Description
tripleNERDscore has handled SEO, AEO (answer engine optimization), and GEO (generative engine optimization) for FTE and DoGoodX since late 2025. The engagement is ongoing.
At a glance
October 2026 compared with October 2025.
| Measure | FTE | DoGoodX |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | 12,449 (+11%) | 3,409 (+31%) |
| New users | 9,495 (+20%) | 2,662 (+24%) |
| Page views | 22,050 (+9%) | 5,193 (+58%) |
| Conversions | 22 (+175%) | Not reported |
| AI assistant sessions | 49 (+14%) | 14 (+56%) |
The client
FTE helps young people and the leaders who support them explore calling, ministry and purpose through fellowships, grants, cohorts and learning communities. DoGoodX, part of the FTE family, supports early-stage social ventures through its Pre-Accelerator program and a podcast featuring founders and practitioners.
Both organizations depend on the right people finding the right program at the right moment: a college student weighing ministry, a young pastor looking for a cohort, a founder with an idea that does good.
The challenge
FTE had real authority: decades of work with young leaders, well-known programs and strong institutional partners. The websites did not reflect it in search. When we started, we found:
- Program names that didn’t say what the programs were. Branded titles like “Built for This” and “Discernment Labs” meant a lot to insiders but gave searchers and search engines little to go on.
- Missing program facts. Pages often left out the details people search for most: who is eligible, when to apply, what it costs and how much time it takes.
- Thin pages and generic links. Many program descriptions were a few sentences long, with repeated “Learn More” links that told search engines nothing about the page they pointed to.
- Navigation and duplicate URL issues. Some menu links appeared twice, and different labels pointed to the same pages, which diluted signals and confused crawlers.
- Two brands, one unclear relationship. DoGoodX lived both on its own site and inside FTE’s, and nothing clearly told search engines how the two organizations related.
- Video and podcast content search engines couldn’t read. Episodes and embedded videos had little surrounding text, so their best material wasn’t indexable.
- Heavy reliance on social and paid traffic. DoGoodX in particular depended on social media for visits, with organic search a small share.
- No visibility into AI search. There was no way to see whether ChatGPT or other AI assistants were sending anyone to either site.
The broader shift was clear. The people FTE and DoGoodX serve were starting to ask ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers about fellowships, discernment programs and accelerators instead of scrolling through search results. An organization that is not cited in those answers does not get the visit.
Our approach
We built a strong SEO foundation first and layered in AI search work as the channel emerged.
- Technical SEO cleanup: crawl and indexing audit, duplicate URL cleanup with canonicals and redirects, XML sitemaps, Search Console monitoring, and site speed and Core Web Vitals improvements on both sites.
- Keyword research built around real intent: mapped how people actually search for ministry discernment, theological fellowships, grants for young clergy and Christian social entrepreneurship, then assigned each topic to the page that should own it.
- Program page optimization: rewrote titles, meta descriptions and headings so each page says plainly what the program is, and moved eligibility, deadlines and how-to-apply details up front.
- Content and internal linking: expanded thin program pages, replaced generic “Learn More” links with descriptive anchor text and connected related programs so visitors and crawlers could move through the site.
- Podcast and video enhancements: added episode summaries, guest details and key takeaways so DoGoodX’s podcast content could be found in search.
- Structured data: implemented schema for the organizations, programs, events, FAQs and podcast episodes, and made the FTE and DoGoodX relationship explicit.
- Early AEO/GEO work: confirmed AI crawlers could reach the sites, wrote question-and-answer content in plain, quotable language and set up an AI assistant channel in Google Analytics to measure AI-referred visits.
- Monthly reporting: clear reports for both sites covering traffic, engagement, conversions and AI-referred visits, with recommendations each month.
The results
FTE
- Best month of the year. October 2026 brought 12,449 sessions, the highest monthly total in the past year and up 11% year over year.
- More new people finding FTE. New users grew 20% to 9,495.
- Better engagement. Bounce rate fell to 52.3%, the lowest of the year and 12% below October 2025.
- Conversions nearly tripled. 22 conversions in October, up 175% year over year, with $106,608 in conversion value.
DoGoodX
- Strong year-over-year growth. Sessions up 31%, new users up 24% and page views up 58%.
- Organic search more than doubled in a month. Search sessions rose from 150 in September to 331 in October.
- Visitors went deeper. Views per session reached 1.52, the highest in over a year, and bounce rate dropped to its lowest since April.
The AI search breakthrough
The most important result does not show up in a traditional SEO report: AI assistants have started recommending FTE and DoGoodX programs by name.
- FTE’s AI-referred sessions more than doubled from September to October, reaching 49. ChatGPT is the leading source, with Gemini also sending visitors.
- AI visitors land on the programs that matter most: Grants and Fellowships, Ministry Exploration and Mentoring Projects, the Young Clergy Cohort and Discernment Labs.
- ChatGPT is pointing founders to the DoGoodX Pre-Accelerator. Ten of DoGoodX’s 14 AI sessions in October landed on that page, and AI traffic was up 56% year over year.
These numbers are still small next to total traffic. They are also the fastest-growing source of visits on both sites, and every one of them comes from an AI system choosing to cite FTE or DoGoodX as the answer.
What’s next
Based on these results, FTE is expanding the engagement with a dedicated AEO/GEO focus for 2027. The work includes tracking how often FTE and DoGoodX are cited across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot; making program pages answer-ready; expanding structured data; building citations on trusted third-party sites; and tracking AI visitors through to applications and signups.
Work with tripleNERDscore
tripleNERDscore is a senior-only digital agency in McKees Rocks, PA. We help mission-driven organizations get found in search and recommended by AI.
See our SEO and AEO/GEO services, or start with the Free AI Visibility Audit for Pittsburgh Businesses. We also rebuilt FTE’s website; read the ExpressionEngine 7 and Salesforce case study.
Figures supplied by tripleNERDscore from monthly analytics reporting for both sites, comparing October 2026 with October 2025 unless noted. They describe these two sites; results for other organizations will differ.