Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Agency
The Way People Search Is Changing
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Your strategic partner for AI visibility
The times are changing, and AI is changing how people are discovering solutions. While Google search still remains the predominant way clients find customers by 10x or more, you can’t just sit on the sidelines. If you ignore it, you’ll get left behind. LLMs are quickly becoming a significant new marketing channel, driving leads and revenue. We bring over 19 years of SEO and Digital PR experience to the table. Arguably, the two most important ingredients for a successful AEO campaign.
With our AEO service, you’ll:
- Turn emerging AI platforms into a source of leads and revenue
- Understand where and how you rank inside AI search platforms
- Claim real visibility in LLMs, not just search engines
What is AEO?
Whether you call it AEO, GEO, AI SEO or AI Optimization, they all mean the same thing. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is a new discipline focused on optimizing content for generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. Instead of ranking on Google’s search engine results pages, AEO helps content become a source for AI-generated answers.
Although it is new, there is a significant overlap with traditional SEO best practices. In fact, for many responses, chatbots are simply “Googling” the answers and summarizing the results for you. They are also looking at things like brand mentions, content completeness and content freshness. AI results are changing placement, structure, and even results on a week-to-week basis, so while AEO is very new and has some easily achieved core best practices, it’s also a dynamic suite of tactics that require patience, experimentation, and constant observation.
Our AEO Process
How does your brand get mentioned in AI results? It’s a combination of old-school SEO best practices with a few new variations. The truth is that both AEO and SEO draw from the same ingredients, but their end results cater to different algorithms, resulting in a slightly different focus. In addition to old-school SEO, there are certain things that help more in AI optimization, like brand citations, brand sentiment (aka positive reviews about your brand), content freshness, schema, and easy-to-follow page structure. A good analogy for the difference between AEO and SEO is building a house. You start with the same materials (wood, nails, concrete), but you can use them to build a bathroom or a bedroom. You achieve very different end results because you use them in different ways. With our Digital PR services, DTC spotlights your brand as a credible source of information. We help clarify the misinformation and complexities of Generative Search Optimization, utilizing a reliable process to cut through the noise and growing amount of misinformation. Our approach includes:
Goals Discovery & Foundation
We start where it matters: your business goals. We analyze your sales targets, customer acquisition costs, and competitive positioning to build a generative engine search strategy that delivers qualified leads, not just visibility. Every recommendation ties back to growth metrics that matter to your leadership team.
GEO Audit
The GEO audit helps establish a baseline for where we excel and areas that require improvement. You get a comprehensive roadmap showing exactly where you stand and how we’ll approach your space in AI search. We analyze which prompts your brand shows up for and how your business is mentioned in relation to competitors. Our generative engine optimization services identify content opportunities, priority citations for inclusion, and the next steps needed to establish your authority in AI Search. We audit your brand visibility on the most important LLMs and ensure it is accurate and analyze brand sentiment.
Authoritative Content Strategy
Our strategy is built on the principle of Entity SEO, positioning your brand as the definitive authority on your most important topics. We go beyond just targeting some keywords. We target broad topics, building comprehensive and deep content clusters around pillar pages to signal expertise. This includes developing content around informational, question-based queries, industry guides, and publishing original research and data to make your website the primary source for your industry. We optimize your content for semantic clarity to ensure AI systems accurately interpret and surface your brand as the definitive answer. We also help build authority (EEAT) by ensuring your knowledge experts are properly attributed on your site.
Technical Excellence & On-Page Optimization
Just like search engines, LLMs like to process information in a certain way. This is one specific area where our 19 years of SEO experience comes in to play. We ensure AI engines and human users can easily understand and navigate your content. We consider all the traditional SEO factors, such as site speed and title tags, while also incorporating specific strategies for LLMs. We implement advanced schema, a descriptive code that helps AI fully understand the context of your web pages. Our AI optimization strategy enhances entity recognition so AI models can confidently associate your brand with high-value topics and queries. Our content is structured with clear headings and is designed to be highly scannable, using page elements like FAQs, bullet points, and data boxes. Additionally, we develop a robust internal linking structure to guide both users and search engines, reinforcing your topical authority..
Link Building and Brand Mentions
LLMs put a lot of weight into brand mentions. Our award winning Digital PR campaigns focus on building that trust via citations and brand mentions on large top-tier media news outlets (think USA Today, Forbes, The Atlantic), as well as local TV news outlets around the country. We’ve run hundreds of campaigns across various industries, and we know how to land coverage that sticks. A good reputation across the web is a critical trust signal for AI.
But it’s not just about headlines. AI pulls trust signals from Google Business Profiles, industry directories, review platforms, and more. We audit where and how your competitors are showing up, and make sure you’re there too.
