AEO

Be the answer when AI search picks one.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode now answer buyer questions directly. We make sure your brand shows up in those answers, described accurately and cited to your own site.

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The short answer

What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?

Answer engine optimization (AEO), also called generative engine optimization (GEO), is the work of getting your brand cited and recommended in AI answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, and DeepSeek. It builds on SEO, since AI engines pull from pages they can crawl, understand, and trust. We track how those engines describe you across a fixed set of buyer questions, fix what keeps you out of the answers, and build the third-party mentions they rely on to confirm what you say. Read our full answer engine optimization guide.

How we work

How we run AEO.

A disciplined four-step engagement with no rotating juniors. The team that runs your account is the one that pitched it.

01

Visibility audit

Test how each major LLM currently answers buyer questions about your category and brand.

02

Content & structure strategy

Map the questions, build the entity graph, and design content that LLMs cite first.

03

Build for AI parsing

Schema, FAQ markup, AI crawler access, structured rewrites, and conversational content patterns.

04

Monitor & expand

Track citation share across surfaces and double-down on the topics that win recommendations.

Capabilities

What's included in AEO?

AEO isn't one job. It's a dozen jobs running at the same time. Here's the full surface our team owns on your behalf.

AI search visibility audit (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI)
Citation share tracking & benchmarking
Conversational query mapping
Structured content rewrites for LLM parsing
Schema, FAQ, and how-to markup
Entity & sameAs schema for brands and experts
Wikidata & knowledge graph profiles
Reddit, review & third-party mention strategy
AI crawler access & robots.txt configuration
Freshness updates for pages AI engines cite
Brand mention sentiment & accuracy tracking
AI search baselines & competitor benchmarks
Optimized for every major AI engine
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Google AI Overviews
Claude
Gemini
Google AI Mode
Microsoft Copilot
DeepSeek
Common questions

Questions buyers ask before they sign.

If you don't see yours, mention it on the call. We'd rather over-answer up front than create surprises later.

Yes, for practical purposes. AEO and GEO are two names for the same work: earning citations and mentions in AI-generated answers. We run them as one practice, built on top of SEO.
Most in-house teams own AEO as one of many channels, meaning it gets attention in 1 to 2 hour bursts per week. We commit a dedicated senior strategist plus a supporting analyst to your account every week, with weekly test cycles and bi-weekly executive readouts. The compounding effect of disciplined cadence is where the gains live.
All the major ones: ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, and DeepSeek. We track brand mentions and citations separately for each engine, because the brand that leads in one engine often trails in another. Our State of AI Visibility study shows how often that happens.
A weekly snapshot covering the metrics that matter for your business. A bi-weekly executive write-up of what we shipped, learned, and plan next. And a live dashboard with the full account roll-up, refreshed daily.
Success is defined together in the kickoff, usually a combination of margin-positive growth, blended CAC trajectory, and net-new pipeline quality. We tie every test back to one of those targets. Vanity metrics never make it into our readouts.
The first month is foundational: tracking, restructure, baseline testing. Most clients see directional wins in the first 6 to 8 weeks. Material business impact you’d defend in a board meeting usually shows up by month three.
Yes, we’re platform-agnostic on tooling. We work with GA4, Adobe Analytics, Northbeam, Triple Whale, Looker Studio, and most server-side setups. If your tracking has gaps, we’ll usually fix them in week one.
A senior strategist (the person on your sales calls) plus a supporting analyst, plus shared access to our creative + data leads when relevant. No rotating juniors. The team you meet in kickoff is the team running your account in month twelve. Our AEO practice is led by Marcus O'Dell, Director of SEO and AI Search.
Compounds with

Often paired with.

AEO performs best when the channels around it are working too. These are the services we most commonly run alongside it.

Service · Organic searchSEO
Service · Attribution + measurementData & analytics
Service · Conversion-built sitesWebsites
Free AEO audit

Get a free AEO audit.

A senior strategist will test how the major AI engines answer buyer questions about your category, and send back 3 to 5 specific opportunities to win more mentions and citations. Free. No pitch.

Request your free audit

Typical turnaround: 5 business days · 100% confidential

A senior strategist personally reviews your account
Specific opportunities ranked by impact and effort
Competitive benchmark vs. peers in your category
90-day roadmap to connect the dots between insights and action