Cybersecurity: 0 → 115K Organic Visits, $1.5M Paid Ad Value
How CGS Growth was able to help Thales go from no organic online presence to 115,000 monthly visits, with an organic traffic value of over $1.5 million/year (in terms of advertising) and more than 3,400 citations for AI Overviews in enterprise cybersecurity.
- Cybersecurity
- SEO
- AEO
- Global
115K
Organic Visits
per month
$1.5M+
Replaced Ad Spend
per year
3.4K
AI Overview Citations
per month
2,900+
Keywords
in Top 3
Thales
Thales
Thales is an international technology company that works in defense, security, aerospace and digital identity. Thales' cybersecurity department offers data protection, encryption and access control at an enterprise level to all organizations within each of the world's most significant industries.
- INDUSTRY
- Cybersecurity / Enterprise Security
- COMPANY SIZE
- Enterprise (Global, 80,000+ employees)
- GEOGRAPHY
- 🌐 Global (US 89.9%, Canada 5.7%, UK 2.1%, India, Philippines)
- SERVICES USED
- SEO, AEO, AI Content Strategy, Technical SEO
TAKES 30 SECONDS · NO SIGNUP
See Thales recommended by Gemini for enterprise cybersecurity, right now
Open Gemini and use the exact same prompt, and you'll find that Gemini recommends Thales as a top enterprise cybersecurity company.
Ask Gemini:
enterprise cybersecurity solutions
- Gemini
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
Verified: October 2026
THE CHALLENGE
Where Thales Started
As a result of not having an organic search presence before partnering with CGS Growth, the cost of that lack of presence increased each quarter for Thales’s cybersecurity division.
Zero Organic Presence
Zero Organic Presence
Despite being a large global company with over 80,000 employees, Thales’ cybersecurity division had almost no organic search presence. All of their leads were generated by paid marketing efforts (such as ads), events, or prior business relationships. They did not generate any leads via search.
Fully Dependent on Paid Ads
Fully Dependent on Paid Ads
Without an organic channel, each visitor that clicked on your website cost money. The entire year's budget was used to pay for paid searches and displays; therefore, there were no compounded benefits.
Losing Ground to Rivals
Losing Ground to Rivals
The competition has moved ahead of us with 3 or more of our main competitors. Many of these top cybersecurity companies have established solid organic footprints. Even worse, many of them are the ones that are cited by AI assistant tools when asked about enterprise security questions. On the other hand, Thales is not even mentioned.
No AI Visibility Framework
No AI Visibility Framework
Thales didn't have structured data, didn't have AI optimized content and didn't have a strategy to appear in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity. Since more and more enterprise buyers are starting their research on the internet using AI-powered search engines, this means that Thales is invisible.
Our GEO Strategy for Thales
- 1
AI VISIBILITY AUDIT
WEEKS 1–2We performed a complete audit of Thales' presence on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews with our proprietary LLM tracker. We analyzed each high-intent enterprise cyber-security query (i.e., data encryption, access management, cloud security, and compliance) to identify specific locations where competitors were cited rather than Thales.
- 2
SEMANTIC CONTENT REORGANIZATION
WEEKS 2–4We looked at the exact questions/prompts that enterprise security buyers submit during their evaluation process for products/solutions. We then restructured our complete content architecture based on topical clusters, with every cluster tied directly to a buyer's intention level (i.e. awareness of the problem; e.g. "what is data encryption at rest," and comparison of vendors; e.g. "best enterprise cybersecurity platforms").
- 3
SEO + AEO OPTIMIZATION
WEEKS 3–10For weeks 3 through 10, we used citation anchors, knowledge panel optimizations, and AI-specific meta tags on hundreds of different pages. We also revised all of our top-performing content so that it matches up with how LLMs interpret and use citations, while creating entity signals, connections within our knowledge graph, and schema markup to speed up discovery of our site by AI search engines.
- 4
CITATION BUILDING
ONGOINGWhile developing your content to be optimized will not provide the level of validation needed to create authority, we have created authority by utilizing external validation. To do this, we used strategic backlinking, digital PR, mentioning other businesses in our industry, and creating third-party citations, all with the goal of being cited by the types of websites that LLMs reference when providing answers to questions.
- 5
MONITORING AND SCALING
EVERY MONTHPerformance is measured via a real-time monitoring system that includes organic ranking, AI mention share, citation rates per platform, and changes in keyword positioning. Each month, the optimization process adjusts based upon how AI answers questions, identifies new keywords, and competes against other companies.
The Results
115K/mo
Organic Traffic
0 visits/moto115K visits/mo
$1.5M+/yr
Replaced Ad Spend
$0 organic valueto$130K+/mo ($1.5M+/yr)
3,400+/mo
AI Overviews Citations
0 citationsto3,400+ AI Overviews citations/mo
2,900+
Top 3 Keywords
0 keywords rankingto2,900+ keywords in top 3 globally
56
Booked Calls
No inbound leadsto56 booked calls from Organic + AI Visibility
Ready to Start?
Our Generative Engine Optimization Services
We analyze your buyer’s actual questions using ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI: multiple analyses per question, zero screen shots. We provide you with a natural language report of your invisibility and why; a prioritized roadmap; and the analysis tracking data (each analysis, each source, each screenshot). We can assist you with immediately addressing the apparent impediments to AI crawling of your website. Re-evaluated after 30 days, included. 5 – 10 Business Days
Ready to Become theAI-Recommended Answerin Your Category?
Think of how much more value we could provide your brand than Thales' success of moving from zero organic traffic to 115K per month and saving over $1.5M in advertising costs. Those brands that are currently successful at utilizing AI-powered search engines have begun to move towards this type of technology now; however, those that delay will find themselves behind other competitors.