AI Search Optimization
Get found and cited by AI search
People now ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI for a recommendation before they open a list of blue links. We make your business the one those systems can find, understand, and cite, using what we learned crawling thousands of business websites, not guesswork.
AEO, GEO, entity and schema work, and AI crawler readiness, measured against our own research.
Why AI search is its own discipline
Why classic SEO is not enough
Ranking on Google and being cited by an AI are two different problems. An assistant does not scroll a results page. It reads structured data and answer-shaped content, decides what it trusts, and names one or two businesses. If your site is not machine-readable, you are not in the running, no matter where you rank in the ten blue links.
What actually gets you cited
AI systems cite businesses they can parse and corroborate: a clear machine-readable identity, named people tied to real expertise, content shaped like the questions people ask, and signals that agree across the web. Most sites give an assistant almost none of this, which is exactly why the businesses that fix it get named while their competitors stay invisible.
We do not guess at this. Our AI-Readiness study crawled 1,261 business websites and found 89 percent name no human a machine can read and 96 percent publish no structured answers, and our AI-visibility research found 1 in 4 sites hide answer-critical content from the crawlers behind ChatGPT and Perplexity. We optimize against the gaps we measured.
AI crawlers do not run your JavaScript
The crawlers behind most AI assistants fetch your raw HTML and do not execute JavaScript. If your content, links, or business details are rendered client-side, the assistant never sees them, even though a human browser does.
We test what the crawler actually receives with a real-browser audit, compare it to your rendered page, and fix the content that is invisible to machines. It is the most common reason a good-looking site is absent from AI answers.
Built on research, not opinion
AI search advice is mostly speculation right now. Ours is not. We run the crawls, publish the datasets, and optimize your site against what the machines actually do.
That means a real-browser AI visibility audit, entity and schema work that names your people and services, answer-shaped content the systems can quote, and an llms.txt file that points agents at what matters.
The bar is genuinely low right now. Almost no business is set up to be cited, which means this is the rare window where being early is a durable advantage.
We measure where you stand, fix what is hidden, and show you the before and after against the same signals our research tracks.
What we do
Six services that make you machine-readable
AI search optimization is a legibility problem. Here is exactly what we run to make your business one an AI can find, understand, and cite.
AI visibility audit
We scan your site with a real Chromium browser, the same way an AI crawler sees it, and score machine-readability, structured data, identity signals, content accessibility, and citation-readiness. You get a prioritized list of what is hidden and why it matters.
It is the same real-browser engine behind our published research and our free audit tool. the free audit.
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Assistants cite content that directly answers a question. We restructure your key pages into clear, quotable answers with FAQ schema and direct-answer blocks, shaped like the questions your customers actually ask, so there is something for the machine to lift.
A brochure page does not get cited. A clean answer does.
Generative engine optimization (GEO)
GEO improves the odds that generative systems understand and reference your business, expertise, and services. We strengthen the signals these systems weigh: entity clarity, corroboration across the web, and content that is easy to attribute to you.
Being understood is the prerequisite for being recommended.
Entity and schema optimization
We mark up your business, your people, your services, and your location with Person, LocalBusiness, and Organization schema, then connect them so a machine reads one coherent identity: who you are, who works there, what they know, and what you sell.
Person schema is the single largest gap on the web, and naming a real expert is the highest-leverage fix most businesses have never made.
AI crawler readiness
We confirm the crawlers behind ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI can actually reach your content, that you are not accidentally blocking them, and that nothing important is trapped behind client-side rendering they cannot execute.
Our research found 1 in 4 sites hide answer-critical content from these crawlers. We check whether yours is one of them. JavaScript SEO.
llms.txt implementation
We create and configure an llms.txt file, the plain-text guide that tells AI agents what your site is and which resources matter, written to describe your actual business rather than emitted by a plugin.
A quarter of the llms.txt files we found were tool-generated boilerplate. A real one describes your practice, not your software.
See what AI actually finds on your site
DeepAudit scans your site with a real Chromium browser, the same way the AI crawlers see it. You get schema checks, rendering analysis, indexing, Core Web Vitals, and a prioritized list of fixes. 60 seconds, no signup.
Run Free AI Visibility AuditRemote-first, nationwide
We build websites and run technical SEO for clients anywhere in the US. On-the-ground local SEO in these markets:
FAQ
AI search optimization questions
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization is the practice of structuring your content so search engines, featured snippets, and AI assistants can lift a clear, direct answer from it. Instead of a brochure page that describes a service, you publish content that directly answers the questions customers ask, marked up with FAQ and other structured data so a machine can identify the answer and cite it. It is what gets your business quoted in an AI response rather than skipped.
What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
Generative engine optimization improves the likelihood that generative AI systems, the ones behind ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI answers, understand your business and reference it when they answer a relevant question. Where classic SEO targets a ranking position, GEO targets being understood and cited. It leans on entity clarity, structured data, corroboration across the web, and content that is easy to attribute to you specifically.
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity?
An assistant can only recommend a business it can find, parse, and trust. That means a machine-readable identity (Organization and LocalBusiness schema), named experts tied to real topics (Person schema), content shaped like the questions people ask, signals that agree across the web, and making sure your content is not hidden behind JavaScript the crawler cannot run. Most businesses are missing several of these. In our crawl of 1,261 sites, 89 percent named no human a machine could read. Closing those gaps is what moves you into the answer.
Do AI crawlers read JavaScript?
Mostly no. The crawlers behind today's major AI assistants fetch your raw HTML and generally do not execute JavaScript. If your content, internal links, or business details are rendered client-side, a human browser sees them but the AI crawler does not. Our research found roughly 1 in 4 sites hide answer-critical content this way. We test what the crawler actually receives against your rendered page and fix anything important that is invisible to machines.
What is an llms.txt file and do I need one?
An llms.txt file is a plain-text file at your domain root that tells AI agents what your site is and which pages and resources matter, similar in spirit to robots.txt but written for language models. It is an emerging standard, so it is not a magic ranking factor, but it is a low-cost signal and a clear one. The catch is that many llms.txt files are auto-generated boilerplate that describes the website software rather than the business. A useful one describes your actual practice, which is how we write them.
How is AI search optimization different from regular SEO?
Regular SEO aims to rank a page in Google's results. AI search optimization aims to be found, understood, and cited by AI systems that read structured data and answer-shaped content rather than scrolling a results page. They overlap: fast, crawlable, well-marked-up sites do better at both. But AI search adds work classic SEO ignores, machine-readable identity, named experts, answer-shaped content, crawler-readiness, and llms.txt. It is also far less competitive right now, because almost no business is set up for it yet.
Get Started
Ready to be the business AI recommends?
Book a free 15-minute teardown. We will audit your AI visibility live, show you exactly what the assistants can and cannot see, and outline what it takes to become the business they cite. We work alongside your existing team or as your dedicated AI search function.
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AI search is a legibility problem. Being cited by an assistant takes machine-readable identity, answer-shaped content, and crawler-readiness on top of classic SEO. Part of our digital marketing services. See all services.