Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) Services in the UK
Be the answer, not just a link. Answer Engine Optimisation makes sure your business is the answer AI engines give when customers ask questions.
of UK decision-makers use AI in procurement
CAGR for the AEO/GEO market through 2034
higher B2B conversion from AI-referred traffic
What is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimisation, or AEO, is the practice of structuring your content, your data, and your brand signals so that AI-powered search platforms cite you when users ask questions. That includes Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, voice assistants, and featured snippets.
The simplest way to think about Answer Engine Optimisation: traditional SEO got you on a list. AEO gets you quoted as the answer. When someone asks Siri "what's the best accountant near me," the AI doesn't read out ten results. It picks one to recommend. AEO is the work that decides whether it picks you.
Customer behaviour is changing fast. A growing share of buyers, especially B2B decision-makers, now research with ChatGPT or Perplexity before they ever search on Google. If your competitors are getting recommended inside those conversations and you're not, you're losing leads you don't even see being lost. Answer Engine Optimisation is how you stop that.
Who Should Choose Answer Engine Optimisation?
Answer Engine Optimisation is not for everyone. It is a strong fit if any of these sound like you.
Brands driven by question-led searches. If customers search by asking "how," "why," or "what," AEO directly supports visibility.
Businesses in research-heavy categories. Legal, financial, B2B SaaS, consulting, healthcare. Where buyers compare before they choose.
Established brands with unclear AI visibility. If your content is strong but not being surfaced in AI answers, AEO brings clarity.
Teams already investing in SEO. AEO ensures your SEO effort keeps delivering value as answer engines take more of the front page.
Anyone whose competitors are being recommended by ChatGPT. That's a sign you're losing leads you can't see.
Our Answer Engine Optimisation Process at Growthcart
We've built our AEO process around three things: getting AI engines to understand you, retrieve you, and trust you.
- 1
AI visibility audit
How ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Claude currently describe your business. Baseline established.
- 2
Entity consistency build
Identical business name, description, address, and category across your site, Wikipedia/Wikidata where possible, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and authoritative directories.
- 3
Page-level restructuring
Answer-first formatting. Question-based headings. Self-contained chunks AI can extract whole.
- 4
Comprehensive schema markup
Organisation, Article, FAQPage, Service, Product, Person.
- 5
Deep, expert-led content
Long-form, original, with proper citations. Content AI tools want to quote.
- 6
Off-site authority building
PR, guest posts, podcast appearances, trusted directory listings.
- 7
llms.txt and crawlability
Making sure GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended can ingest your content.
- 8
AI citation tracking
Mentions, citations, recommendation share, share of voice across major AI platforms. Reported monthly.
Answer Engine Optimisation FAQs
Is Answer Engine Optimisation the same as SEO?
No, but they overlap. SEO is about ranking pages in search engines. AEO is about getting cited or recommended inside AI-generated answers. Technical foundations are shared (clean site, good content, schema, authority), but AEO adds layers around entity consistency, answer structure, and AI-specific signals. Most businesses need both.
How do I know if my business is mentioned in ChatGPT?
You test it. We run a set of queries real customers might ask in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude, and we screenshot what each one returns. Most small businesses we audit don't appear at all in their core queries. The ones that do appear are usually described inaccurately.
Is Answer Engine Optimisation worth the investment for a small business?
Depends on whether your customers are using AI to research. For most B2B services, professional services (legal, accounting, consulting), and ecommerce niches, the answer is yes. AI-referred visitors convert at over 4x the rate of standard organic. Even small AI visibility delivers outsized returns.
How long does Answer Engine Optimisation take to work?
Some of it is fast. Schema and page restructuring can lead to AI citations within days or weeks. Building entity authority and getting included in AI training data is slower (months). We work both layers in parallel.
Related services
Most agencies are still optimising for yesterday's Google. We optimise for wherever your customers actually search now: Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and everywhere in between.
Ready to get started with Answer Engine Optimisation?
Want to see how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI describe your business right now? Book a free AEO visibility audit.