The AEO agency that does nothing else

Answer Engine Optimisation is the whole business here. This page sets out what AEO is, how AI answer engines pick the sources they cite, and what an AEO agency delivers. It also tells you what to demand from any agency in Australia, including this one.

What makes us Australia's most specialised AEO agency

"Most specialised" is a claim you can test. The evidence:

AEO is the whole business

Most agencies added "AI optimisation" to a menu that already had ten things on it. We built this agency for one question: when a customer asks an AI who to choose, is the answer you?

Proven on 70+ of our own sites first

Our team builds and operates more than 70 Australian websites. Every technique we recommend ran on that network before a client paid for it. Ask us to open the dashboards.

Published, checkable results

No awards-badge wallpaper and no invented statistics. Our Results page carries client numbers with dates and sources, including GA4-tracked ChatGPT referrals.

Honest about the limits

Nobody can guarantee what ChatGPT says, and organic AI answers cannot be bought. What we guarantee is the engineering, the measurement, and a monthly report you can read in two minutes.

What answer engine optimisation is

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the work of getting your business named and cited inside AI-generated answers. A customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google AI Mode who to hire. The assistant writes one answer and links a short set of sources. AEO makes your site one of those sources.

Some people call the same work generative engine optimisation (GEO) or AI optimisation (AIO). Those names describe one job: make your facts readable, verifiable and consistent, so a model can repeat them without risk. The long-form explainer sits in what is AEO.

How AEO differs from SEO

Dimension	SEO	AEO
Target	A ranking position in a list of links	A citation inside a written answer
Reader	Googlebot, then a person scanning ten results	Retrieval crawlers, then a model quoting a few sources
Content shape	Pages built to win a keyword	Pages that answer one question in the first sentence
Structured data	Optional, for rich results	Standard, and matched to the visible text
Off-site work	Backlinks	Mentions, listings and reviews a model can corroborate
Crawler settings	Googlebot and Bingbot	Those two, plus OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot
Measurement	Rankings, impressions, clicks	Assistant transcripts, crawler logs, AI referral visits, Search Console AI impressions

The two overlap by design. SEO stays the floor, because Google requires a page to be indexed and eligible for a snippet before it can appear as a supporting link. AEO adds the machine-readability and corroboration work on top.

How AI answer engines choose the sources they cite

Nobody outside the AI labs holds the full recipe, and anyone selling you a citation ranking factor list invented it. The vendors do publish specific guidance about how their systems reach your site. Every claim below links to the company's own documentation.

Google: AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google publishes no separate AEO checklist. Its guidance states there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimisations. A page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet.

The fundamentals Google does list are ordinary, and many of the sites we audit fail several. Allow crawling in robots.txt and at your CDN. Link your pages together. Keep important content in text. Match your structured data to the visible text. Keep your Business Profile current.

Google also describes a "query fan-out" technique. The system issues several related searches across subtopics, then assembles one answer with links, so the answer can link a wider and more diverse set of pages than a classic search would. Google adds that AI Overviews show only when its systems judge them additive, so they often do not trigger. Source: Google Search Central, AI features and your website.

One correction worth money. Googlebot is the crawler behind AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Google-Extended governs training and grounding in some of Google's other systems. Blocking Googlebot to escape AI answers removes you from Google Search. To limit what a page shows inside the AI features, Google points to nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex.

Since June 2026 site owners can also control whether their pages appear in and help ground those features. Google states that sites which opt out receive no traffic and no impressions from them, and that the control is not a ranking signal elsewhere in Search. The same announcement put AI Overviews above 2.5 billion monthly users and AI Mode above one billion. Source: Google, new controls and insights for website owners.

OpenAI: ChatGPT

OpenAI documents separate agents with separate jobs, and the settings are independent of each other.

OAI-SearchBot serves ChatGPT's search features. OpenAI states that sites opted out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. OpenAI recommends allowing this agent.
GPTBot crawls content that may train OpenAI's foundation models. Disallowing it indicates your content should not be used in that training.
ChatGPT-User fetches a page when a user's question in ChatGPT or a custom GPT sends it there. OpenAI states this agent does not decide whether content may appear in search.
OAI-AdsBot visits pages submitted as ads to check they comply with OpenAI's policies, and OpenAI states its data does not train foundation models.

