Google results
Still the biggest. It rewards pages that load fast, say clearly what they’re about, and are structured so a machine can read them. Nothing here is new — it just has to actually be done.
SEO · AEO · GEO · one department
Be found wherepeopleask.search · answers · assistants
Search used to mean one thing: a page of Google results. Now people also get a direct answer at the top of the page, or ask an AI assistant and never see a results page at all. Your site has to work on all three — and the work overlaps more than most agencies admit.
Three places people ask now.
Same customer, same question — three different systems deciding whether you’re the answer.
AI answers on the results page
Google’s AI Overviews and answer boxes quote pages that answer a question directly in a short, plain paragraph — and that mark that answer up so it’s unmistakable.
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity
Assistants read your site with their own crawlers, then decide whether you’re a trustworthy source to recommend. They need permission to read you, facts stated plainly, and structure that says who you are.
What changeson your site.
Most of it is the same good work, done properly. Here’s the checklist we run.
Structure a machine can read
One clear H1, sections with real headings, canonical URLs, a sitemap, fast pages, and the words rendered in the HTML — not injected by scripts afterward.
Answer-shaped content
The questions your customers actually ask, each answered in a short direct paragraph first and explained after. Written to be quoted, because that’s what happens now.
Schema and FAQ markup
Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage — the labels that let a system state facts about you with confidence instead of guessing from prose.
Crawler access and measurement
Deliberate robots.txt rules for AI crawlers, an llms.txt guide, and tracking of the traffic and enquiries that arrive from AI surfaces — so we can see what changes.
It’s a backlog item, not a separate agency.
This work sits in the same backlog as your website, campaigns, and software. You prioritize it; we ship it. No retainer for a specialist, no second team to manage.
Hiring a specialist
- Another retainer, another meeting
- SEO and content teams that don’t talk
- Reports about rankings, not customers
- Site changes wait on a developer
Doing nothing
- Assistants recommend whoever they can read
- Answer boxes quote competitors’ FAQs
- The site keeps working — for fewer people
Clair
- One team: strategy, content, and the code changes
- Free check first, then the fixes in your backlog
- Every claim on your site stays verifiable
- Measured by enquiries, not vanity scores
Honest limit: nobody controls the engines. We don’t promise rankings or citations. We make your site the easiest possible thing for them to read, understand, and repeat.
Straight answers.
What’s the difference between SEO, AEO, and GEO?
SEO is being found in a list of search results. AEO (answer engine optimization) is being the direct answer shown at the top of that page. GEO (generative engine optimization) is being the source an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Claude reads and recommends. They overlap a lot: clear structure, plain answers, and machine-readable facts help all three.
Can you guarantee we’ll show up in AI answers?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. The engines decide. What we control is whether your site is readable, permitted, factual, and answer-shaped — the things every one of those systems needs before it can recommend you.
Do I need a new website for this?
Usually not. Most of the work is structure, content, and markup on the site you have. The free GEO check shows you exactly which pieces are missing.
How does this fit with the rest of Clair?
It’s one kind of item in your backlog, alongside pages, campaigns, and software. The same team that writes your content and builds your site does this work, so the changes actually ship.
Where do I start?
Run the free GEO check on your site. It takes thirty seconds and lists what we’d change. Then book a call and we’ll walk through it.
Start with the free check.
Thirty seconds, no signup, and you’ll know exactly where you stand.