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Answer Engine Optimization · AEO & GEO

Answer Engine Optimization Services Without the Hype.

Answer engine optimization services are, for the most part, good SEO with a few extra checks. I run those checks for service businesses, improve the pages that matter, and tell you plainly what moves the needle and what is hype.

John Akande — Los Angeles SEO consultant for service businesses, ecommerce, SaaS and B2B

The Problem

AI Answers Changed the Question, Not the Rules.

Searchers now get answers directly in Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and in assistants like ChatGPT. Agencies have rushed to sell this as a new discipline, often with a new acronym and a promise of citations.

The engines themselves are more modest. Google's guidance says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimizations are necessary. The fundamentals decide it: a page that is indexed, clear, trustworthy and easy to read.

AEO and GEO

What AEO and GEO Mean.

Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is making your content easy to pull out as a direct answer: in featured snippets, voice results and AI answers. Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the same idea aimed at generative AI tools. Providers define the two differently, and the lines blur in practice.

I use answer engine optimization for both, because the work overlaps almost completely. Be indexed, answer the question early in plain text, and be a source worth citing.

What's Included

Answer Engine Optimization Services, Piece by Piece.

01 · Eligibility

Can Google Show Your Pages

To be a supporting link in Google's AI features, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet. I check that page by page with Search Console's indexing data.

02 · Crawlers

Who Can Read Your Site

Your robots.txt reviewed for Google and for AI crawlers. OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and each OpenAI setting is independent.

03 · Answers

Answers Up Front

Key pages restructured so the direct answer comes first, in plain text, with the detail after it. FAQs only where real questions exist.

04 · Trust

Signals That Back You Up

Author and company pages, accurate business details and claims you can stand behind, so there's a real source worth citing.

05 · Structured Data

Markup That Matches the Page

Schema checked against what's visible on the page. Google says no special schema is needed for AI features, so I fix mismatches instead of adding clutter.

06 · Measurement

Measured, Not Guessed

Search Console data, referrals from AI assistants in Google Analytics, and a fixed set of questions re-checked on a schedule, with the caveat that AI answers vary.

What I Won't Promise

No Guaranteed Citations.

AI answers vary by query and over time, so a guaranteed number of citations isn't a promise anyone can keep. If a provider offers one, ask them to define the metric and show how it's measured.

Google also says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup to appear in its AI features. Other tools may read files like llms.txt, so I treat them as optional extras and never as the fix.

What I will promise is a clear picture of where you stand, fixes in order of impact, and reporting you can check yourself.

How It Works

How Answer Engine Optimization Services Work.

It starts with a free AI search check. I look at whether your key pages are indexed and eligible, how your robots.txt treats Google and AI crawlers, and how well your best pages answer the question a buyer would ask.

If you go ahead, I fix the technical blockers first. Then I rewrite the pages that matter most, for your review, and set up the measurement.

Each month you get a short report: what's indexed, what changed, and what AI assistants say about your category when I ask them the same questions each time.

Pricing

Answer Engine Optimization Services Pricing, Quoted in Writing.

The cost depends on how many pages matter, the platform your site runs on and its current condition. You get a quote in writing after the free check, before any work starts. I don't guarantee citations or rankings.

If you want the technical review on its own, see the technical SEO audit service. For broader search work, see SEO strategy.

Is This Right for You?

Who This Is For.

  • You run a service business whose buyers ask AI assistants for recommendations before they call
  • Your SEO basics are in place and you want the extra checks done properly
  • You've been pitched a GEO package and want a second opinion on what it should include
  • Your pages rank but are rarely cited, and you want to know whether that's fixable

If your site is new and Google hasn't found most of your pages yet, start with indexing and links. AI search sits on top of that.

Free Guides

How I Approach AI Search.

Does SEO Still Work with AI Overviews?

What changed, what didn't, and how to set expectations.

Read the guide →

The Agentic AI-SEO Skill

The free audit skill that checks AI search readiness as its own category.

Read the guide →

Crawled but Not Indexed

Why a page can be found yet never shown, and what to do about it.

Read the guide →

Answer Engine Optimization Services: Questions.

Work that makes your pages more likely to be used as the answer when someone asks a search engine or AI assistant a question. In practice that means making sure key pages are indexed, crawlable, clear and trustworthy, then measuring what changed. Mine covers both AEO and GEO.
The terms overlap, and providers define them differently. AEO usually refers to direct-answer formats such as featured snippets, voice results and AI answers, while GEO refers to visibility inside generative AI tools. The work is almost the same, so I treat them together.
Mostly no. Google's guidance says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for its AI features, and that no additional requirements or special optimizations are necessary. What I add are checks: crawler access for other AI tools, answer-first page structure and measurement.
No. AI answers vary by query and over time, so a guaranteed number of citations isn't a promise anyone can keep. If a provider offers one, ask them to define the metric and show how it's measured.
Google says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup to appear in its AI features, and that structured data should match the visible text on the page. Other tools may read files like llms.txt, so I treat them as optional extras and never as the fix.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and ChatGPT search, because Google and OpenAI publish how their crawlers and eligibility work. For other assistants I apply the same fundamentals and say so when I can't verify how they pick sources.
Google reports AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic inside the Search Console Performance report, under the Web search type. I add referrals from AI assistants in Google Analytics and a fixed set of questions re-checked on a schedule. None of it is perfectly precise, because AI answers change, so I report trends and not single results.
It depends on how many pages matter, the platform your site runs on and its current condition. I quote in writing after a free AI search check and before any work starts, so you pay for your situation and not for an average.
Ask what they will measure and how. Ask who does the work. Ask them to explain, with sources, how each engine picks what it cites. And treat a guarantee of citations or rankings as a warning sign. A good provider can tell you what is verified, what is a reasonable guess and what is marketing.

See Where Your Site Stands in AI Search.

Request a free AI search check. I'll look at whether your key pages are indexed and eligible, how your robots.txt treats AI crawlers, and where your pages could answer questions better.

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