Frequently asked questions

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It is the practice of structuring your website - through schema markup, LLMS.txt files, and AI-extractable content - so that AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode cite your business in their generated answers. Where SEO targets search engine rankings, AEO targets AI-generated responses.

Learn more: What Answer Intent delivers

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It is the broader discipline of optimising your digital presence for generative AI systems. AEO is the technical implementation layer within GEO - covering structured data, LLMS.txt, and content extractability. GEO also encompasses entity authority, citation building, and share of model response measurement. Answer Intent delivers both.

SEO optimises your website to rank in Google's blue-link results. AEO optimises your website to be cited in AI-generated answers. These are different systems with different ranking signals. A site can rank well on Google and be completely invisible in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Mode - which is the gap Answer Intent closes.

The good news: AEO infrastructure (schema, structured content) also strengthens SEO performance. The two are complementary, not competing.

AI engines do not use Google's ranking algorithm. They retrieve content based on structured data signals, entity clarity, content extractability, and citation patterns. Most South African business websites are optimised for Google's crawler - not for AI retrieval.

The technical gap is specific: no schema markup, no LLMS.txt file, and content written for human readers rather than machine extraction. These are fixable infrastructure problems, not content quality problems. The Visibility Audit identifies exactly which gaps apply to your site.

LLMS.txt is a structured plain-text file placed at your website's root domain (yourdomain.com/llms.txt). It tells AI language models exactly what your business does, who it serves, what your key pages are, and what you want cited. Think of it as a direct communication channel between your website and AI systems - bypassing the crawler's inference layer.

Without it, AI engines have to infer what your business does from unstructured page content, which produces unreliable or absent citations. Read more about the LLMS.txt deliverable.

JSON-LD schema is structured data added to your website's page code. It uses a standardised vocabulary (Schema.org) to tell AI engines and search engines what type of entity each page represents: a business, a person, a service, a frequently asked question.

When a business's schema is absent, AI engines cannot confidently identify the entity or its authority. When schema is present and correct, the business becomes a named, citable entity in AI-generated answers. Answer Intent builds validated JSON-LD for every schema type your site requires. Read more about the schema deliverable.

Answer Intent delivers three deployment-ready assets: validated JSON-LD schema markup blocks, a structured LLMS.txt file, and AI-extractable content (pillar pages and FAQ clusters). All assets are produced as deployment-ready files and handed to your existing developer with a one-page implementation guide.

No CMS access required. No logins handed over. Read full service descriptions.

No. Answer Intent does not require CMS access, login credentials, or admin access of any kind. All deliverables are produced off-site as files - schema blocks, LLMS.txt, and content drafts - and delivered inside a folder with an implementation guide.

Your developer pastes and deploys. Answer Intent never touches your live environment.

Start with the Visibility Audit (R4,900) if you want to confirm the gap before committing. It runs 30 AI queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode and shows you exactly where your business is invisible and why.

If the audit confirms significant gaps - which it almost always does - the Foundation Sprint (R14,900) closes them within 10 business days. The Ongoing Programme suits businesses that want sustained AI visibility and compounding authority month-on-month. The Full-Site Build applies when your site exceeds 10 pages requiring schema coverage.

The Visibility Audit is the lowest-friction starting point for any client who wants to confirm the gap before committing to a build engagement.

The Visibility Audit delivers in 5 business days. The AEO Foundation Sprint delivers in 10 business days from receipt of payment and a completed intake form. The Full-Site AEO Build turnaround is quoted per engagement based on page count - minimum 10 business days.

Ongoing Programme Month 1 matches the Foundation Sprint timeline; subsequent monthly sprints deliver within the calendar month. See the full process breakdown.

Your developer receives a delivery folder containing schema block files (one per page template), the LLMS.txt file, and content drafts. The implementation guide inside the folder tells them exactly where each file goes, in what order, and what to validate after deployment.

Schema blocks are pasted into page head code or deployed via CMS custom code fields. LLMS.txt is uploaded to the root domain. The guide covers deployment steps for WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Shopify, Squarespace, and custom code environments. See the full deployment breakdown.

Answer Intent offers four fixed-price tiers. The Visibility Audit is R4,900 (once-off, 5 business days, covers up to 5 pages). The AEO Foundation Sprint is R14,900 (once-off, 10 business days, covers up to 10 pages). The Ongoing AEO Programme is R8,500 to R12,000 per month on a 3-month minimum. The Full-Site AEO Build is custom-quoted for sites exceeding 10 pages - base R14,900 plus R800 to R1,200 per additional page depending on schema complexity.

See full package details and comparison table.

A YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) surcharge of 30% to 50% applies to businesses in regulated verticals: legal, financial advisory, accounting, healthcare, and insurance. This reflects the additional schema trust signals, E-E-A-T content requirements, and citation verification work that AI engines require before citing content in regulated professional service categories.

The surcharge is disclosed and itemised in every proposal for qualifying verticals. See the full YMYL surcharge table.

Yes. Add-ons include: a Deployment Check Call (R1,800 - a 30-minute async review confirming your developer's deployment is correct before results are measured), additional FAQ clusters at R4,500 each, additional schema types at R2,200 to R3,500 each, LLMS.txt updates for an existing file at R1,500, and a 90-day monitoring report at R4,800 per month.

The 90-day monitoring report is the natural bridge from a one-off project to the Ongoing Programme. See the full add-ons list.

R4,900 is the floor. Answer Intent does not discount below published tier prices. The pricing is positioned as a market-entry rate for an uncontested SA niche - it is already significantly below global AEO agency rates, which floor at USD 2,000 to 8,000 per month.

A prospect who will not pay R4,900 for a diagnostic audit is unlikely to be a viable retainer client.

Payment is due in full on confirmation of the engagement. For Tier 3 retainers, billing is monthly in advance. No payment plans are offered on once-off packages.

The pricing is designed to be accessible for SA founder-led businesses - Tier 1 at R4,900 is the lowest-friction entry point.

After your developer deploys the Foundation Sprint deliverables, Answer Intent reruns the original 30-query AI baseline at the 30-day mark. The retest compares your AI citation frequency against the Day 0 baseline, identifies which queries you now appear in, and produces a progress report.

This is how the AEO Proof Guarantee is measured. Read the full measurement methodology.

Read the guarantee details and applicability.

Most Foundation Sprint clients see their first AI citations within 4 to 8 weeks of correct deployment. The timeline depends on how quickly AI crawlers re-index your updated pages and LLMS.txt file. The 30-day retest captures early movement.

The 60-day guarantee period is the outer boundary - if citations have not appeared by Day 60, Answer Intent continues working at no charge.

The AEO Proof Guarantee is a continued-work commitment, not a money-back guarantee. If you would prefer a refund-based policy, the Visibility Audit (R4,900) is the lowest-friction way to test whether Answer Intent's diagnosis matches your needs before committing to a Foundation Sprint or higher tier.

Share of Model Response measures how frequently your business is cited across a defined set of AI queries relevant to your category - expressed as a percentage of total queries where any business in your category is cited. It is the AEO equivalent of Share of Voice in traditional media.

Answer Intent measures SMR at Day 0 (baseline), Day 30 (first retest), and monthly thereafter on the Ongoing Programme.

AEO infrastructure (schema, LLMS.txt, structured content) improves AI citation probability for any business with a website and a developer. The verticals with the widest gap and fastest improvement are professional services (legal, accounting, financial advisory), tourism and hospitality, B2B services, and e-commerce.

YMYL verticals require additional rigour but have higher citation value once established. The Visibility Audit confirms the specific gap and opportunity for your site before any implementation commitment.

The 30-day retest is the primary measurement. It reruns the original 30-query baseline and compares citation frequency. Secondary signals include referral traffic from AI platforms in Google Analytics (look for referral sources including openai.com, perplexity.ai, and bing.com for Copilot), and direct query testing in ChatGPT and Perplexity using your target queries.

The Ongoing Programme includes a monthly Share of Model Response report that tracks all of these signals systematically. Read the full measurement methodology.

No. AEO complements SEO - it does not replace it. Google's traditional search results still generate significant traffic for most businesses. The issue is that AI referral traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than Google organic, and AI referral volume is growing rapidly year-on-year.

Businesses that invest in AEO alongside SEO capture both traffic sources. Businesses that ignore AEO lose the higher-converting channel to competitors who do not.

AEO as a defined discipline emerged globally in 2023 to 2024, approximately 18 months behind where the SA market sits today. Most SA digital agencies have added AEO language to their service descriptions but are delivering traditional SEO under a new label - no schema-as-a-service, no LLMS.txt capability, no AI citation measurement.

Answer Intent was built specifically to close this gap: a standalone, fixed-price, implementation-complete AEO and GEO service priced in ZAR for the SA market.

Yes. AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity operate globally and do not have geographic restrictions on citations. A South African tourism operator, attorney, or accountant can appear in AI-generated answers for international queries if their content is correctly structured.

The schema, LLMS.txt, and content assets Answer Intent delivers improve citation probability across all AI engines regardless of where the user asking the question is located.