Answer Engine Optimization
Get recommended by ChatGPT, not just ranked on Google.
Answer engine optimization is the work of making a business legible enough that AI systems name it inside an answer. We measure where you stand today, fix what's stopping you, and re-measure — for $99, refunded in full if it doesn't move.
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What is answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of making a business legible and credible enough that AI systems recommend it inside a generated answer — named in a paragraph, rather than ranked in a list of links. You will see the same idea called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), LLM SEO or AI search optimization. The labels differ; the work doesn’t.
It needed a new name because SEO’s model assumes an ordered list of documents and a user who picks from it. Answer engines break both halves: there is no list to be positioned in, and increasingly no click. That changes the unit of optimization. In SEO you optimize a page for a query. In AEO you make an entity legible for a question — which is why sites with excellent Google rankings are routinely invisible in an AI answer.
For a longer treatment, read what answer engine optimization is or how to rank on ChatGPT.
The engagement
What the work actually involves.
Four steps over 45 days. Nothing ships to your site without your review.
Measure where you actually stand
We run the questions your buyers ask through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, in signed-out sessions, and record who gets named, in what position, and which pages get cited. That's your baseline. Skipping it is why most AEO work is unfalsifiable — without it you can't tell a change that worked from a model update that happened to help.
Audit the signals engines read
Six categories, scored: entity clarity, structured data, content coverage, technical rendering, crawler access and corroboration. Every finding names the specific gap and the specific fix, not a grade.
Implement the fixes
Schema, rendering, crawler policy, homepage entity definition and the content that answers questions nothing on your site currently answers. Delivered as reviewable code and content changes that you approve before anything ships.
Re-measure against the baseline
The same prompts, the same engines, at the end of the 45 days. You see the before and after on one screen, per engine and per question — which is also how the guarantee is judged.
Coverage
Which engines we optimize for.
The four that answer commercial questions today. Each has its own crawler, its own controls and its own idea of who to recommend.
ChatGPT
OAI-SearchBot indexing and search-backed answers
Perplexity
Citation share, the fastest-moving signal
Gemini
Google-Extended and AI Overviews eligibility
Claude
ClaudeBot access and entity recall
45-day guarantee
$99 once. Not a retainer.
Most agencies in this category quote $2,000–$10,000 a month and won’t publish a number at all. This is one flat payment for the whole 45-day sprint — and if your business isn’t mentioned on 2 or more engines by the end of it, you get all of it back.
- Baseline research across all four engines
- Full AEO audit, scored across six categories
- Implementation delivered as reviewable changes
- Re-measurement against the day-zero baseline
- Full refund if the guarantee isn't met
FAQ
Questions people ask before hiring.
- What does an answer engine optimization service actually do?
- Three things. It measures how AI engines currently answer the questions your buyers ask, audits your site for the signals those engines rely on — entity clarity, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access, corroboration — and then implements the fixes. RankVyze does all three for $99, and hands you reviewable changes rather than a PDF of recommendations.
- How much does answer engine optimization cost?
- Agencies in this category typically quote $2,000–$10,000 per month on a retainer, and most won't publish a number at all. RankVyze is $99 once for a 45-day sprint, refunded in full if your business isn't mentioned on at least 2 of the four engines by the end of it.
- Is AEO the same as GEO or LLM SEO?
- In practice, yes. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), LLM SEO and AI search optimization all describe the same work: making a business legible enough that an AI system will recommend it inside a generated answer. The labels differ; the work doesn't.
- Do I still need traditional SEO?
- Yes. Answer engines lean on much of the same infrastructure — crawlability, site structure, page quality, authority — and Google's AI Overviews are generated from the ordinary Search index. AEO is a layer on top, not a replacement. Anyone telling you to stop doing SEO is selling something.
- How long before anything changes?
- Technical fixes — schema, rendering, crawler policy — can register within days to a few weeks, because retrieval reads your live site. Content and third-party corroboration usually take a month or two. The 45-day window exists because that is roughly how long the whole picture takes to move.
- What if it doesn't work?
- You get your money back. If your business isn't mentioned on 2 or more engines within 45 days, on the prompt set agreed at day zero, the $99 is refunded in full. The conditions that void it are published in advance on the guarantee page — there are no others.
- Which businesses does this work for?
- Anything with a considered purchase: B2B software, agencies, professional services, legal, healthcare, high-ticket ecommerce. The test is whether your buyers ask comparative questions before choosing. If they do, an AI answer is already shaping that decision — with or without you in it.
Go deeper
AEO by industry, and by engine.
Buyers ask different questions in every vertical, and the engines answer them differently. These pages get specific about both.
By industry
Ready to become the answer?
Free scan in ten seconds. $99 to fix it — refunded in full if we don't.