When buyers ask AI about your category,
who does it name?
If it isn’t you, that’s an Answer Engine Optimization problem — the work (schema, entities, extractable answers, llms.txt) that gets your brand cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the rest. Here’s how it works.
A few highly-rated options come up most often: Summit Air1, Frontline Heating & Cooling2, and Alpine Comfort3 — all with strong local reviews and same-week service.
This is the surface that now decides who gets found. If an engine can’t extract and trust your site, it names someone else. See where you stand →
Key takeaways
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) gets your brand cited by AI — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini.
- It's a mix of schema, answer-first content, entity clarity, and llms.txt — not just blog posts.
- I'm an engineer: I implement the fixes as merged PRs, not a slide deck.
- Pricing is public and up front — starting prices live on the services page, not behind “contact us for a quote.”
How to rank in AI, answered.
AEO basics
What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
AEO is the practice of structuring your content, data, and brand signals so AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini — extract, trust, and cite you when they answer your customers' questions. The goal is to be the source the AI names, not just a page that ranks.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO optimizes for a ranked list of links on a results page. AEO optimizes to be cited inside a single AI-generated answer. They share foundations — good content, clean technicals — but AEO leans harder on structured data, entity clarity, extractable content, and corroboration across the web.
Which answer engines do you optimize for?
All six major engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. The underlying work helps across all of them.
Getting cited
How do I rank in ChatGPT?
Three things together:
- Make your answer easy to extract — answer-first copy + FAQ/Organization schema.
- Make your brand an unambiguous entity the model recognizes.
- Earn corroboration across the web so the claim is trusted.
That combination is what gets you named in ChatGPT's answers — and it's the bulk of what I implement.
How do I rank in AI search and LLMs generally?
The same fundamentals work across engines: clean extractable answers, valid structured data, a clear brand entity, technical crawlability via llms.txt, and trusted mentions elsewhere on the web. AEO is the discipline that ties those together.
Why doesn't ChatGPT see my website?
Usually one of three reasons: an AI can't extract a clean answer from your pages, your brand isn't a resolved entity it recognizes, or crawlers are blocked and there's no llms.txt or schema telling it what's canonical. All three are fixable.
How long until I show up in AI answers?
Technical fixes (schema, llms.txt, crawlability) can register within days to a few weeks as engines re-crawl. Entity and citation gains compound over 1–3 months as models update and trusted sources reference you.
The goal isn't to rank. It's to be the source the AI names.
SEO got you onto the list. AEO gets you into the answer.
Scope, cost & results
What does AEO implementation include?
An audit of your visibility across engines, then implementation: schema and structured data, answer-first content, entity and knowledge-graph work, llms.txt and crawlability, and citation monitoring — shipped as merged PRs, not recommendations.
Do you implement, or just advise?
I implement. I'm an engineer — schema, content, llms.txt, and technical fixes ship as merged PRs on your repo. The audit comes with a roadmap, but the value is the done-for-you work, not a slide deck.
How much does AEO cost?
A one-time AI visibility audit is $2,500. Done-for-you implementation starts at $9,000 for a 90-day foundation, and ongoing monitoring & iteration is $3,500/month. Published up front.
Can you guarantee I'll get cited by AI?
No one honestly can — AI engines control their own model and crawl cycles. What I guarantee is that the audit is thorough, the fixes are real and testable, and they ship. Citations follow from being the most extractable, trusted answer in your category.
How do you measure AEO results?
By citations and share of voice: how often each engine names you for your buyer queries, versus competitors, tracked over time across all six engines.
Six reasons you're not the one it cites.
Every one is findable — and fixable. The free scan flags which are costing you citations right now.
No answer to lift
An engine can't pull a clean, correct answer off your page — so it paraphrases a competitor instead of quoting you.
Engines can't read you
With no Organization or FAQ markup, models can't tell what your pages claim — or trust it enough to repeat.
Your brand is ambiguous
If the model can't resolve who you are, it never connects your name to the category your buyers ask about.
Crawlers can't reach it
Blocked bots, JS-only content, no llms.txt — the engine never sees the page that should win.
Nothing corroborates you
When nothing else on the web backs your claim, the model won't take the risk of citing it.
You can't see the gap
No share-of-voice tracking means you don't notice when an engine quietly swaps you for a competitor.
If you don't know whether AI names you,
the scan is the right next step.
It grades your crawl health and answer-engine readiness in about 60 seconds, no login. By the way — it runs whether or not we ever talk.
Scan my site free