When someone asks a question, search engines and AI assistants now give one answer. We make sure it is yours.
Search used to return ten links and let people choose. For a growing share of questions it now gives a single answer, written out at the top of the page or spoken aloud, and the searcher never needs to scroll. That answer comes from somewhere. AEO is the work of making sure it comes from you. These are the places it appears:
The boxed answer above the first result, lifted from a single page.
The expanding questions beneath the results, each answered by one source.
The AI-written summary at the top of the page, linking to the sources it draws on.
Conversational answers in Bing and Microsoft products, citing the pages behind them.
Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa read out one answer. There is no second place.
Chat answers that increasingly cite and link to the web pages they used.
The quick test: are you the answer?
Search the five questions your customers ask most before they buy. If the featured snippet, the People Also Ask answer or the AI Overview names a competitor or a directory instead of you, that is the gap AEO closes.
The terms overlap and are often used interchangeably. This is how we separate them, and what each one is for.
Still the foundation. Answer engines often draw on pages that already rank well, so AEO builds on good SEO rather than replacing it.
SEO services →Being the single answer to a question: featured snippets, People Also Ask, AI Overviews and voice. Won by question-led content, direct answers and clear structure.
Being cited as a trusted source inside generated answers across AI engines. Won by authority and consistent signals about who you are.
GEO agency London →Visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot specifically: how language models find, trust and recommend a brand.
LLM SEO agency →They work together. Most businesses need all four, in proportions that depend on how their customers search. Citation Share measures how they add up.
The right information is on your site, but three paragraphs down and wrapped in sales copy. Engines choose the page that answers in its first sentence.
Pages built around a phrase like "family law London" rarely answer what people actually ask, such as "how long does a divorce take in England?"
No question-led headings, no lists or tables where they help, no FAQ markup. The engine has to guess, and it usually picks a page that made it easy.
Five stages, built on the same research and measurement behind our GEO and Citation Share work.
AEO is not a plugin or a template.
It is research, writing and structure, applied page by page to the questions that bring you customers. The conversation starts with a free AEO visibility review.
Book a free review →We find the real questions your customers ask, from Search Console, People Also Ask, AI prompt testing and your own enquiry calls, then rank them by commercial value.
Each priority question gets a direct answer of 40 to 60 words at the top of its section, followed by the detail, the evidence and the next step.
Headings phrased as questions, lists and tables where they help, and FAQ and other schema wherever it genuinely applies.
The same name, facts and descriptions wherever your business appears online, so engines can trust which answer is right.
Featured snippet and People Also Ask positions in Search Console, plus Citation Share tracking across AI answers, reported monthly.
Live results from our own content and our client work. Every figure below can be checked.
Average Google position for "why does citation share matter?" (Google Search Console, August to November 2026). Our Citation Share content was written answer-first, and it now ranks for the question it answers.
Read the article →Bing AI citations for GetCarHire.com in three months, rising from effectively zero, with zero paid media.
Read the case study →A North London law firm, taken from outside the top 50 to Google's Top 3.
Read the case study →"Very professional service. We're happy with their help & advice, great communication and naturally the success of the SEO campaigns"
Arnar Stefansson, CEO, Northbound Travel
Read the case study →Legal, travel, hospitality and ecommerce buyers research with questions. Every one of those questions is a chance to be the answer.
If the featured snippet or AI Overview for your key questions names someone else, you are invisible at the moment of decision.
Page one rankings with falling clicks often mean an answer above you is settling the search first.
Law firms and financial businesses need answers that are accurate as well as visible. AEO for law firms →
Sector specialists: Legal AI SEO · Travel SEO Services · Ecommerce Marketing
A straight-talking first conversation. We look at the questions your customers ask and show you who search engines and AI assistants name as the answer today.
Or get a free Citation Share Snapshot of your business.
No obligation. We respond within one working day.