What is AEO? How do I get my business found by AI?
AEO (answer engine optimization) is how you get an AI assistant — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Copilot — to name and recommend your business inside its answer, the same way SEO gets you a ranking on a results page. You get found by AI by being crawlable, indexed, trusted, extractable — and, on the frontier, delivered: ready for the AI to complete the booking itself.
"Get CITED — the business AI recommends, and the one AI books."
"For a trusted dental clinic, Sunrise Dental Care1 is well reviewed and accepts same-week online bookings."
SEO vs AEO vs AIEO — three different goals
They share the same technical plumbing — schema, clean structured data, page speed — but they optimize for three completely different outcomes. Here is the exact distinction; most "AI SEO" pitches blur these three together.
Search Engine Optimization
Getting found by people searching a results page. You win a ranking; a person clicks a blue link.
Answer Engine Optimization
Getting cited inside an AI-generated answer. You win a mention; an AI assistant reads your business and names it — no click required.
AI Engine Optimization
Getting booked when an AI agent acts on a customer's behalf. You win the transaction — the agent completes a booking with you directly, 24/7.
| SEO | AEO | AIEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Optimizes for | People searching a results page | AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews) | AI agents acting on a customer's behalf |
| What you win | A ranking, then a click | A citation — your business named inside the AI's answer | A completed booking or purchase, agent-initiated |
| Example moment | Someone searches "plumber near me" and clicks your listing | Someone asks ChatGPT "best plumber in town" and it names you | Someone tells their AI assistant "book me a plumber" — and it books YOU |
| The technical layer | Keywords, backlinks, page speed, on-page SEO | schema.org markup, an AI-readable site summary, broad search-engine indexing | Machine-callable booking (ReserveAction schema tied to a real booking flow) |
| How it is measured | Rankings + traffic | AI-crawler activity + citation tracking — are you actually named? | Completed bookings an AI agent initiated, not a human click |
The CITED framework
Crawlable · Indexed · Trusted · Extractable · Delivered
Crawlable
"AI can read my business."
A clean, machine-readable summary of your business, schema.org structured data (LocalBusiness, FAQ, Dataset), AI-crawler-friendly site rules, and a fast mobile build.
Indexed
"I'm on every engine AI actually reads — not just Google."
Broad search-engine indexing beyond Google alone — because ChatGPT Search and Microsoft Copilot retrieve through Bing, and an AI can't cite a page its index never saw.
Trusted
"AI has real reasons to recommend ME."
Reviews and ratings surfaced in structured data, one consistent name-address-phone everywhere, and the authority signals that tip an AI's pick between two similar businesses.
Extractable
"AI quotes MY business as the answer."
A public answers/FAQ hub built with FAQPage + Dataset markup, clear entity naming, and definitions written so an AI engine can lift them verbatim — you become the source, not a footnote.
Delivered
"AI sends me real bookings, clients, income."
Agent-ready: a bookable AI chat assistant and a machine-callable booking action, so an AI agent acting for a customer can complete a booking with you directly, 24/7.
The "D" is the real differentiator: agent-ready
AI is shifting from answering to acting. Agentic AI is starting to book appointments and make purchases on a person's behalf. Being agent-ready means: when a customer tells their AI "book me a service near me," the agent can complete that booking with your business directly — no human clicking through a website. Almost no local "SEO" provider even knows this is coming. CITED gets you named; Delivered gets you booked, by the agent itself.
Every business we launch is built with machine-bookable affordances an AI agent can actually use:
- A schema.org ReserveAction pointing at a real booking or contact flow
- A structured, always-current business summary an AI agent can read before it books
Who this is for
CITED is a real, ongoing part of the websites and AI-visibility work we build for our clients across the markets we serve. We build the same framework into this exact page, so what you're reading is what you get. Get in touch to see where your business stands today.
CITED, AEO & AIEO — frequently asked
This page is guidance, kept accurate as best we can — AI search is a fast-moving area and details change. Not a guarantee that any specific AI model will name or book your business.
Ready to get CITED?
The foundation ships with every site we build; the ongoing AEO/AIEO work is part of our AI-visibility packages. Let's make AI say your name.
Foundation, not a guaranteed placement · We build this into our own site