Bottom Line Reporting That’s Measurable
In LLMs, your brand could be mentioned, and your answers quoted, but it won’t show up in your analytics. Our customized dashboards answer one critical question: “Are we making a measurable difference?” Our GEO reporting is designed to give you clear insight into how AI is driving results for your business. While traditional SEO reporting relies on impressions and clicks, AI tools provide no such visibility. Instead, we measure the impact that matters: sessions and conversions from AI sources. Our reporting highlights how you perform for your most important prompts, which are the bottom-funnel queries that indicate purchase intent across all major LLMs. We also track which keywords trigger Google’s AI Overviews for your site, and your position within them. This provides a direct view of AI as a channel and its contribution to your growth.
Leverage AI
We leverage a proprietary Brand Intelligence Engine that captures and understands the details of your company’s identity. Along with your brand voice, tone, visual guidelines, and marketing objectives, we also build thorough audience personas and integrate them into the engine. This way, every output is filtered through the lens of your ideal customer, ensuring that all content is consistent, on-brand, and built to resonate with the right audience.
Benefits of DTC’s AI SEO Services
Work with an AI marketing agency that delivers measurable results in AI search.
Revenue-focused strategy
designed to generate qualified leads and be ahead of competitors
Proactive communication
keeping you informed without overwhelming your calendar or to-do list
Leadership-ready reporting
connecting AEO performance to business growth metrics
Strategic AI counsel and collaboration
that makes you look smart and drives real company growth
“GEO and SEO use a lot of the same playbook, but GEO is its own thing. It captures people using AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which means you’re getting leads from a completely different place than traditional Google search. It’s not replacing SEO, it’s adding a new stream of business on top of it.”
George Zlatin, CEO/Co-Founder
Digital Third Coast
DTC is Among the Top Marketing Agencies Nationwide
Meet Your AEO/GEO Specialists
FAQ: Top AEO/GEO Questions
How do AI Overviews work?
AI Overviews in search results use advanced models to generate summaries directly on the SERP. These overviews often pull from top-ranking sources, using techniques like query fanning (expanding a user’s question into related subtopics) and closer phrase matching (finding semantically related but differently worded answers).
This means your content needs to be tight, relevant, and directly answer the question to earn placement in an AI overview. No longer will fluff for the sake of length be enough; now the name of the game is helpful content executed as well and efficiently as possible.
How does semantic search work?
Semantic search interprets the intent behind a query and delivers results based on meaning. AI models consider synonyms, context, user history, and real-world knowledge. That’s why someone searching “best electric cars” might see results for EVs, Tesla reviews, and car comparison charts, not just pages that repeat the phrase “best electric cars.” Similarly, if one is searching for “Apple products,” they’re more likely to see a MacBook Air than a Macintosh pie.
For marketers, this means writing content that thoroughly addresses a topic and mirrors how users speak or think, not just what they type. We recommend thinking about what level of funnel you’re aiming for in a specific piece of content and employing personas to really channel exactly what a prospective buyer might be looking for.
ChatGPT search vs Perplexity?
ChatGPT and Perplexity are both AI-powered engines, but they differ in approach. ChatGPT offers conversational answers and can generate creative content. Perplexity focuses on direct answers with citations. If you want a footnoted, research-focused summary, Perplexity is your tool. For brainstorming or in-depth explanations, ChatGPT is more flexible. Both are LLM AI engines; both will search the web. While Perplexity fares slightly better with accuracy in its summaries of articles, ChatGPT is more widely used for a variety of tasks.
What’s the difference between AEO and GEO?
They are the same thing. AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization. GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. Things are still evolving and the industry is still figuring out what to call it.
Is ChatGPT better than Google?
Google is, fundamentally, a way to find information on the internet through research. You search for something, and then you sift through a variety of answers (links) to arrive at a conclusion. ChatGPT (and, generally, AI search) does the summarizing and value judging for you. This can be more efficient for easily findable things (definitions, basic concepts, etc) but carries high risk of error for topics that require deep, nuanced research. ChatGPT also provides the strength of being more interactive and able to provide a variety of different functionalities, from writing assistance to searching for you.
At the end of the day, people are using both, so as marketers, we will optimize for both. Happily, there’s quite a lot of overlap between the two.
Is SEO dead?
Nope. Not even close. In fact, SEO is as important as ever. SEO’s are seeing LLMs as another marketing channel in their toolbelt because there is so much overlap in the strategy and tactics it takes to rank well in both. You can’t have a strong AI marketing campaign without a strong SEO campaign. AEO is adding more traffic to the pie, not taking away.
End Your Search for AI Optimization Agencies and Book Your Free Consultation Now!
Are you ready to move past the confusion of new AI search trends and position your business as a top answer? Don’t wait while LLMs recommend your competitors instead of you.
- Turn AI platforms into a real source of leads and revenue
- Understand where and how you rank inside AI engines with clear reporting
- Create real long-lasting visibility in LLMs
Keep Ahead of the Curve With Our Recent AIO Blogs
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