You can allow OAI-SearchBot for visibility and disallow GPTBot for training. OpenAI says a robots.txt change takes about 24 hours to reach its systems. Source: OpenAI, overview of OpenAI crawlers.

Perplexity

Perplexity splits the same two jobs. PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in Perplexity search results, and Perplexity states it is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. Perplexity recommends allowing it. Perplexity-User visits a page when a user's question calls for it, and the response may include a link to that page. A robots.txt change can take up to 24 hours to take effect. Source: Perplexity, crawler documentation.

What the documentation does not say

Google states that you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org markup to appear in its AI features. We still ship structured data, because valid JSON-LD earns rich results in ordinary search and keeps your facts unambiguous for anything that reads them. We ship llms.txt because it costs an hour, and we sell it as a convention rather than a standard.

We make no claim that an early citation locks in a lasting advantage. Citations move month to month, and we have watched them move on our own network. The honest case for starting now is simpler. Google reports billions of monthly users on AI Overviews and AI Mode. A growing share of your search audience now meets an answer before it meets your link.

What an AEO agency actually does

Five workstreams, and the optional paid lane. Every one produces an artefact you can read.

Audit

We ask the assistants the questions your customers ask, and record the answers word for word. We score your site against the vendor guidance above, then name the three fixes that matter most. See the free AEO audit.

Entity and schema work

JSON-LD for your organisation, services, FAQs and reviews, matched to the visible text as Google's guidance recommends. Then one consistent version of your name, service list and area across every profile that mentions you.

Content structured for answers

One page per real question, with the question as the heading and the answer in the first sentence. We write the questions your buyers type into an assistant. A model can repeat a specific, and cannot safely repeat a slogan.

Citations and mentions

Third-party listings, profiles and reviews give an assistant a second place to check your facts. We build and correct your listings, profiles and review presence so the web agrees with itself about you.

Paid, where it fits

Paid campaigns on the surfaces AI now controls run alongside the organic work, or not at all, and we keep the two separate in the reporting.

Measurement

Four instruments, monthly: assistant transcripts re-run for your questions, AI crawler activity in your server logs, AI referral visits in your analytics, and Search Console impressions for pages appearing in Google's generative AI features.

What our AEO services include

The scope list, so you can compare it against any other quote you hold. Deliverable detail sits on the services page.

Technical foundations. Crawler access for Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot, at the site and at the CDN. No-JavaScript readability. Sitemap and indexing health.
Structured data. Organisation, service, FAQ and review nodes in valid JSON-LD, parsing verified, in parity with the visible page.
Entity consistency. One version of your name, services, service area and contact facts across your site, your Business Profile and every listing that carries you.
Answer-shaped content. Question-led pages and FAQ blocks, with the answer in the opening sentence.
Machine-readable summary. An llms.txt at your domain root.
Off-site corroboration. Listings, profiles and reviews a model can verify away from your domain.
Paid AI advertising. Optional, and reported separately.
Monthly measurement. Transcripts, crawler activity, AI referral traffic, Search Console AI impressions.

How to choose an AEO agency (use this against us too)

The field is new and full of rebadged SEO packages. Four questions cut through:

Is AEO their actual business? Ask what percentage of their work is AI visibility. A specialist lives in the crawler logs and the transcripts daily. A generalist visits.
Do they practise it on themselves? Check their own site for llms.txt, structured data and AI-crawler access. An AEO agency whose own site fails its own audit is telling you something.
How do they measure? Ask to see assistant transcripts, crawler logs and AI referral traffic for an existing client. Anyone selling "AI rankings" without those three is selling weather.
Can they cite a vendor? The mechanics on this page link to Google, OpenAI or Perplexity documentation. An agency that cannot show you the source is quoting a conference talk.

And one disqualifier: anyone who guarantees a specific ChatGPT answer, or claims they can buy you into organic AI results, is misleading you. We explain how the systems work in can you buy ChatGPT ads?

How the work runs, and how we prove it

The free audit comes first: the AI transcripts for your business, your score on the signals above, and the three fixes that matter most, inside one business day. The quote follows the audit, so the scope comes from evidence.

Crawler access is the fastest lever, because a robots.txt change reaches OpenAI and Perplexity within about 24 hours. Structured data and content land over the following weeks. Off-site corroboration moves over one to three months. We report the same four instruments every month, so you can compare them. We publish the ChatGPT method in full in how to get recommended by ChatGPT.

