Ranking is not the same as being quoted.
An AI answer names a handful of sources and resolves the question before anyone clicks. If you are not one of those sources, your ranking stopped mattering on that query. AEO is the work of becoming one.
Four things decide whether a machine quotes you.
None of them are tricks. They are the same signals that made a source citable before language models existed, made explicit enough for a machine to act on.
Entity clarity
A model has to know what you are before it can recommend you. That means one consistent description of the business across your own site, your schema, your Business Profile and every third-party listing that mentions you. Contradictions get you dropped, not penalised. There is no penalty, there is just ambiguity, and ambiguity loses.
Structured data that matches the page
Schema is how you hand a machine the facts instead of hoping it infers them. It only works when it agrees with the visible page, which is where most implementations quietly fail.
Quotable specificity
Models cite sentences that answer a question completely and stand alone out of context. Hedged, padded copy does not get quoted, because there is nothing in it to lift.
Source authority
Being mentioned elsewhere still decides whether you are treated as a source or as a shop. The difference from classic link building is that unlinked mentions count, so the work shifts toward being genuinely referenced rather than accumulating anchors.
Five phases, in this order.
The order matters more than any single tactic. Fixing quotability before fixing entity clarity is wasted effort, because a model that cannot identify you will not quote you no matter how clean the sentence is.
- 01
Measure the baseline
Which prompts in your category currently produce an answer that names a competitor and not you. This is the only honest starting point, and most brands have never looked.
- 02
Fix the entity
One description of the business, reconciled everywhere a machine can read it. Site, schema, Business Profile, directories.
- 03
Make the facts machine-readable
Schema that matches the visible page, on the templates that carry your commercial pages rather than a token implementation on the homepage.
- 04
Rewrite for extraction
The answer to each question stated once, completely, in a sentence that survives being lifted out of the page.
- 05
Build referenceability
Get named in the places a model already trusts. Unlinked mentions count here, which changes what is worth pursuing.
A monthly cycle, not a one-off audit.
Answer surfaces change faster than search results do. A fix that worked in March can stop working in June, so the measurement runs continuously rather than once.
- 01
Prompt tracking
A fixed set of category prompts, checked on a schedule, so movement is visible rather than anecdotal.
- 02
Citation reporting
Where you were named, where a competitor was named instead, and what changed since last month.
- 03
Implementation
The schema, copy and technical work, done rather than recommended.
- 04
Compounding into SEO
Every fix here is a classic SEO fix too. Nothing in this service trades ranking for citation.
The foundation this is built on.
AEO is new, so the honest proof is the technical SEO work underneath it. These are organic results from the same foundation.
- €5M+
In revenue tracked from the campaigns we run.
- €780K+
In ad budgets managed, every euro reported.
- 50+
Brands grown across e-commerce and lead gen.
We have been working with Etari Digitals on Google Ads and SEO for 3 months already and the difference from our previous agency is night and day. The team runs the account personally, no account manager relay, no waiting a week for a reply. We get weekly updates that actually explain what changed and why, not just a screenshot of a dashboard. Since starting, we finally got clarity on where our ad spend was going. The audit alone before we signed already flagged issues our old agency never caught in a year.
Working with Etari Digitals has been a great experience. What stands out most is how easy they make it to stay informed and understand what is happening with our campaigns at any given moment. Their team is responsive, proactive, and always focused on finding the next opportunity to improve results. We also have access to a live dashboard where we can check performance in real time whenever we want.
E-commerce · Truck, van & 4x4 accessories
E-commerce · Modest fashion
E-commerce · Surf & vanlife
What this connects to.
SEO
The foundation AEO is built on. Most engagements run both, because the technical work overlaps almost entirely.
ExploreGoogle Ads
When an answer resolves the question without a click, paid placement is the remaining route onto that query.
ExploreConversion tracking
Answer surfaces send traffic that attributes badly by default. Worth fixing before you try to measure any of this.
ExploreRuns inside an SEO engagement or standalone. Free audit first, either way.
Book a callQuestions, answered.
The ones that come up before every AEO engagement.
01What is AEO and how is it different from SEO?
SEO is the work of ranking a page in a list of links. AEO is the work of being named as a source inside an answer that a machine generates, in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and the rest. The technical foundation is largely shared, which is why we run them together rather than selling AEO as a separate product. What is genuinely different is the measurement: rankings tell you nothing about whether you were cited.
02Do you have AEO results to show?
No, and we will say so rather than dress up an SEO case study as one. The service is new, the surface is barely two years old, and anyone showing you a three-year AEO track record is showing you something else with a new label. What we can show is the technical SEO work the service is built on, which is on this page and in the case studies.
03Can you guarantee we will appear in AI answers?
No. Nobody can, and the honest reason is that the systems generating those answers change without notice and do not publish their selection criteria. What is controllable is whether your business is identifiable, whether your facts are machine-readable, whether your copy is quotable, and whether you are referenced where it counts. We do that work and we measure the result.
04Is this worth doing before AI search sends real traffic?
That is the argument for doing it now rather than against it. The signals that decide citation are slow to build, and they are the same signals that already help classic rankings, so the work pays for itself on the surface that already sends you traffic. Waiting until the traffic arrives means starting from zero at the moment it matters.
05How do you actually measure it?
A fixed set of prompts for your category, checked on a schedule, recording which sources each answer names. That gives you a monthly picture of where you appear, where a competitor appears instead, and what moved. It is not a vanity score, it is a list of prompts and who won them.
06Does this replace our SEO?
No. Every fix in an AEO engagement is also a classic SEO fix, so nothing here trades ranking for citation. If you are choosing between the two, start with SEO. If you already have a technical foundation, AEO is the layer that goes on top of it.
Read the thinking first.
The answer is already being written. Be in it.
One free audit covering both your organic rankings and your presence in AI answers. Keep the findings either way.