About

Zillah Bahar

SEO / AEO & GEO specialist · Founder of COLAClear · Los Angeles, CA

Portrait of Zillah Bahar, SEO/AEO/GEO specialist and founder of COLAClear.

I'm an SEO and AEO/GEO specialist who has already done the thing this shift demands. My GEO program earned COLAClear a by-name citation in Google's AI Overview and page-one rankings on high-intent commercial terms — for a product I built and run solo.

Behind that: twenty years of marketing in a regulated category — beverage alcohol — where federal and state rules govern every claim. That's the discipline regulated-industry search work actually demands. Along the way: 3,000+ AI-assisted product descriptions, a $2M+ email channel, and trade-press bylines that earn authority the algorithmic way.

Connect on LinkedIn · zillahbahar@gmail.com

Selected results

Cited by name in Google's AI Overview

COLAClear is reproduced as the automated TTB pre-screening tool, including its compliance logic and pass / review / fail output.

Page-one Google rankings

On high-intent terms including "COLA prescreen tool" and "how to fix a rejected COLA label."

3,000+ descriptions in three weeks

An AI workflow I designed at RNDC — roughly $51K saved against a six-month manual projection.

Published in the trade press

Wine Business Monthly, Wine Industry Advisor, and Craft Spirits Magazine.

Experience & credentials

  • Founder & Project Lead — COLAClear (2026–present): designed and executed the full SEO/AEO/GEO program and built the product with AI-assisted development.
  • Ecommerce Content Specialist & AI Implementation Lead — RNDC (2023–2025): built the company's first AI-assisted product-description workflow.
  • Key Account Manager & Email Marketing Strategist — Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits (2004–2022): $4.5M annual ecommerce sales; a data-driven email program supporting $2M+ in channel revenue.
  • Education: MBA — Mills College · M.J. — UC Berkeley · B.A. Economics — University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign · M.A. Design & Innovation (in progress) — CSUN.

Questions people ask

What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

GEO is making your business the source an AI assistant names and quotes when it answers a question. Where SEO aims for a page-one ranking, GEO aims to be cited by name inside answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Google's AI Overviews.

How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO earns a ranked link on a search results page. GEO earns a mention inside a synthesized AI answer. They share the same foundations — real-intent content, structured data, and authority — but GEO adds machine-facing signals like an llms.txt brief and explicit AI-crawler access.

Does GEO require paid advertising?

No. COLAClear earned its Google AI Overview citation and page-one rankings with zero paid media — entirely through the eight mechanics in the playbook.

Does this only work for beverage alcohol?

No. Beverage alcohol is where it was proven, but the eight mechanics apply to any regulated, high-consideration category where buyers research before they commit.