Your customer asks
"Who is the best accountant near me?" "Is this clinic accepting new patients?" "Which contractor is actually reputable?" Buyers now ask an assistant and expect a shortlist.
Answer Engine Optimization · Ontario, Canada
Be the answer
AI recommends.
Your next customer is asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Google AI for a recommendation. Code & Aura makes sure your business is understood, trusted, and cited in the answer they see.
No templates Fixed-scope engagements Ontario-based
The shift
The search box became a conversation.
Ten blue links are being replaced by a synthesized answer. If AI cannot find, parse, and trust your business, it recommends a competitor instead.
AI assembles an answer
The engine retrieves a handful of sources, compares facts, checks for corroboration, and cites the sources it trusts. One clear, consistent business can beat a bigger, messier one.
You are cited — or invisible
Page-one rankings are no longer enough. You need to be the fact behind the answer: the named business, the linked source, the recommendation the assistant feels safe making.
The businesses that win the AI era are not the loudest. They are the clearest, the most consistent, and the most corroborated.
Definitions
What is Answer Engine Optimization?
AEO is how you become the answer, not just a result.
In plain terms: make the facts about your business obvious to machines, then reinforce those facts everywhere they look.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of making a business easy for AI answer engines to understand, verify, and quote. It combines technical SEO, structured data, entity consistency, answer-first content, and third-party citations.
Traditional SEO asks: which page should rank? AEO asks: can the AI identify this business, trust the claim, and cite the source? The work overlaps, but the scoreboard changes.
| Dimension | Traditional SEO | AEO |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a page for a query | Be named or cited in an answer |
| Unit | Keyword and page | Entity, fact, and source |
| Content | Long-form pages built around keywords | Concise answer blocks with evidence |
| Trust signals | Links and domain authority | Citations, consistency, reviews, corroboration |
| Measurement | Rankings, impressions, clicks | Share of AI answers, citations, qualified leads |
AEO does not replace SEO. It extends it into the places where answers are now assembled.
Services
A focused engagement, not a website template.
We fix the inputs AI uses to decide who to recommend. Every engagement starts with your actual visibility, not a redesign.
AI Visibility Audit
Find out what AI says about you today, and which gaps are holding you back.
- 5 real buyer questions, run across 4 AI engines
- Citation, entity, and schema gap report
- Competitor comparison and priority fixes
- 30-minute walkthrough with a written plan
Free · 3 business days
Request audit →
AEO Foundation
Make your business machine-readable, consistent, and easy to cite.
- Entity, NAP, and knowledge-panel cleanup
- Schema: Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ
- llms.txt, robots.txt, and AI crawler access
- Up to 5 answer-first service or location pages
- Google Business Profile and citation cleanup
From $1,000 CAD
Build the foundation →
AEO Growth
Earn the citations and proof AI needs to recommend you with confidence.
- 2 new answer pages or updates per month
- Citation, directory, and digital PR outreach
- Review generation and response workflow
- Competitor gap tracking and monthly report
From $250 CAD / month
Plan growth →
Need a new website? Web presence and conversion work is available as an add-on. We only recommend it when the current site blocks the AEO work — not as a default.
The work
The AEO foundation, in plain English.
No mystery retainers. These are the inputs we audit, fix, and measure.
Entity clarityOne canonical name, location, service set, and description — everywhere.
Structured dataSchema that matches visible content: Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Review.
Answer-first pagesEach service and question gets a concise, extractable answer near the top.
AI crawler accessrobots.txt and headers that welcome GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, and ClaudeBot.
llms.txtA compact, machine-readable summary of who you are, what you do, and where.
Google Business ProfileCategories, services, hours, photos, Q&A, and reviews aligned with your site.
Citation consistencyName, address, phone, and service facts that match across directories and profiles.
Reviews & third-party proofReviews and mentions that corroborate the claims your website makes.
Internal linkingTopic clusters that show depth and connect related answers.
MeasurementBaseline answers, citations, referrals, and leads — re-run monthly.
What we do not do: guarantee AI rankings, publish fake reviews, stuff keywords, or sell a template as strategy.
How it works
How AI decides who to recommend.
Answer engines are not magic. They retrieve, parse, compare, and cite. Each step is something a business can improve.
Retrieval
Can the engine find you at all? Crawlable pages, clean structure, and AI bot access come first.
Understanding
Can it parse your entity? Clear services, locations, and schema remove ambiguity.
Trust
Is your claim corroborated? Reviews, directories, and mentions act as third-party evidence.
Freshness
Is the information current? Updated pages, hours, and profiles are safer to cite.
Fit
Do you answer the exact question? Specific, useful answers beat generic service copy.
