AI search runs on the same foundations as SEO
Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Gemini and Perplexity all answer questions by drawing on sources. Some rely on a search index, some on their own crawlers, most on a mix — but none of them invent your services, prices or reputation from nothing. They use what they can find, read and corroborate.
That makes AI search optimization an extension of good SEO, not a replacement for it. Pages that are blocked, slow, duplicated or vague are less likely to be used. Businesses with inconsistent information across the web are more likely to be described wrongly.
Two disciplines: GEO and AEO
GEO — generative engine optimization — is about how AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot understand your business as a whole: your entity facts, how consistently you are described across the web and what credible third parties say about you. Our GEO agency page covers the signals, services and process in detail.
AEO — answer engine optimization — is about your own pages: structuring content so that search and answer systems can understand it as a direct answer, from featured snippets and People Also Ask to Google’s AI features. See our AEO services for how we approach it.
Most businesses need some of both. The order depends on how your customers search — and on whether your SEO foundations are ready.
What we can and can’t promise
No one can guarantee that your business will appear in an AI Overview, a ChatGPT answer or any other AI-generated result. Providers control these systems, change them frequently and produce different answers for similar questions. We don’t sell placements, “AI rankings” or hidden prompts. We remove the reasons an AI system might overlook or misrepresent you and strengthen the credibility signals these systems look for.
The levers in short
- Clear entity facts — one consistent description of your business everywhere it appears (GEO)
- Crawlable, indexable pages — content available in the HTML, fast and free of indexing mistakes (technical SEO)
- Answer-first content — the important answers stated plainly, with real expertise behind them (AEO)
- Structured information — definitions, tables, steps and schema.org markup that matches what users see
- Brand mentions and citations — genuine coverage in the publications, directories and platforms your market reads
- Original research — data and benchmarks from your own work that others can reference
On AI crawlers: blocking them is a business decision, not a technical default. We review your robots.txt so that crawlers you want to allow are not blocked by an old rule or a security setting — and so that any block is deliberate.
What we won’t do
Some “GEO” and “AI ranking” offers are built on shortcuts: hidden text written for machines, mass-produced pages that restate the same answer for every city and keyword, invented schema types, fake reviews or networks of paid mentions dressed up as independent recommendations. There is no reliable evidence that these tactics produce lasting results, and they put your reputation with search engines, AI providers and customers at risk.
We also won’t tell you that a single file, plugin or markup type is the key to AI visibility. The businesses AI systems describe well are usually the ones that are clearly defined, genuinely expert and talked about by others.
Who should invest in this now
AI search preparation matters most where customers research carefully before they buy: clinics and healthcare providers, professional and B2B services, SaaS products compared feature by feature and online stores where shoppers ask for recommendations. If that describes your customers, the work pays off twice — the same clarity that helps AI systems also helps human visitors decide.
Honest measurement
AI visibility is harder to measure than rankings, and anyone who shows you a precise “AI share of voice” number should explain how it was calculated. We combine:
- Search Console data for queries and pages, including trends on searches where AI features appear
- Referral traffic from AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, where your analytics can identify it
- Branded search trends, since people who hear about you in an AI answer often search for your name next
- Repeated prompt checks for the questions your customers ask, recorded over time — useful for spotting inaccuracies and competitor mentions, but indicative only, because answers vary by user, location and wording
Our reports say what changed, what we did and what remains uncertain. For practical first steps, read our guide on what businesses should do about AI Overviews.
Where to start
If your core SEO is weak, fix that first — it is what AI search relies on. For a quick first impression, the free AI visibility self-check scores the signals you control. A free SEO audit shows whether your foundations are ready and includes a baseline of how AI assistants currently describe your business. To see how the three disciplines fit together, read GEO vs AEO vs SEO; to see how we document and report results, visit our case studies.