Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
As an AEO agency, we structure content so AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can extract and cite it directly. Unlike SEO, which earns the click, answer engine optimisation earns the citation — often with no click at all. We build AEO around clear, extractable answers and measurable visibility tracking, not AI-flavoured content marketing.
What’s Included
How We Actually Do This
AEO vs SEO vs GEO — what we actually mean by each
SEO earns a ranking and a click. AEO structures content — clear definitions, direct answers, scannable FAQs — so answer engines can extract and cite it, usually with no click at all. GEO is the broader discipline: making a brand and its products genuinely discoverable and recommendable across generative AI surfaces, including commerce-specific contexts. In practice they overlap heavily and reinforce each other, but treating them as one undifferentiated "AI SEO" service is how agencies end up with vague, unmeasurable engagements.
How we measure prompts, citations, and source visibility
We build a defined prompt set based on your real commercial queries — the questions your buyers actually ask AI tools before choosing a provider — and track, on a recurring cadence, whether and how your brand appears: cited as a source, recommended by name, or absent entirely. This baseline is what makes AEO work accountable instead of speculative.
The AEO implementation framework
Four layers, run together: technical (structured data and crawlability so AI systems can parse your pages), content (clear definitions, direct-answer formatting, genuinely useful FAQs), entity (consistent brand and product facts across your site and the wider web, since AI systems cross-reference multiple sources), and off-site evidence (mentions, citations, and third-party validation that reinforce what your own site claims about itself).
The AI Visibility Audit
Before any implementation work, we run your brand and product set through a defined prompt library across the major AI platforms and document exactly where you appear, where a competitor appears instead, and why. You get a written report with prioritised fixes — usable whether or not you engage us for implementation.
Why we won't promise citations
No one — including the platforms themselves — can guarantee inclusion in an AI-generated answer, because the underlying models are opaque and change without notice. What we can commit to is optimising every structural and factual signal that correlates with citation: clean entity data, extractable formatting, consistent facts across the web, and a baseline you can actually compare future results against. We'd rather set that expectation upfront than sell an outcome nobody can control.
Who this is actually for right now
AEO amplifies existing authority rather than creating it from nothing — a brand with genuine expertise, published content, and a track record has real signal for an AI system to extract and cite. A brand with no content footprint yet needs to build that foundation first; AEO work at that stage would just be optimising something that doesn't exist. We'll tell you honestly which stage you're at during the initial audit, rather than selling AEO to every enquiry regardless of fit.
How It Works
Baseline audit — current AI visibility and citation gaps
Content and structure recommendations
Implementation across priority pages
Monitoring and iteration as AI search evolves
Best For
Brands with existing content and authority who want to extend visibility into AI-generated answers.
Not a Fit If
Brands with no content foundation yet — AEO amplifies existing authority, it doesn't create it from zero.
FAQs
What does an AEO agency do?
We audit where your brand currently appears (or doesn't) across AI answer engines, restructure content so it's genuinely extractable and citable, and track visibility on an ongoing basis — treating AI citation as a measurable channel, not a guess.
What is answer engine optimisation?
AEO is the practice of structuring content — clear definitions, direct answers, well-formed FAQs, consistent entity information — so AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can extract and cite it directly, independent of traditional ranking position.
How much does AEO cost?
It depends on scope — a standalone AI Visibility Audit is priced separately from ongoing AEO implementation and monitoring. We'll give you a clear, scoped price after understanding your current content footprint, not a generic package rate.
Does AEO replace SEO?
No — they reinforce each other. Strong technical and content SEO foundations make AEO work faster and more effective; AEO extends that same authority into AI-generated answers where no traditional ranking exists.