AEO in Australia

We work from Sydney with businesses across the country: Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin included. Delivery is remote, because AEO is technical and editorial work. Every deliverable arrives as a file or a report you keep.

Local intent changes what matters. When a buyer asks an assistant for a trade, a clinic or a supplier near them, your Business Profile, listings and reviews come into play. Google names an up-to-date Business Profile among the fundamentals for its AI features, so we treat it as a first-week job. Your listings, reviews and service-area pages follow it. We keep your trading name, ABN and service area consistent everywhere they appear, and we write optimisation with an s, because that is what your customers type.

What AEO costs

We publish no price bands, and we will not quote before someone has read your site. A price written without evidence is a guess, and you would pay for the guess. After the free audit you get a fixed quote: technical foundations as a one-off project, ongoing visibility work as a monthly retainer. There are no lock-in contracts, you own every account and asset we touch, and we take no percentage of your ad spend.

Questions people ask before hiring us

What is answer engine optimisation?

AEO is the work of getting your business named and cited inside AI-generated answers. A customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google AI Mode who to hire, and the assistant writes one answer with a short list of sources. AEO makes your site one of those sources. The same work is also called generative engine optimisation (GEO) or AI optimisation (AIO).

What does an AEO agency do?

An AEO agency engineers the sources an AI answer is built from, then measures the result. Five parts: an audit of what the assistants say about you today, entity and structured data work, answer-shaped content, off-site mentions that corroborate your facts, and monthly measurement. Nobody controls what a model says, so the job is the inputs and the evidence.

What is included in AEO services?

Six areas. Technical foundations: crawler access for Googlebot and the AI agents, no-JavaScript readability, sitemap and indexing health. Structured data in JSON-LD, matched to the visible text. Entity consistency across every listing that carries you. Answer-shaped content, one customer question per page. Off-site corroboration through listings, profiles and reviews. Monthly reporting. Paid AI campaigns are optional.

How is AEO different from SEO?

SEO earns a ranking in a list of links. AEO earns a citation inside the written answer. The foundations overlap: Google states a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet before it can appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. AEO adds crawler rules for the AI agents, structured data matched to the visible text, answer-shaped pages, and off-site facts a model can corroborate.

How do I choose an AEO agency in Australia?

Ask four questions. Is AEO their actual business, or a new line on an old menu? Do they run it on their own sites, and will they show you? Do they measure with assistant transcripts, AI crawler logs and AI referral traffic? Can they point at vendor documentation for every claim? Walk away from anyone who guarantees a specific ChatGPT answer.

Do you work with businesses outside Sydney?

Yes. We work from Sydney with businesses across Australia, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin included. Delivery is remote, because AEO is technical and editorial work. Local intent still shapes the job: Google names an up-to-date Business Profile among the fundamentals for its AI features, so listings, reviews and service-area pages get done first.

How do you do AEO for ChatGPT?

ChatGPT reaches your site through documented agents with different jobs. OAI-SearchBot serves ChatGPT's search features, GPTBot crawls content that may train OpenAI's foundation models, and ChatGPT-User fetches a page when a user's question sends it there. The settings are independent, so you can allow search and refuse training. OpenAI states that a site opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.

Is an AI advertising agency the same as an AEO agency?

They are two halves of one job, and we run both. AEO is the organic side: earning a place inside the answer. AI advertising is the paid side: Google campaigns around AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Advertising in Copilot, and ChatGPT placements through OpenAI's Ads Manager. Ads carry a label and go through their own review path.

How much do AEO services cost in Australia?

We publish no price bands, and we will not quote before someone has read your site. Every engagement starts with a free audit, so the scope comes from evidence. After that you get a fixed quote: foundations as a one-off project, ongoing work as a monthly retainer. There are no lock-in contracts, you own every account, and we take no percentage of your ad spend.

Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?

No, and nobody can. AI answers are probabilistic and change between models and sessions. Citations move month to month, so we make no claim that an early citation locks in a lasting advantage. We control the inputs: your machine readability, your structured data, your entity footprint, your reviews and your answer-shaped content. Then we measure whether the assistants name you.

Start where every good engagement starts

The free AEO audit shows you what AI says about your business today, and what we would fix first. One business day, no obligation.

Get the free audit