What is Answer Engine Optimisation?
People used to search Google. Now they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Google AI Overviews. The answers those tools give don’t come from the same signals that rank you on Google — they pull from structured data, AI-readable content patterns, and a small number of trusted sources per topic.
Answer Engine Optimisation is the work that gets your business named in those AI answers, not just lost on page seven of Google.
What I do
- AI-friendly site structure — Schema markup (Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Article, HowTo, BreadcrumbList, Speakable) so AI engines can parse who you are, what you do, and which questions you answer. Built into the theme so every page inherits it.
- llms.txt file — A standardised, structured index of your site’s content written for AI crawlers. Emerging convention, low cost, signals readiness.
- AI crawler access — robots.txt configured per your stance on training models (OpenAI’s GPTBot, Anthropic’s ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Perplexity) — clear opt-in or opt-out, no accidental blocking.
- Question-shaped content — FAQ pages, how-to articles, and service pages written so AI engines can lift specific Q&A pairs verbatim. The same content still works for human readers — it just reads cleaner.
- Citation hygiene — clear source attribution, author bylines with datePublished, easy-to-extract facts and figures. AI engines prefer content they can confidently cite back.
- Entity disambiguation — sameAs links to Wikidata, LinkedIn, and authoritative directories. Hub-and-spoke topic clusters so AI engines learn the relationships between your pages, not just their content.
How it fits with SEO
SEO and AEO overlap but aren’t the same thing. SEO gets you ranked on Google’s blue links. AEO gets you mentioned in the AI summary above them. Both matter, both compound. Most of the AEO work happens to also improve regular SEO — schema and structured content are universally good — but the planning, content choices, and measurement are different.
If you’re already on an SEO retainer, AEO is already included. If you’re starting fresh, an AEO-first audit is a sensible entry point.
What it costs
Two ways to engage:
- AEO Audit + Plan — £849 one-off. A standalone modernisation: full AEO audit across 25 checks (6 categories, A–F grade per category), schema implementation, llms.txt deployment, content-shape rewrites for the top 5 pages, AI crawler review, topic cluster map, and a 12-action plan you can hand to whoever maintains your site. Includes a 30-minute walkthrough call.
- Folded into an SEO retainer. All three SEO tiers include AEO maintenance — SEO Essentials at £649/mo includes bi-annual AEO audits, SEO Growth at £1,099/mo includes quarterly audits plus monthly entity research, and SEO Pro at £2,149/mo includes monthly audits plus advanced schema engineering. Schema and llms.txt maintenance is ongoing across every tier as content grows.
Bundle: AEO Audit + Plan with the SEO Audit + Plan = £1,499 (saving £219). The full modernisation for a site that wants both ranked and cited.
Where to start
Drop your details below or start a project — we’ll look at where you currently appear in AI search and what’s blocking it.