The process
Measure first. Fix the inputs. Re-measure.
AEO is an evidence loop, not a one-time checklist. We keep the same baseline so progress is comparable.
Baseline
We run 5–10 real buyer questions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI. We record who is named, linked, and cited.
Fix the foundation
Schema, entity consistency, crawler access, llms.txt, page structure, and Google Business Profile.
Publish answers
Pages and profiles that answer the exact questions buyers ask, with evidence and a clear next step.
Corroborate & monitor
Reviews, citations, directories, and PR. Then we re-run the baseline monthly and adjust.
Pricing
Start with the audit. Build only what the gaps require.
Fixed scope, written proposals, no surprise retainers. Prices in CAD, before tax.
AI Visibility Audit
Free$0
Limited spots each month
- 5 real buyer questions
- 4 AI engines tested
- Citation and schema gap report
- 30-minute walkthrough
- Fixed-scope proposal
AEO Foundation
Most popular$1,000CAD · from
One-time implementation
- Entity, NAP, and schema implementation
- llms.txt and AI crawler configuration
- Up to 5 answer-first pages
- Google Business Profile optimization
- Citation cleanup and 30-day check-in
AEO Growth
Monthly$250CAD / month · from
Ongoing visibility work
- 2 answer pages or updates per month
- Citation, directory, and PR outreach
- Review generation workflow
- Competitor gap tracking
- Monthly AI visibility report
Prices are starting points. Scope is confirmed in writing after the audit. No retainer begins without a baseline.
Fit check
Who this works for.
AEO rewards businesses with real expertise and a willingness to be clear in public.
You are researched before you are contacted
- Local service businesses: clinics, dentists, contractors, studios
- Professional practices: law, accounting, consulting, immigration
- B2B companies with a considered purchase
- Businesses already getting search traffic but losing the AI answer
- Owners willing to publish real expertise and fix public facts
You want a guarantee or a shortcut
- Anyone looking for guaranteed AI rankings
- Thin affiliate or lead-gen sites with no real business behind them
- Businesses unwilling to correct inconsistent public information
- Projects that need a full rebrand before any AEO work can start
- Teams expecting overnight results from a single schema edit
FAQ
Questions buyers ask before they ask AI.
Direct answers, no jargon. If your question is missing, email hello@codeandaura.com.
What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of making a business easy for AI answer engines to understand, verify, and quote. It combines technical SEO, structured data, entity consistency, answer-first content, and third-party citations so a business is more likely to be named in an AI-generated answer.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO mostly competes for a ranking on a search results page. AEO competes to be the fact or source inside a synthesized answer. SEO asks which page ranks; AEO asks whether the AI can identify the business, trust the claim, and cite the source. AEO builds on SEO but adds entity clarity, structured facts, and corroboration.
Which AI engines does Code & Aura optimize for?
We test and optimize for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. The exact mix depends on where your buyers ask questions. We record the baseline for each engine so improvements are measured rather than assumed.
How long does AEO take to show results?
Foundation fixes such as schema, crawler access, and entity cleanup are usually implemented in two to four weeks. Changes in third-party citations and AI answers typically take 60 to 90 days to stabilize. AI answers vary by engine, location, and date, so we track trends across multiple questions rather than a single screenshot.
Do I need a new website for AEO?
Usually not. We work with the site you have if it is crawlable, reasonably fast, and editable. A rebuild is only recommended when the current platform prevents basic structured data, page speed, or content changes. Web design is available as an add-on, not the starting point.
Can you guarantee that AI will recommend my business?
No. No one controls how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Google AI generate answers. What we can do is improve the inputs those systems rely on, remove technical blockers, strengthen corroborating sources, and measure whether your business appears more often and in better contexts.
Do you only work with businesses in Ontario?
Our local AEO focus is Ontario, Canada, and most engagements are with Ontario service businesses and professional practices. We also work remotely with Canadian and North American companies when the fit is strong.
What do you need from me to start?
Access to your website and Google Business Profile, one or two hours with someone who knows the business, and a list of the services and locations you want to be known for. We handle the audit, technical implementation, content structure, and measurement.
How do you measure AI visibility?
We define a set of real buyer questions, run them across the major AI engines, and record whether the business is named, linked, or cited. We repeat the same set monthly and combine it with referral traffic, branded search, and lead quality so the report reflects business outcomes, not just screenshots.
Free visibility check
Find out what AI says about you.
Tell us the business, the city, and the service you want to be known for. We will run a real set of buyer questions across the major AI engines and send you the gaps — no obligation.
hello@codeandaura.com- A real audit, not a template report
- Written findings and a fixed-scope next step
- Reply within 2 business days