Notes on Answer Engine Optimization.
Essays, research, and working notes. Publishing irregularly. The best pieces will probably be the ones the answer engines end up citing themselves.
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Reviews and AEO: what actually moves citation share
Reviews matter for AEO, but not the way most agencies sell it. Recency outweighs volume, sentiment specificity outweighs star rating, and what reviewers actually say about specific services often matters more than the headline number.
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How to write a service page that gets retrieved by AI chatbots
A service page that gets cited by ChatGPT or Perplexity looks different from one optimized for Google ranking. The difference is structural — and a side-by-side comparison makes the pattern obvious.
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The best AEO agencies in Phoenix, 2026
An honest look at the Phoenix-metro Answer Engine Optimization landscape — the specialists, the generalists, and the shops calling themselves AEO agencies without actually doing the work. Ranked, with reasoning.
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The Schema.org markup you actually need for AEO in 2026
Most schema guides list everything you could ship. AEO works differently — a small set of Schema.org types does most of the citation work. Here's the minimum viable set, in the order to deploy it.
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Google Business Profile mistakes that kill AI visibility
Your Google Business Profile is the single highest-leverage signal for AI citation of a local business. Seven common errors quietly cost businesses citation share — and the fix for each takes under 30 minutes.
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Why ChatGPT recommends your competitor instead of you
When ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity names a competitor and not you, the cause is rarely the obvious one. Five specific patterns explain almost every case — and each has a different fix.
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What is llms.txt, and should my business have one?
A definitional explainer on /llms.txt — what it is, what it isn't, which crawlers actually use it, and when it's worth shipping.
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How long until AI search recommends my business?
A realistic timeline for when ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview start citing a local business after AEO work begins. Phased by signal type.
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Is AEO different from SEO, or just a rebrand?
An honest answer to the most common skeptical question about Answer Engine Optimization. The overlap, the genuine differences, and why the difference matters for the work.
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How AI chatbots decide which local business to recommend
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini don't pick local businesses at random. A walk through the retrieval signals that actually drive who gets named.
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How to check if ChatGPT recommends your business
A practical, repeatable method for testing whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview cite your business — and what to do with the answer.
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What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
A concise, definitional introduction to Answer Engine Optimization — what it is, how it differs from SEO, and why it matters now.
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