AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — is what makes AI engines cite your business as the answer. We're the UK agency that does it, for trades and service businesses, from £100/month.
What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation — the practice of structuring your website content, schema and entity data so that AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini cite your business when users ask them a question. Unlike traditional SEO (which optimises for ranking positions on Google), AEO optimises for direct quotation inside AI-generated answers. It relies on clear direct-answer paragraphs, FAQ and Speakable schema, verified entity data, and topical authority clusters.
Content restructured so ChatGPT quotes you directly when users ask about your service and location.
Perplexity is the fastest-growing AI research tool. We get your pages into its cited sources.
The other two big language models. Different signals, different content — we handle both.
Every service page opens with a 40–80 word answer AI engines lift verbatim. Plain English, no waffle.
FAQPage, Speakable, HowTo, LocalBusiness, sameAs — layered correctly so answer engines can parse you.
Every target query, every AI engine, every week. Plain-English report showing what got cited and what didn't.
The two disciplines share a foundation, but the outputs are different. Here's what an AEO-first programme adds that a classic SEO agency won't touch.
| Feature | Lead Hack | Typical Agency |
|---|---|---|
| On-page & technical SEO | ||
| Direct-answer content blocks | ||
| FAQ + Speakable schema | Rare | |
| ChatGPT citation tracking | ||
| Perplexity source-list appearances | ||
| Entity SEO (sameAs graph) | ||
| Topical authority clusters | Sometimes | |
| llms.txt published |
ChatGPT hit 400 million weekly users in 2024. Perplexity is doubling year-on-year. Claude is now embedded in enterprise workflows across the UK. Together, they've created a new search surface where the winner isn't the site that ranks #1 — it's the site the AI decides to quote.
That's what AEO does. It's not about impressions or positions. It's about being the source the machine points to when your future customer asks: "Who's the best roofer in Leeds?", "Recommend a driveway installer near Bristol", or "Which UK landscaper handles commercial garden design?"
If your website isn't structured for AEO, you can be the best in your city and the AI will still recommend the competitor whose content is easier to quote.
Answer engines don't rank pages. They generate answers, then look for citations to back those answers up. The citation decision comes down to five factors, and AEO optimises for all of them:
Our AEO programme touches every one of these. Not as separate campaigns — as one integrated build.
Month 1 — audit and foundation. Full AEO audit against 40+ checkpoints, entity graph mapped, direct-answer blocks written and deployed on your top 5 pages, schema stack shipped, llms.txt published.
Month 2 — content clusters. We publish 4–6 new pages targeting the exact phrasing UK customers use when they ask AI engines about your trade. Each page interlinks; each carries direct-answer content and Speakable schema.
Month 3 — citation velocity. This is when Perplexity typically starts citing. We monitor daily, tune the pages that are close to being cited but aren't quite there, and expand the cluster.
AEO targets the standalone answer engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, You.com. Users go there specifically to ask a question and get an answer with citations.
GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation — targets the AI summaries inside classic search: Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Bing Copilot. Users start with a Google search and get an AI answer before the blue links.
The disciplines share 70% of their signals but diverge on: direct-answer length (AEO likes shorter, GEO tolerates longer), structured data (GEO needs more LocalBusiness, AEO needs more FAQPage), and content freshness (GEO weights it more heavily). We do both as one programme.
Classic SEO metrics (position, impressions, CTR) don't capture AEO wins. Our reporting adds three layers on top:
We deliver this as a monthly report you can read in five minutes, not a 40-tab dashboard nobody opens.
Here's the good news: your competitors aren't doing this. Big enterprise AEO agencies focus on SaaS and e-commerce. Local SEO agencies don't know AEO exists. That leaves an open lane for UK trades and service businesses to move first — and once an AI engine learns to cite you, it tends to keep citing you.
A landscaper in Chester, a driveway company in Nottingham, a roofer in Leeds — these are the businesses winning AEO right now, quietly, while their competitors argue about Google position 3 versus 4.
See how your business ranks across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews — and where your competitors are eating your lunch.
See where your business ranks across Google, AI search engines, and more
Direct-answer content blocks written to be cited verbatim, layered FAQPage + Speakable + HowTo schema, entity/sameAs graph work, topical authority clusters designed specifically for AI parsing, llms.txt publishing, and weekly citation tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini.
Perplexity typically starts citing 4–6 weeks after the first content cluster ships. ChatGPT lags 2–4 weeks behind Perplexity because it's slower to re-index. Google AI Overviews often takes 3–5 months. UK-specific and location-specific queries cite fastest because competition is thinner.
Lead Hack's AEO programmes start at £100/month for one trade + one town. Multi-service, multi-location and enterprise programmes scale up. Three-month minimum, no long lock-in. Compare to typical UK AEO agencies at £1,500–£5,000/month.
Yes. AEO sits on top of classic SEO — the technical foundation doesn't conflict. Some clients keep their existing SEO agency for on-page and technical work and hire us just for the AEO/AI-citation layer. Others move both to us.
The four biggest: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Perplexity, Claude (Anthropic) and Gemini (Google). We also track You.com and Bing Copilot but those drive lower UK traffic today. Our schema and content approach benefits all major answer engines simultaneously — we don't optimise one at a time.
Speakable schema is metadata that tells search engines and AI assistants which parts of your page are best suited to be read aloud or quoted verbatim. It's a strong AEO signal because it explicitly says 'this content is quotable'. Very few UK websites use it — which means adopting it gives you an outsized citation advantage.
Book a 15-minute call. We'll show you exactly where you're losing leads — in Google, in ChatGPT, in AI Overviews — and what we'd do about it.
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