Overview
One Identity is a cybersecurity leader focused on AI-powered identity security, covering solutions like privileged access management and Active Directory management.
This is a highly competitive space and One Identity’s SEO lead immediately saw an opportunity to jump past competitors in a key channel. "When we saw organic traffic change behavior, while more traffic was coming from Chat GPT, we immediately wanted to take advantage of the changing landscape." states Ali Sayyed who leads SEO at One Identity.
Given the competitive nature of the space, Ali made average position his north-star metric, supported by visibility, citations, and sentiment, so they could steer strategy with precision rather than instinct.
The Challenge
As AI answers and overviews began reshaping buyer research, traditional SEO tools couldn’t capture the new reality. The goal became clear: see what answer engines actually cite, then elevate One Identity into those shortlists.
The Turning Point
The “aha” arrived with Profound’s citations dashboards. “Seeing the citation pages was a big revelation, suddenly I could quickly focus on target pages for campaigns,” says Ali. That single view turned data into a prioritized to-do list. “Answer Engines change all the time. I took a 90-day window and targeted the major cited pages, and then built our own pages to reinforce the narrative.”
The Solution
Earned influence: targeted publisher outreach
“This is a form of link building and PR that is core to search optimization,” Ali says. “We contacted the top publishers Profound surfaced, offered deeper product context, and, where appropriate, secured sponsored placements.” The team systematically acquired #1 or #2 positions across the most influential listicles (e.g., PeerSpot, CyberPress, Expert Insights, etc.), giving Answer Engines (and buyers) authoritative third-party references to cite.
Owned authority: a definitive “top tools” guide
“We wrote our own ‘Top Active Directory Management Tools’ page” he adds. “We listed ourselves No. 1, but stayed objective about competitors, because LLMs pick up on overly biased negativity.” The intent wasn’t to game models but to help them: concise product details, feature depth, and credible references.
Tight feedback loops & daily use
“Every day” Ali says of platform usage. The first phase focused on tuning the data model so he could present it with confidence to executives. However, the power of AEO and Profound’s insights started to trickle through the organization. “Measure, measure, measure!” became an internal mantra as dashboards hardened and outreach turned into rankings.
Results
Within weeks, One Identity saw decisive movement:
- Climbed from about No. 5 to No. 2 against true market competitors
- Non-brand citation share reached ~4%—in a broad, objective marketplace.
- Visibility growth of 30% in a single quarter, increasing share of voice to match the top 3 performing brands (e.gMicrosoft)
On executive trust: “I can walk into a QBR with Profound data and slides that the board understands, industry-high growth in visibility and clear movement in Average Position,” he says. Turning Average Position into a core KPI let the team focus on outcome quality, not just surface-level impressions. This helped tie the entire AEO process to actual product positioning within markets.
Cross-Functional Impact
Profound’s insights now flow to marketing, product, and sales engineering:
- Marketing: AEO plan aligned to measurable targets (average position, citations).
- Product: Sentiment inputs tied to recurring buyer prompts in GenAI tools inform UX and messaging priorities.
- Sales Engineering: “Sales team thinks many objections come from ‘pros/cons’ prompts, from prospects prepping before the sales call using tools like Chat GPT” Ali notes - so the team actively addresses both owned content and publisher placements. They also prep for these objections in enablement.
Closing, Ali states the plain value their organization gets from Profound.
