AI Discovery Is the New SEO: How BestIndian® Built a Luxury Brand Without Advertising

For decades, brand discovery on the internet followed a familiar pattern- companies bought attention and platforms sold it. Consumers were tracked, segmented, and repeatedly targeted until a conversion happened.

From the very beginning, I knew that model was incompatible with the kind of brand I wanted to build. Luxury, to me, has never been about volume or visibility. It has been about trust, restraint, and discovery. This belief led us to take a decision that many considered impractical: BestIndian® Luxuries would spend ₹0 on advertising.

No paid search. No social media ads. No retargeting. No behavioral surveillance. Instead, we chose a harder, slower path - one built entirely on organic discovery.

Why We Rejected Advertising

This decision was not driven by ideology alone. It was driven by alignment. Targeted advertising works because it intrudes. While effective in the short term, it quietly erodes trust.

Luxury brands, especially those rooted in heritage, nature, and wellness, cannot afford that erosion. We believed that if a product genuinely deserved to be chosen, it should be found willingly, not pushed forcefully.

So rather than buying attention, we decided to earn relevance.

A Quiet Shift in Search

While we were building, something else was changing in parallel. Search was evolving.

For years, success online meant mastering keywords, backlinks, and rankings. But slowly, search began moving away from lists and towards answers. From “ten blue links” to recommendations, summaries, and contextual understanding.

With the emergence of AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini, this shift accelerated dramatically. People no longer search only to browse; they search to decide. Increasingly, they ask AI systems what to buy, trust, or choose.

This was the moment we realized that SEO itself was evolving into AI Discovery. What mattered now was not just ranking- but being understood, trusted, and referenced.

Building for AI Discovery (Not Just Google)

Optimizing for AI discovery required a very different mindset. There were no shortcuts. Instead, we focused obsessively on fundamentals:

• Product integrity: creating formulations genuinely worthy of recommendation
• Reference-grade content: product pages written to inform, not persuade
• Educational depth: blogs designed to transparently explain ingredients, processes, and the "scientific whys and hows"
• Structured clarity: organising information so it could be understood by both humans and AI systems

We wrote as if our pages would one day be cited, not clicked. Because that is exactly how AI systems work: they surface what they can understand, verify, and trust.

What Changed: The Results

The Role of Patience

This approach did not deliver immediate results. There were no overnight spikes, no viral moments, no artificial traction- only consistency. For years, we continued refining products, improving content, and deepening our knowledge base - without external validation. It was a long road.

We kept walking it patiently.

Results

Over time, something remarkable began to happen. Our products started appearing organically at the top of high-intent searches. Not just on Google - but inside AI recommendations.

Today, the results speak quietly but clearly:

• 75% AI Origination: Nearly 75% of our sales originate from AI systems like ChatGPT. Buyers land on our pages via AI-provided links and complete their purchase within 30 seconds because discovery happens at the moment of decision
• Search Dominance: We rank #1 organically in India for best Indian soap, organic pomade, natural pomade, best Indian night cream, best Indian hand sanitizer, best Indian hair serum, and best Indian nail cream, etc.
• Topical Authority: We consistently feature at the top for queries like best Indian hair serum, best Indian hair oil, and best Indian natural perfumes

Discovery Infrastructure: Domains and Intent

Discovery is not accidental- it must be responsibly supported. Over time, we acquired 50+ strategic domains across perfumery, Ayurveda, and natural beauty (bestindian.in, bestindian.co.in, bestindianperfumes.com, bestindianluxuries.com, indianfragrance.com etc.) - not to manipulate search, but to serve users who arrive with clear intent. 

When someone searches for “best Indian X”, they are not browsing casually- they are seeking trust. If your products appear at that moment, you carry a responsibility: to actually be the best answer available.

This responsibility now governs every formulation decision we make.

Where the Advertising Money Went

What should we do with the budget we never spent? We redirected it entirely towards social welfare.

• Animal welfare initiatives
• Employment generation
• Urban afforestation, including our flagship project, Atal Vatika, where barren land is being transformed into a living forest hosting numerous species of birds and mammals.

This was not charity layered on top of business. It was business designed with purpose built in.

What This Means Going Forward

AI discovery is not a trend, it is a structural shift. As AI systems increasingly become the interface between consumers and choices, brands will no longer compete for attention alone - they will compete for understanding and trust.

Luxury, once again, will be discovered- not advertised. This is the path we chose. It took patience and restraint, but it is a path we intend to keep walking until BestIndian® becomes the most trusted answer for every search that begins with: 

“Best Indian …”

 

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