Services
AI SEO — AEO & GEO Services
When someone asks ChatGPT "who's the best personal injury attorney in Nashville," an answer comes back. AI SEO is the work of being in it. We optimise your site and your off-site presence so AI assistants cite you — through content structure, entity consistency, original data, and third-party placement. From $1,500/month. Standalone visibility audit $1,500.
Also called AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation). Same work, three names.
Is AI SEO right for your business?
It's worth doing if your buyers research before they call. A homeowner with a burst pipe types into Google and dials the first number. Someone choosing an estate attorney, a med spa, or a B2B vendor asks an AI assistant for options first — and increasingly acts on the shortlist it gives them.
This is a fit if:
- Your service involves comparison, research, or a considered decision
- Your buyers are professionals or higher-income consumers
- You already rank reasonably in regular search and want the next surface
- You have real operating data or expertise nobody else can publish
Skip it for now if:
- Your demand is purely emergency-driven and you're not yet dominating the map pack. Fix Local SEO first — it's a bigger lever today.
- You have no case studies, data, or named expert to put behind your content. AI SEO amplifies credibility; it can't manufacture it.
- You're under $500K in revenue. The free guide will get you most of the way.
What's actually included?
| Foundation | Growth | Scale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI visibility baseline audit | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Answer-first content restructuring | — | Core pages | Full site |
| Entity & schema consistency | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Author/expert entity build-out | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| FAQ and question-format optimisation | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share of Model tracking | — | Monthly | Weekly |
| Third-party citation program | — | — | ✓ |
| Original data / research support | — | — | ✓ |
| Quarterly content refresh cycle | — | ✓ | ✓ |
Standalone: $1,500/month, or included from the Growth tier up.
What actually works — and what gets oversold?
We'll be straight with you, because most of what's sold as "AI SEO" in 2026 is guesswork with a markup.
What the evidence supports:
| Tactic | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Answer-first content — a direct 40–60 word answer opening every section | Roughly 44% of AI citations come from the first 30% of a page |
| Question-format headings | Matches how people actually prompt an assistant |
| Strict heading hierarchy | About 69% of AI-cited pages use it, versus ~40% of uncited pages |
| Tables, lists, step-by-steps | Around 2.5x the citation probability of prose alone |
| FAQ sections | The highest-citing format there is, near 81% |
| A named author with a real, linked bio | About 60% more citations than the same content published anonymously |
| Original first-party data | The most citable thing a business can publish, full stop |
| Quarterly refreshes | Pages left stale are roughly 3x more likely to lose citations entirely |
What's oversold, and we won't charge you for as an AI lever:
- Schema markup. Google stated in May 2026 that structured data isn't required for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and a 2026 study found JSON-LD produced no measurable citation lift. We implement it anyway — it drives rich results and map pack eligibility in regular search — but we won't sell it to you as an AI play.
llms.txtfiles. Google has said machine-readable AI files aren't needed. We'll ship one because it takes ten minutes and costs nothing. Expect nothing from it.
The part most agencies won't tell you: roughly 85% of brand mentions in AI search come from third-party pages, not your own site. Your website alone cannot win this. Directory profiles, review platforms, podcasts, local press, and being quoted as a named expert are where the citations actually originate — which is why our Scale tier includes an off-site program rather than just on-page work.
How do we do it?
- Baseline audit. We run 25 category prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Claude and Gemini, and record where you appear, where competitors appear, and in what tone. You get the raw log, not just a score.
- Entity cleanup. Your business name, address, phone and category must be identical everywhere — site, schema, Google Business Profile, every directory. Ambiguity is what makes an AI system hedge instead of recommending you.
- Author entity build. A real bio page with credentials, linked from every article. This is the single highest-leverage fix on most sites.
- Content restructuring. Answer-first blocks, question headings, tables, FAQs, on the pages that matter commercially.
- Original data. We help you publish something only you can — your own cost-per-lead figures, close rates, or market benchmarks. This is what earns third-party citations at scale.
- Off-site placement. Directory profiles, expert sourcing platforms, podcasts, local and trade press.
- Monthly Share of Model reporting. Same 25 prompts, re-run, tracked over time.
How is this measured?
There's no Search Console for AI search yet, and anyone claiming precise attribution is guessing. What we do instead is consistent and honest.
Share of Model. We define 25 category prompts across four types — discovery ("best HVAC company in Nashville"), comparison ("X vs Y"), evaluation ("how much does law firm SEO cost"), and implementation. We run them weekly in fresh sessions across five assistants and log whether you're mentioned, who else is, how prominently, and in what sentiment. Your score is appearances divided by total prompts.
Expect 4 to 6 weeks before the trend line means anything. We also watch branded search volume, direct traffic anomalies, and self-reported attribution — the "how did you hear about us" field — because those move when AI visibility moves.
Only about 16% of businesses track any of this today. Being early is most of the advantage.
What results should I expect, and when?
Entity and content fixes show up in AI answers faster than they do in regular rankings — often 4 to 8 weeks, because there's no equivalent of a crawl-and-trust delay.
The off-site work is slower. Directory profiles, press mentions and expert placements take a quarter or more to accumulate, and that's the part that drives most of the outcome.
We won't promise a position. Nobody can — these systems are non-deterministic, and the same prompt can return different answers to different people on the same day. What we'll show you is your Share of Model moving, and whether it's moving faster than your competitors'.
Which industries is this strongest for?
- Law firms — high-value, research-heavy decisions where prospects ask assistants for a shortlist
- B2B and SaaS — buyers now research vendors through LLMs as a default first step
- Healthcare and med spa — treatment research happens well before anyone books
- Home services — weaker for emergencies, strong for planned work like remodels and replacements
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between AEO, GEO and AI SEO?
Practically none. AEO means answer engine optimisation, GEO means generative engine optimisation, and AI SEO is the plain-English umbrella. Different people coined different terms for the same work. We use AI SEO because that's what clients say.
Is this different from regular SEO?
It overlaps but isn't the same. Regular SEO optimises for ranked links; AI SEO optimises for being quoted inside a generated answer. Content structure, author credibility, original data, and third-party mentions matter far more here than backlink volume does.
Do I need this if my SEO is already good?
If you rank well and your buyers research before calling, this is the natural next surface — and it's much less contested than search was. If you don't rank at all yet, fix that first.
How much does AI SEO cost?
$1,500 a month standalone, or included from our Growth tier at $3,750. A standalone visibility audit is $1,500. Market rates for this run $2,000 to $10,000 a month; we're deliberately below that while the category is young.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No, and treat anyone who does with suspicion. These systems are non-deterministic and change without notice. What we can do is make you the most citable option in your category and show you the trend.
How do you measure something with no analytics?
Share of Model — 25 defined prompts, run weekly across five assistants, logged over time. It's a consistent measure rather than a perfect one, and a consistent imperfect metric beats no metric.
Will this help my regular Google rankings too?
Usually yes. Answer-first structure, clean entities, named authors and fresh content are things classic search rewards as well. The two programs reinforce each other.
Can I do this myself?
A meaningful amount of it, yes. Our AI search visibility guide covers the on-page work in full and it's free. The parts that are hard to do alone are the off-site citation program and sustaining a quarterly refresh cycle.
Find out where you stand
The $1,500 AI Visibility Audit takes one to two weeks and tells you exactly where you appear across five AI assistants, who's being recommended instead of you, and what to fix first. No retainer required, and the raw prompt log is yours either way.
Schedule a consultation · (615) 669-0707
Written by Jared DeValk, founder of Nashville Digital. Last reviewed September 2026. This page is refreshed quarterly — AI search changes faster than any other channel we work in.