How Cheddar Up Gained Approximately $750K In 3 Months From AEO

After Cheddar Up experienced a drop in organic traffic and clicks, they partnered with Single Grain to improve their visibility in AI search results through targeted LLM Optimization. This resulted in over 1,000 additional purchases, which is worth nearly $750K in sales (taking average LTV into account).

+$746k Revenue Growth

488 Total AI Visibility (citations)

The Results

Cheddar Up achieved 304 citations on AI Overviews and 102 on ChatGPT. This resulted in a Domain Rating (DR) increase from 78 to 81, along with 25,095 organic visits. All this led to over 1,000 additional purchases in Fall 2025, totaling nearly $750K in revenue. Beginning in July 2025, a multi-pronged SEO strategy was implemented to move the “traffic floor” upward and build lasting authority. The strategy delivered significant financial gains across both seasonal periods, demonstrating the power of a holistic approach.

Total AI Visibility

488 citations

spanning AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot

Domain Rating

from 78

Purchases

1,116

from 17,932

Revenue Growth

$746,242

from $2,782,403

The Problem

Cheddar Up’s organic traffic was highly volatile, with unpredictable spikes and crashes that signaled deep sensitivity to algorithm changes. A major 2024 algorithm update, combined with the rise of AI-driven search, significantly eroded their SEO baseline. On top of that, heavy reliance on seasonal Fall revenue left them vulnerable during slower months.

Our Goal

AI Search Visibility

In a 3-month period, Single Grain executed key AEO & LLM Optimization tactics to improve Cheddar Up’s domain rating, citations, and ultimately significantly increase visibility on AI search:

Foundational Stabilization: Addressing technical SEO and optimizing for modern search signals established a consistent, predictable upward trend in organic visits.
Evergreen Content Expansion: To mitigate the “low season” slump, Single Grain prioritized evergreen content creation. While the platform still capitalized on seasonal peaks, evergreen content maintained a robust baseline of traffic and revenue during traditionally slow months.
High-Quality Authority Building: Developed a targeted, high-quality backlinking effort to increase the site’s Domain Rating (DR). This resulted in aggressive authority-building dominance in their niche and provided a crucial buffer against future algorithmic volatility.
Proactive Spam & AI Defense: Single Grain actively monitored and managed the site’s backlink profile, using Ahrefs’ new labeling system to identify and tag spam. This became crucial in January 2026 when the site was hit by an industry-wide spam attack.

Challenges

In the first half of 2024, Cheddar Up’s organic traffic was characterized by extreme “sawtooth” volatility: massive spikes followed by dramatic crashes. This pattern indicated technical instability and extreme sensitivity to minor tweaks in search engine algorithms. Furthermore, the platform suffered from:

Algorithmic Vulnerability: A major spring 2024 algorithm update, coupled with AI-driven search changes, significantly hurt their SEO baseline.
Seasonal Dependency: The business model relied heavily on a profitable Fall period, followed by a sharp performance drop-off from late November through January.