[ UAE resale app ]
From 1 in 173 Perplexity answers to 1 in 13.
A pre-loved fashion app in the UAE was close to absent from AI answers about buying and selling second-hand, and its blog was invisible to AI crawlers. Three months in, Perplexity cites its site in 1 in 13 answers and recommends it by name on seller fees.
The impact
- 1 in 13Perplexity answers citing its site, from 1 in 173 in the first two weeks
- 5/13Tracked buyer questions that name or cite the app, from 3 of 13
- 5.8%Share of voice in September, from 2.3% in July
- 57%Perplexity answers on buyer protection and seller fees that use its site as a source
[ The results, in numbers ]
15%
OF PERPLEXITY ANSWERS USED ITS SITE IN SEPTEMBER, FROM UNDER 1%
5.3%
OF AI ANSWERS READ ITS SITE IN SEPTEMBER, FROM 1.8%
80%
OF PERPLEXITY ANSWERS ABOUT THE APP GET IT RIGHT
0
AI ANSWERS THAT SPEAK BADLY OF IT
[ The challenge ]
New to the market, and unreadable to AI.
Shoppers in the UAE ask AI whether resale apps protect buyers, and which platform takes the smallest cut from sellers. The app had clear answers to both, but in July AI rarely carried it. Its blog only loaded in a browser, so AI crawlers saw empty pages.
- Resale app
- Pre-loved fashion
- Buyers and sellers
- UAE
Jul 2026: asking AI
The answers named other platforms. In July, no AI answer to this question carried the app, on any engine.
Oct 2026: asking Perplexity
Among the platforms the answer recommends:
Named for its seller fees, with its own site among the sources. Perplexity uses the site in 57% of its answers to this question.
The first goal
Met named by AI on an unbranded question
At least one buyer question where an AI answer names or references the app. Perplexity now recommends it by name on seller fees, and ChatGPT searching the web gives it its own entry on buyer protection.
[ What we did ]
Make the app the source AI reads on buying and selling second-hand in the UAE.
The Index Lab method for a new consumer app: a site AI can read first, then answers to the exact questions shoppers ask.
↓APrompt & content strategy
- Set 13 unbranded buyer questions, from buyer protection to seller fees and safety.
- Pointed each article at a question where AI answers were still open.
↓BAI-ready site
- Found that the blog served empty pages to AI crawlers and that posts were missing from the sitemap.
- Worked with the client's team to serve every post in full, list it in the sitemap and mark up its FAQ.
↓CContent execution
- Published 9 articles between July and October, each answering one buyer question.
- Connected the blog to our publishing, so each article goes straight to the site.
↓DMonitoring & Sentinel
- Tracked the 13 questions daily across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.
- Set up Google Search Console, so Google's own AI answers are counted too.
[ The results ]
Perplexity read it first, and now recommends it.
The site being read came first: AI answers used it in 1.8% of answers in the first three weeks and in 5.3% in September. Perplexity moved most, citing the site in 1 in 13 answers by mid-October, and now names the app on seller fees.
- ✓Perplexity recommends the app by name on seller fees, a question where no AI answer carried it in July.
- ✓ChatGPT searching the web gives it its own entry and links its site on buyer protection, in a check on 14 October.
- ✓Perplexity gets the app right in 80% of answers about it, and no answer on any surface speaks badly of it.
- ✓Share of voice up from 2.3% to 5.8%, ahead of its closest rival in September.
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