Services / AEO
AEO.
The channel nobody's optimizing for. Yet.
Answer engine optimization — making sure your business shows up when people ask AI tools for recommendations. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Siri. When someone asks "who's the best plumber in Lexington," you want to be the answer.
Search is changing. Not in the "thought leadership blog post" sense — in the people-are-actually-doing-it-differently sense. A growing number of people are typing questions into ChatGPT or Perplexity instead of Google. They're asking Siri and Alexa for recommendations. They're getting answers from AI, not from a list of links.
The businesses that show up in those answers aren't there by accident. They're there because their content is structured in a way AI models can parse, their entity data is clean and consistent, and they've built enough authority that the models trust them as a source.
Most small businesses haven't heard of AEO yet. Most agencies are still catching up. This is genuinely new ground, and it's where I spend a lot of my time thinking and testing. If you want to get ahead while the competition is still Googling "what is AEO," this is the moment.
What's included
Entity & data
- —Entity optimization across search and AI platforms
- —Structured data and schema markup for AI retrieval
- —Knowledge graph presence audit and strategy
- —Citation consistency across directories and platforms
Content & structure
- —Content structured for AI retrieval and citation
- —FAQ and Q&A content strategy for conversational queries
- —Search intent modeling for AI-driven discovery
- —Authority building through topical depth and expertise signals
Monitoring
- —AI answer monitoring for your brand and industry terms
- —Competitor presence tracking in AI-generated responses
- —Platform-specific optimization (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity)
- —Ongoing strategy refinement as AI models evolve
Who this is for
Local businesses that want to be the AI recommendation
When someone asks ChatGPT for the best dentist, contractor, or restaurant in Lexington, you want to be in that answer. AEO is how you get there before your competitors realize it matters.
Businesses already investing in SEO
AEO builds on the same foundations — structured data, authority, quality content. If you're already doing SEO well, adding AEO is the natural next step and the highest-leverage play right now.
Anyone who wants a first-mover advantage
This is early. The playbook is still being written. That's exactly when the opportunity is biggest — before everyone else catches on and the cost of competing goes up.
Businesses with strong expertise but weak online presence
You're the best at what you do, but AI tools don't know that yet because your structured data is thin and your content doesn't match how AI retrieves information.
Most agencies are still catching up on AEO. I've been testing, building, and advising on AI search strategy since the tools went mainstream.
My day job is designing AI-powered products at Amdocs Studios. I understand how these models work from the inside — not just how to optimize for them, but why they surface what they surface.
Frequently asked questions
What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)? +
AEO is the practice of optimizing your business's online presence so that AI-powered tools — ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Siri, Alexa — cite or recommend you when people ask questions. It's like SEO, but for the AI layer that increasingly sits between searchers and websites.
How is AEO different from SEO? +
SEO focuses on ranking in traditional search results — the ten blue links. AEO focuses on being the answer in AI-generated responses. There's overlap (structured data, authority, content quality), but AEO requires thinking about how AI models retrieve and cite information, not just how Google indexes it.
Do people actually use AI tools to find local businesses? +
Increasingly, yes. People ask ChatGPT for restaurant recommendations, Perplexity for service providers, and Siri for 'the best plumber near me.' If your business isn't structured to be surfaced in those answers, you're invisible in a growing channel.
Is AEO worth it for a small business? +
It's especially worth it for small businesses. Your larger competitors likely haven't started optimizing for AI search yet. Most agencies are still catching up. Getting in early means establishing presence in a channel with very little competition — and that advantage compounds.
Can you guarantee my business will show up in ChatGPT or Gemini? +
No one can guarantee that — the models are opaque and change constantly. What I can do is structure your content, data, and online presence to maximize the likelihood that AI tools surface your business. It's the same honest answer as SEO: the work is real, the guarantees are not.
Curious whether AI search matters for your business?
It probably does. Let's find out together.
Get in touch