Still on my Barcelona cloud
On stage at Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Europe 2026 in Barcelona
Hello,
On 1 October, I gave my talk at Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Europe, in Barcelona. It was the first time the event came to Europe, and my talk had been chosen from hundreds of submissions, so you can imagine how happy I was to be up there.
I ended with a question I think a lot of talented teams skip before going international: can you name three local sources that already see you as present in that market? It could be a trade magazine that has written about you, a partner that lists you, or reviews on the platform people there actually use. You can copy a page into a new language folder in an afternoon, but the trust around it doesn’t travel with it.
That same week, my own study on AI visibility across borders was still collecting its answers. I’d set up the same 24 questions for Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity, in French, German and English, asked from Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich. I chose two sectors with nothing in common: cookware, and industrial electrical components. By the end, I had 1,510 answers and over 12,000 cited links to dig through, and I presented the results two weeks later in Strasbourg.
The result that surprised me most goes right back to that question of authority.
In B2B, the AI tools go straight to the manufacturer. Almost eight in ten of ChatGPT’s sources are manufacturers’ own sites, and it’s about half for Google and Perplexity. Ask about SICK (that’s the name of the company) sensors on a conveyor belt, and SICK’s own website shows up in practically every answer.
In cookware, it’s almost the opposite. The brand’s site makes up about one source in five on Google and ChatGPT, and one in ten on Perplexity. When I asked whether to choose Staub or Le Creuset, neither Google nor Perplexity cited either brand’s website. They’d rather hear it from someone who has actually cooked with the pots.
And the funny thing is, the three tools don’t even agree on who that someone should be! Google leans on forums, videos and social media, while ChatGPT and Perplexity prefer media and product tests. The only thing they agree on is that the brand isn’t the one to ask.
So before deciding which AI tool to focus on, I’d start with a different question: where does authority live in your sector?
If you make industrial components, it mostly lives on your own site. That’s good news, but there’s a catch. When a site has several country versions, the AI picks the one for the buyer’s country only about one time in four. In Barcelona, I said trust doesn’t cross borders on its own. In B2B it does cross, but it often lands on the wrong version of your site.
If you sell cookware, most of it lives with other people: the testers, the comparison sites, the forum threads and the videos. Polishing your own site only touches a small slice of what the AI reads about you, and the rest of the work happens on other people’s pages.
From my desk
On stage at Bizz & Buzz in Strasbourg
I’m still floating a little after Barcelona, and I’m in no hurry to come back down. ☁️
So many people came to talk to me after my talk, first in the corridors and then by email and on LinkedIn, to say thank you or tell me what they’d taken from it. Some of those conversations have kept going since, and a few are turning into friendships. I’m definitely holding on to those few days.
Two weeks later, I was back home in Strasbourg, presenting the study at Bizz & Buzz, the Alsace digital festival in Strasbourg, where I’d already spoken in 2024. Some people came up after the talk, others wrote in the days that followed to talk about the study, and I met some lovely people along the way.
The full study is now online and free for anyone to read. You tell it where you sell, in which languages and to whom, and it shows you the findings that concern you.
READ AND EXPLORE THE AI VISIBILITY ACROSS BORDERS STUDY
Pro tip → the link above takes you to a mini-website I created to explore the study. From there, you can select options that best fit your case and get the top priorities tailored to your situation directly in your inbox! 😉
If you sell in more than one language, reply with your sector and your markets. I’ll tell you which finding I’d look at first for you.
And if you missed the Google conference in Barcelona, the written version of my talk is on my site. It has the parts that didn’t fit in a lightning talk, and the worksheet from the last slide.
I wish you a lovely end of October, and I’ll see you very soon in your inbox!
Cheers, 🧣