AI Search Optimization
Get Cited.
Get Recommended.
Get Chosen.
Your customers are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI who to hire. The answer comes from citations, and citations can be earned. AW Broadband holds 49 brand mentions and 94 citations across AI engines today, measured in SE Ranking, not guessed at.
How a Business Becomes the Answer.
AI Visibility Measurement
Before anything else, we establish the number most agencies can't give you: your current AI visibility. Which engines mention your brand, which pages they cite, and where you appear in the answer. Tracked monthly, so "is it working" is a chart, not a feeling.
- SE Ranking
- Brand mentions
- Citations
Citation-Worthy Content & Entity Pages
AI engines cite pages that answer questions cleanly and state facts a machine can lift with confidence. We restructure your content for LLM retrieval: direct answers, defined entities, specifics instead of slogans. The same discipline you're reading right now.
- Restructuring
- Definitions
- Extractable answers
Third-Party Presence & Brand Mentions
LLMs learn who to recommend from the sources they trust: review platforms, industry directories, local press, established publications. We build your presence across the sources that feed the models, because AI engines recommend businesses the web already vouches for.
- Trusted sources
- Directories
- Reviews & press
Technical AI Readiness
None of it works if the machines can't read you. Schema markup, crawler access for GPTBot and its peers, and content in real HTML text. This foundation is shared with our SEO practice, which is why the two programs compound.
- Structured data
- AI crawlers
- Real HTML
The Search You Never See.
Somebody just asked an AI which company to call for what you do. No search results page. No map pack. No list of ten blue links. One answer, two or three names, and a customer who never looked further. If your name wasn't in it, you didn't lose the click. You never existed in the conversation.
Here's what makes this different from every marketing problem you've had before: you can't see it happening. There's no analytics line for "recommended by ChatGPT." Your traffic looks normal while the question gets asked a hundred times a month and answered without you. The businesses winning right now are the ones who found out early that AI answers can be measured, and influenced.
Free Visibility AuditAIO. GEO. AEO. Different Names, Same Goal:
Be the Answer.
The industry hasn't settled on a name yet, so you'll see this discipline called AI Search Optimization, AI Optimization (AIO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), LLM optimization, and sometimes simply AI SEO. The emphasis shifts slightly with each term, but the goal is the same: when an AI engine generates an answer in your market, your business is named in it and your website is cited under it.
We keep a plain-language page on each term if you want the distinctions: What is AEO? · What is GEO? · AI Overview Optimization · LLM Citation Optimization
Whatever you call it, we were doing this work for clients before most agencies named it as a service. The proof below is dated.
Zero to Cited. Dated, Measured, Repeatable.
AW Broadband, August 2024: zero AI citations. The engines answering "best internet provider in Amarillo" did it without them. Today: 94 link citations, 49 brand mentions, average position 8.6 inside AI answers. All of it tracked in SE Ranking's AI visibility platform, month over month, the entire way.
What happened in between is the service: content rebuilt so machines could quote it, entity pages that gave the engines facts worth citing, and a third-party footprint that made the recommendation safe for an AI to make. Jasper Plumbing is the pattern repeating in a different trade: zero AI presence, a first citation breakthrough in July 2025, now 9 link citations and climbing.
If an Agency Can't Show You the Number,
They're Selling You a Vibe.
Audit, Strategy, Build, Report, Compound — the same five steps as every program here, with one difference: every month you get an AI visibility report from SE Ranking showing brand mentions, link citations, citing domains, and position inside answers, engine by engine. The August 2024 zero in AW Broadband's chart is the same tool as the May 2026 number. That continuity is the whole point. If an agency can't show you the number, they're selling you a vibe.
AI Search Doesn't Replace SEO. It's Built on Top of It.
Anyone selling AI optimization as a replacement for SEO is selling you the roof without the house. The engines cite crawlable sites, trust review profiles, and read the same structured data Google does. Strong SEO is the foundation; AI visibility is what we build on it, and the two programs share so much machinery that running them together costs less than it sounds like.
Timeline honesty, same as always: citations take months, not weeks. AW Broadband's chart climbs across quarters, not days. If you need customers this week, that's PPC. If you want to be the answer next year, this is the work, and the businesses starting now are starting ahead of their market.
