Why this matters now
A growing share of buyers now ask an AI assistant instead of scrolling results. The answer names two or three businesses — and everyone else is invisible.
AI Overviews sit above every ranking you've earned. If the answer covers the question, the ten blue links below it never get read.
Ask ChatGPT for “a good accountant in Guildford” and it names a few. There's no page two of an AI answer.
Vague pages, missing structured data and inconsistent business details make a model unsure — and unsure models recommend someone else.
Unlike classic SEO, the field is nearly empty. Deliberate groundwork now buys a position that will cost far more to win later.
An illustration of how AI assistants compose answers. The business shown is fictional — the evidence trail is the point.
How we work
We ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews the questions your customers ask, and record what comes back: whether you’re named, what’s said, and who gets recommended instead.
AI engines lean on structured data, consistent business details and pages that answer questions directly. We tighten schema markup, entity signals and page structure so your site is easy for a model to read and safe to cite.
AI answers are assembled from pages that resolve a question cleanly in the first few sentences. We write and structure your content that way — the same discipline we use on our own site.
Models recommend businesses the wider web vouches for: reviews, consistent citations, a live Google Business Profile and mentions in sources AI actually reads. We work that list deliberately.
AI search moves fast. We re-run the visibility checks through our own reporting platform and adjust as the engines change — because what worked in spring may not hold by autumn.
Visibility is tracked in Cumulus Rank & Reporting, our own platform, alongside your classic rankings from our Surrey SEO service.
Where you'll show up
The engines differ in detail but reward the same things: clarity, consistency and proof. We build for all of them at once.
The AI answer at the top of Google itself — assembled from pages that answer the question directly, with sources linked.
Now a genuine discovery channel. Its answers draw on your website, your reviews and what the wider web says about you.
Google’s assistant leans heavily on Google’s own index and your Business Profile — local signals matter most here.
Answers with citations by design. Clear, well-sourced pages earn the links that put you in front of its users.
Bing-backed assistants and whatever ships next. The groundwork is shared, so one job covers the field.
The point of all of it. People increasingly ask AI “who should I use?” — the work above decides whose name comes back.
Common questions
Answer engine optimisation is the work of getting your business named and cited when AI tools — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews — answer a question your customer asked. Where SEO earns you a ranking, AEO earns you the recommendation inside the answer itself.
Make yourself the easiest business to verify. That means pages that answer real questions directly, accurate and consistent business details across the web, genuine reviews, and structured data that tells machines plainly who you are, where you work and what you do. There’s no secret handshake — it’s deliberate, checkable groundwork.
They overlap — a healthy, fast, well-structured site helps both. The difference is the target: SEO optimises for a list of links, AEO for being quoted in a composed answer. That changes how content is written, how questions are addressed, and which trust signals matter most.
No, and you should walk away from anyone who says yes — these engines change weekly and their outputs aren’t anyone’s to promise. What we guarantee is the work and the measurement: you’ll see exactly what the engines say about you before we start and as we go.
For some informational searches, yes — people get their answer without clicking. Which is precisely why being the business named inside the answer matters. The enquiry still lands somewhere; the work is making sure it lands with you.
Yes. We’re based in Hersham and much of our local SEO work is Surrey-focused, but AI visibility work isn’t tied to geography — we take it on for businesses across the UK.
Start with the facts
We'll run your business through the major AI engines and send you what they say, who they recommend instead, and what we'd do about it. No obligation, no jargon.