I tried something very simple. I searched the same name using the same AI model, first while logged in and then in incognito mode. Nothing fancy, same prompt, same model. When I was logged in I consistently got a full professional profile. In incognito the visibility dropped a lot and sometimes it almost disappeared. The only thing that changed was context.
That’s what made me stop for a second. We are used to thinking about visibility in terms of rankings and links, but generative systems don’t just retrieve pages, they construct answers. And apparently context plays a much bigger role than many of us assume. This doesn’t mean links don’t matter anymore, it just suggests they may not be the visible layer. They might be part of the grounding behind the scenes.
I wrote a deeper breakdown with screenshots and some practical implications here if you’re curious:
Has anyone tried something similar with other models?
SEO was about ranking pages. AI visibility is about shaping signals. — Stefano Galloni
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