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.
Are we starting to cook here, or am I getting ahead of myself? Honestly, I'm happy with all of this.
I really enjoy working with Igor. Super knowledgeable, fast, and he takes initiative. Easy to reach, always brings smart strategies, and he built us a full AI dashboard where every result is easy to read. We speak weekly. I'd recommend working with him to anyone.
E-commerce · Truck, van & 4x4 accessories
E-commerce · Modest fashion
E-commerce · Surf & vanlife
Three reasons this is not a rebrand.
The same operator runs it
Not a separate AEO team selling a separate product. The person doing the schema work is the person running the SEO account.
Everything doubles as SEO
Entity clarity, schema and quotable copy all improve classic rankings too. You are not betting the budget on one surface.
We say what we cannot prove
This service is new and we have no AEO case study yet. That is on the page rather than hidden behind a stock number.
AEO done properly, against AEO as a label.
We will run your category prompts and show you who gets named instead of you.
You keep the findings whether or not we work together
What this connects to.
SEO
The foundation AEO is built on. Most engagements run both, because the technical work overlaps almost entirely.
Explore →Google Ads
When an answer resolves the question without a click, paid placement is the remaining route onto that query.
Explore →Conversion tracking
Answer surfaces send traffic that attributes badly by default. Worth fixing before you try to measure any of this.
Explore →Or do it yourself.
The same system, documented and free. Take the free AEO checklist and run it in-house. Nothing attached, and nothing expires if you never come back.
Runs 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.
Find out who gets named instead of you.
Send us your domain and your category. We run the prompts and send back what we find, inside 48 hours.
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.