Be the answer on Google and in AI.

AEO, answer engine optimization, is the practice of making your business the source that AI assistants and answer features quote and recommend. It focuses on clear, answer-first content, structured data, entity consistency across the web and allowing AI crawlers to read your site, so tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews can confidently name you.

SEO aims to rank a page in a list of search results so people click it. AEO aims to be the answer itself, cited inside an AI response or featured snippet. They share the same foundation, so the best approach does both: rank the page, and write it so the key answer can be lifted and attributed to you.

Make your business easy to verify and easy to quote: a clear website that answers common questions directly, structured data that states who you are and what you do, a complete Google Business Profile with reviews, and consistent listings and mentions across the web. Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt and publish an llms.txt summary. There is no switch to flip, but these are the signals AI assistants rely on.

Schema does not directly raise rankings, but it helps search engines and AI understand exactly who you are and what each page covers, and it can make pages eligible for rich results. It is one of the cheapest ways to remove ambiguity about your business.

Technical fixes and Google Business Profile improvements can show results within weeks. Rankings for competitive services usually build over several months, depending on competition, content and reviews. The upside is that it compounds: good pages keep bringing in leads without paying per click.

Local SEO is optimizing a business to appear when people nearby search for its services, especially in Google’s map pack. The biggest factors are a complete, active Google Business Profile, reviews, consistent name, address and phone across the web, and a website with clear service and location pages.