We Won't Guarantee Rankings.
Here's What We Will Guarantee.
Any agency guaranteeing you a #1 ranking is either lying or buying ads and calling it SEO. Google sells no such promise, so nobody can resell it. What we guarantee is everything actually inside our control, and all four go in writing:
You own everything. Website files, hosting, ad accounts, Google Business Profile, and every scrap of data, in your name from day one. Leave whenever you want and the whole asset leaves with you, still working.
No long-term contract. Month to month. If we stop earning it, you stop paying for it. Agencies that need twelve-month lock-ins are protecting themselves from their own results.
A real report every month. Plain language, real numbers, sources named, including the months something didn't work. You will hear that from us before you notice it yourself.
The audit is yours either way. Free, no obligation, and the findings stay yours whether you hire us, hire someone else, or fix it in-house.
No surprise invoices on design work. Revision rounds are agreed in writing before anything starts, and you will never be billed for a change order you didn't approve first. If a request falls outside scope, you hear about it before the work happens, not on the invoice afterward.
Questions, Answered.
What is AI Search Optimization?
AI Search Optimization is the practice of earning visibility inside AI-generated answers: getting your business named and your website cited when engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews answer questions in your market. It's also called AIO, GEO, AEO, or LLM optimization. The work spans content structured for machine retrieval, entity and structured-data development, and brand presence across the third-party sources AI engines trust.
Is AI Search Optimization different from SEO?
Related, not identical. SEO earns rankings on a results page you can see. AI Search Optimization earns citations inside generated answers, where there's no page-two consolation prize: you're in the answer or you're absent. The disciplines share a technical foundation, which is why we build them as one program rather than sold separately.
What's the difference between AIO, GEO, and AEO?
Mostly emphasis. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the oldest term, rooted in featured snippets and voice search. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) comes from academic research on getting cited by generative engines. AIO is the umbrella term, often covering Google's AI Overviews specifically. All three describe the same goal and largely the same work. We keep a short page on each term with its history and distinctions.
How do you measure AI visibility?
Through SE Ranking's AI visibility platform, which tracks brand mentions, link citations, citing domains, and average position inside AI answers, per engine, monthly. It's the same tool behind every number on this page, which means you can hold our results to the same standard we advertise with.
How long does it take to get cited by AI engines?
Months, not weeks, and it compounds from the first citation. Jasper Plumbing's first breakthrough came mid-engagement in July 2025 and has climbed since. AW Broadband's chart runs from zero in August 2024 to the 94 citations they hold today. Anyone promising AI citations in 30 days has no chart to show you.
How much does AI Search Optimization cost?
AI Search Optimization programs run in the same range as our SEO programs: $550 to $5,000 per month, depending on market competition and the reach you need. The two services share most of their machinery, which is why most clients run them as one combined program instead of two separate invoices. National campaigns are quoted individually, and the free audit tells you what your situation actually calls for before you spend anything.
Does a small local business really need this?
If your customers ask AI for recommendations, yes, and they already do. The advantage right now is that almost none of your local competitors are doing this work, so early movers get cited into a vacuum. AW Broadband's 94 citations exist partly because nobody else in their market was competing for them. That window is open today. It won't stay open.
Nothing Here Is Scarce.
The Timing Still Matters.
No countdown clocks, no invented "three spots left." Here is the real reason not to sit on this.
AI engines are assigning citations right now. When ChatGPT or Google's AI answers "best plumber in Amarillo," it names two or three businesses and cites its sources. Those positions are being handed out in your category this month, mostly uncontested, and they harden. The business that gets cited becomes the business that keeps getting cited, because the citation becomes the evidence for the next answer.
Rankings work the same way, slower. Every month you wait is a month your competitor's authority compounds and yours doesn't. There is no catch-up button in search. There is only a start date, and the best one available is always today.
AW Broadband built 49 brand mentions and 94 AI citations from zero in under two years. Their competitors had the same two years.
Free Visibility AuditAsk the AI About Your Business Before Your Customers Do.
The audit shows you exactly what the engines say today, who they cite instead of you, and what it takes to change the answer. Free, measured, and yours either way.