Capability - CAP/09
Get found, get cited, get chosen
Search is not only a list of blue links any more. When a customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Google's AI Overviews a question, an answer engine picks the sources it trusts and builds a response from them, often without a single click through to a website. If your business is not one of those sources, you are invisible at the exact moment a decision is being made. We build the structure, authority and technical foundation that gets you cited, not skipped.
The briefing
Answer Engine Optimisation is the practice of structuring a website and its content so that AI-driven answer engines, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Claude and Google's AI Overviews, can understand it, trust it and use it to build a direct answer. Rather than competing purely for a ranking position on a results page, AEO competes for the citation itself: the sentence, statistic or explanation an AI system chooses to repeat back to the person asking.
It sits alongside, not instead of, traditional SEO. Search Engine Optimisation earns visibility in the organic results a person scrolls through. AEO earns a place inside the answer they are given before they ever reach a results page. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is often used interchangeably with AEO and covers similar ground: making sure conversational AI tools cite and recommend your business by name. In practice, all three disciplines rely on the same foundation - technically sound pages, clear structure and genuine authority - so we treat them as one connected strategy rather than three separate jobs.
This is not a new direction for us. AI search has been part of our strategy since these platforms started influencing buying decisions, and it sits alongside the SEO and Google Ads work we have delivered for over two decades.
Why it matters now: a growing share of searches end without a click at all, because the answer engine has already given the person what they needed. Independent research from Ahrefs and others has recorded significant drops in click-through rate for top-ranking pages once an AI Overview appears above them. The businesses that still get the enquiry are the ones the AI chose to mention.
Operations
Content is rewritten and structured so the direct answer appears immediately, not buried under an introduction. Answer engines extract and reuse content that gets to the point.
Structured data tells answer engines exactly what your content is, removing the guesswork.
An answer engine cannot cite what it cannot access. We make sure the door is open to the crawlers that matter.
Answer engines favour sources they can verify. We build the signals that make your business one of them.
You cannot improve what is not measured. We track where and how your business appears in AI-generated answers.
The same approach that has delivered SEO and PPC results for over two decades, applied to a newer part of search.
Rate card
AEO is not sold as a separate, bolted-on package. It is scoped as part of the audit and content work already offered, because the two disciplines share the same foundation. A full website audit (from £285) now includes an assessment of AI crawler access, structured data and answer-readiness alongside the usual technical SEO checks. Content updates (from £75 per page) are written answer-first as standard. For businesses that want AEO prioritised specifically, ongoing monthly packages (from £650 per month) can be weighted toward AI visibility work, agreed upfront with no hidden costs. Get in touch and we will scope exactly what your site needs.
Modus operandi
AEO is not a bolt-on. It works because the same foundations that make a site rank also make it citable.
We establish where you currently stand:
Then we build the foundation:
When managed properly:
Every AEO recommendation is built around:
Debrief
AEO is the practice of structuring a website's content so that AI-driven answer engines, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews, can understand it, trust it and cite it directly in the answers they generate for users.
SEO is built to earn a high ranking so a person clicks through to your website. AEO is built to earn a citation, a mention inside the answer itself, which may happen without a click at all. The technical and content foundations overlap significantly, so a site with strong SEO already has a head start on AEO.
The two terms are closely related and often used interchangeably. GEO tends to refer specifically to visibility inside conversational AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, while AEO covers a broader set of answer surfaces, including featured snippets and Google's AI Overviews. In practice, we treat them as one connected strategy rather than two separate services.
Yes. Traditional search still accounts for the large majority of search traffic, and a strong SEO foundation is what makes AEO possible in the first place. The two should be run together, not treated as a choice between one or the other.
Our work covers visibility across ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. Each platform selects and presents sources slightly differently, so monitoring is platform-specific.
Early technical fixes, such as crawler access and structured data, can take effect within weeks. Building the authority signals that earn consistent citations is a longer process, similar in timescale to traditional SEO, typically three to six months for meaningful, measurable movement.
Yes. We monitor and report on where your business is mentioned or cited across AI platforms, alongside the traditional keyword and traffic reporting already provided for SEO and Google Ads work.
Increasingly, yes. Local buyers are already using AI assistants to ask for recommendations rather than searching and scrolling. A local business that is structured correctly has a genuine opportunity to be the name an AI assistant suggests.
Your move
Search is changing faster than most businesses can keep up with alone. Get an audit that shows exactly where your site stands with AI answer engines, and what it would take to be cited.