SEO gets you ranked. This gets you named.
The two overlap, because AI engines lean on pages that already rank. But being cited needs consistency and structure that classic SEO never asked for.
What ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews currently say when someone asks for a business like yours — and who they name instead of you.
Pages restructured so a model can lift a clean, quotable answer. Question-led headings, direct answers, no burying the point in paragraph four.
Structured data and consistent details everywhere models look. These systems cross-check what dozens of sources say about you, and any disagreement costs you the citation.
Getting your business named accurately in the places these systems trust, so the facts line up wherever they check.
For stores, catalogue data clean enough that AI shopping assistants can actually recommend your products.
Monitoring across the major models, so you can see whether you are being named and where.
Audit, restructure, monitor.
This is measurable. Either the models name you or they do not.
STEP 01
Baseline it
Run the queries your buyers actually ask across the major models and record who gets named. That is the starting line.
STEP 02
Fix the facts
Structured data, consistent details, and the profiles these systems read. Cheapest work with the biggest effect.
STEP 03
Restructure the content
Pages rewritten so answers are liftable, on the questions that matter commercially.
STEP 04
Re-run and report
Same queries, same models, monthly. Movement is visible or it is not.
Starts at $1,500 a month.
Runs alongside SEO rather than replacing it. A one-off visibility audit is $750.
The AEO market is forecast to grow from about $1.25bn in 2026 to $14bn by 2033, and ecommerce is roughly a quarter of it. Being early here is worth more than being thorough later.
Runs well with these.
Most of these problems are the same problem wearing a different hat.
Questions we get asked.
What is answer engine optimization?
It is the work of getting your business named and cited inside AI answers – ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews – rather than only ranked in the list of links below them. Those answers usually name one or two businesses, so being one of them matters more than position six.
Does this replace SEO?
No, it runs alongside it. AI engines lean heavily on pages that already rank, so the two reinforce each other. What AEO adds is fact consistency, structured data and answer-ready formatting that classic SEO never required.
How do you measure whether it is working?
By running the questions your buyers actually ask across the major models each month and recording who gets named. Either you are cited or you are not, which makes this easier to report honestly than a lot of SEO work.
— Start
Ask ChatGPT who it recommends.
Type the question your customers would type. If it names a competitor and not you, that is the whole pitch.