[ Eatova · Dubai ]
From absent in May to named or cited on half its buyer questions.
Eatova turns a restaurant menu into a personal dietary guide. When diners asked AI for help, no answer named it. Now Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode recommend it by name, and Google's AI uses its site 29 times as often as in June.
The impact
- 29×Google AI appearances, June to October 2026
- 12/24Tracked questions naming or citing Eatova in September, from 0 of 11 in May
- 5.8%Share of voice in September, ahead of the three rival apps tracked since May
- 60%Perplexity answers on hidden dairy in Middle Eastern food that link its site
[ The results, in numbers ]
+64%
GOOGLE AI APPEARANCES, OCTOBER ON SEPTEMBER
7.8%
OF OCTOBER'S AI ANSWERS READ ITS PAGES, FROM 0% IN MAY
3 of 24
QUESTIONS WHERE CHATGPT SEARCH NAMES AND LINKS IT
9.7%
SHARE OF VOICE IN OCTOBER, AGAINST 2.7% FOR THE NEXT APP
[ The challenge ]
A new app with a new name, invisible where diners ask.
People with allergies, intolerances and dietary laws now ask AI what is safe to order and which app can check a menu for them. In May, Eatova appeared in none of those answers and its pages were read in none. Then in September the brand changed its name from AlignEat and moved to a new domain, mid-engagement.
- Menu scanning
- Allergies and dietary laws
- Dubai
- Rebranded mid-engagement
May 2026: asking AI
The answers explained the dishes and drew on other sites. Across every question tracked in May, no AI answer named Eatova or read its pages.
Oct 2026: Google AI Overviews
Among the resources the answer names:
Named in every Google AI Overview reading on this question in October, on the guide refreshed that month. Perplexity links the same site in 60% of its answers.
The first goal
12 of 24 questions, against a goal of 1
At least one tracked question where an AI answer names or references the app. By September 12 of the 24 tracked questions carried Eatova, from none of the 11 tracked in May.
[ What we did ]
Make Eatova the app AI reaches for when diners ask what is safe to eat.
The Index Lab method for a new consumer app: answer the questions diners ask, from the founders' own knowledge, and carry every gain through a change of name.
↓APrompt & content strategy
- Mapped the questions diners with allergies, intolerances and dietary laws ask AI, from hidden dairy in Middle Eastern food to apps that check a menu.
- Grew the tracked set from 11 questions in May to 24 by September, as the data showed where answers were open.
↓BContent execution
- Published 37 articles between May and September, built from the founders' own first-hand knowledge.
- Refreshed the guides AI already used at their own address, so they kept what they had earned.
↓CAI-ready site
- Carried the rebrand through: every article moved to the new name, each first mention reading Eatova (formerly AlignEat).
- Set up the new domain in Google Search Console and Bing, and submitted every article to both.
↓DMonitoring & Sentinel
- Tracked every question daily across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, with Google AI Overviews and AI Mode added in October.
- Measured Eatova against the rival apps it competes with, month by month.
[ The results ]
Google's AI kept reaching for the site, through a new name.
Google's AI answers used the site 12 times June's level in July, 18 times by August and 29 times in October, counting the old and new domain together. The climb began in July, the month most articles went live.
Google AI appearances vs. articles live
- Data from Google Search Console and our article log (indexed to June = 100)
- Covered period: June to October 2026
- ✓Named or cited on 12 of 24 tracked questions in September, from none of 11 in May.
- ✓Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode recommend Eatova by name for translating a menu and flagging allergens.
- ✓From August on, ahead of the three rival apps tracked since May, at 5.8% share of voice in September.
- ✓The first app download click from a ChatGPT answer came on 30 August.
- ✓The founders planned three months and kept the work going because of the results.
“We're keeping at it with you because we see tremendous results right now.”
Could this be your brand?