, It’s About Being Seen in a Machine’s World
Search in 2025 is ruled by LLMs and AI Overviews. And the cold truth is: if you’re not part of the answer, you’re not even in the running.
- ChatGPT and Gemini now power over 40% of market research
- Google’s AI Overviews appear in over half of all searches
- CTRs drop by up to 30% when those overviews appear
- Ads are being layered directly into AI answers
If you’re not visible there, you don’t exist. Nobody’s clicking page two anymore and most aren’t even scrolling.
If AI Doesn’t Know You, It Won’t Pick You
This is the most important thing I’ve learned after 2 years of playing with ChatGPT: You don’t have to be searched to be suggested.
I wasn’t either of them. Because if your story isn’t crystal clear, someone else will take your spot.
Tweaking pages and publishing content randomly won’t make it (unless you are already famous). If you are unknown like me, you need to do more and this implies feeding AI the right information in a format it understands with right trust signals, entity recognition, and semantic clarity.
So, Why Should You Worry About Optimizing for AI?
Google is moving fast: AI Overviews is almost everywhere in the world now and AI Mode will soon replace most of the Search.
So the next time you will ask yourself: “Do I really need to worry about ChatGPT or Perplexity?”
The answer is a huge YES!
Companies are so worried about how to incorporate AI in their work processes, they forget to think about how AI incorporates THEM in its answers. It’s not about you using AI. It’s about AI using you, or not at all.
Sp, why should you care about optimizing for AI?
Because your potential clients, employers or investors will ask ChatGPT or Gemini:
- “Who should I hire for this job?”,
- “What does this person do?”,
- “Which brand solves this problem?”
And they won’t be reading from your homepage or Linkedin profile. They will be reading what the machines decide to put together: your name (or not), your summary (or not), your expertise (or not).
In conclusion:
- You want to be there
- You want the machines to represent you as you want
Because if you don’t, other people or companies will. It doesn’t matter if you rank first in Google. If ChatGPT or other LLM doesn’t recognize your brand, you’re invisible where it matters most.
What Every Brand (And Human) Should Be Doing Right Now
It’s crazy AI-times and we all need to keep up with them. I truly still believe in SEO because SEO evolves just like everything else. And it was never so connected to Brand or Entity as it is right now.
Here’s what worked for me, and what I now recommend to everyone:
- Create a clear Entity Home that defines you
- Align bios, descriptions, and mentions across platforms
- Build third-party validation (interviews, articles, podcasts)
- Use schema to make your footprint readable by machines
- Say the same story, everywhere, until it sticks
I didn’t come up with this system (Kalicube did). I just implemented it … and fast!
And it worked because machines weren’t left to figure it out. Not because of SEO “tricks.” Because the machines finally understood me.
Optimizing for AIs Isn’t Just for Celebrities or Corporations
Isn’t this great news? Optimizing your name or brand for AIs is for anyone who wants to be found, trusted, and recognized online.
You don’t need a PR team or to become an influencer. You just need a version of yourself online that machines can trust.
In my case, I had no press coverage, wasn’t running ads and honestly, didn’t really put much on my social media efforts. I just needed to stop being confused with the 200 other Mariana Francos out there. And I needed to do it quickly, with the future of AI search breathing down my neck.
If you’re relying on luck or waiting for AI to “figure it out,” it won’t. You have to teach it.
Final Thought: In the AI Era, Noise Doesn’t Win, Clarity Does
In the end, this isn’t about creating more noise or flooding the internet with content for the sake of visibility. It’s about making sure that when AI systems go looking for answers about you, your brand, your expertise, they find something coherent, consistent, and unmistakably yours. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through structure, clarity, and intentional strategy.
Kalicube didn’t just help me understand how AI sees and processes information, they helped me apply that understanding in a way that made a measurable difference, fast. And while I’ve spent years building SEO strategies for clients, this experience proved just how urgent and powerful entity-based optimization really is when done right.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the AI buzz, don’t start by producing more. Start by tightening your foundation. Make sure your digital presence is structured in a way machines can read, trust, and reuse. Because in a world where AI is deciding who gets seen, it’s not the loudest voice that wins. It’s the one the machine actually understands.
