Answer Engine Optimization

What it is

Search has split. Half of buyers still type a query into Google and click a blue link. The other half — the growing half — ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity for a recommendation and trust the answer they get back. Showing up in those answers is a different problem than ranking on page one, and it needs a different playbook.

Answer Engine Optimization is the work of structuring your site, your content, and your public footprint so that the models cite you when someone asks a relevant question in your category.

What you get

• An AEO audit of your current site and public footprint — what the models can see, what they’re missing, what they’re getting wrong.
• Structured-data + content updates so model crawlers can extract clean answers (FAQ schema, llms.txt, machine-readable bio, canonical service pages).
• Citation strategy: directories, press, partner sites, and review surfaces the models actually weight.
• Monitoring — periodic prompts run against the major models to confirm you’re showing up (and how).

Who it’s for

Local service businesses, niche consultants, B2B operators, and category specialists — the businesses where a prospect asking “who should I hire for X in <city>?” is a real lead source. If buyers in your market already use AI to research, this is table stakes.