AI platforms we optimize for
5B+
Monthly ChatGPT Visits
4.4x
Higher Conversion from AI Traffic
11.2%
Conversion Rate for AI-Recommended Businesses
<1%
Of Local Businesses Optimized for AI
What's changing
Google used to be the only game in town.
Now your customers have a new habit. Before they call anyone, they ask ChatGPT. They ask Perplexity. They ask Siri.
And these AI assistants don't show a list of ten blue links. They pick two or three businesses — by name — and recommend them directly.
The businesses that get recommended get the call. The ones that don't, don't exist.
This shift has a name: Answer Engine Optimization. AEO is the work of making sure AI assistants know who you are, trust what you do, and recommend you when it matters.
“Only 12% of businesses recommended by AI also rank in Google's top 10.”
AI visibility is a completely separate game. Your SEO agency isn't solving this.
Built for local businesses that can't afford to be invisible.
If a new customer in your city asked ChatGPT for the best plumber, dentist, or roofer right now — would your business come up? We work with local service businesses where one new customer per week from AI referrals pays for the service ten times over.
You're not showing up in AI answers
Customers are asking AI who to hire. Your competitors are getting named. You're not. We fix that.
You have no idea what AI says about you
AI assistants might be recommending you — or describing you wrong — and you'd never know. Your free audit shows you exactly where you stand.
You don't have time to figure this out yourself
AEO isn't a one-hour setup. It's schema markup, citation building, review signals, content structure, and ongoing monitoring. We do all of it.
How it works
Done for you. Start to finish.
Your Free Audit
We run your business through 12 real AI queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity — the same questions your customers are actually asking. You see your current mention rate, which competitors are getting recommended instead of you, and exactly what's holding you back. Most businesses score under 20%. The audit takes 24 hours.
Foundation Month
Month one is setup. We fix your schema markup, submit to Bing Webmaster Tools (the index ChatGPT actually reads), build your citation profile across G2, Capterra, Google Business, and 6 other AI citation sources, and rewrite your key page content so AI engines can extract and quote it. You get a report at the end showing every change made and your new citation tier score.
Authority Building
Month two is where your AI visibility starts to move. We run a verified review collection campaign on G2 and Capterra, begin building your Reddit and YouTube presence (the two sources Perplexity cites most), and pitch your business for inclusion in "best X in [city]" articles — the single highest-impact signal in ChatGPT's recommendation system.
Ongoing Monitoring & Management
From month three on, our system runs your tracked queries across multiple AI platforms three times daily, applies statistical confidence intervals to filter out noise, and sends you a monthly report showing your mention rate trend, share of voice vs. competitors, and position quality score. If your visibility drops more than 15 points week-over-week, you get an alert before the monthly report — not after.
Why not just use a monitoring tool?
Monitoring tells you the problem. We fix it.
Tools like Otterly and Peec AI will show you that your business isn't appearing in AI answers. They'll tell you your mention rate is 8%. Then they stop.
First Answer is the work that comes after the dashboard. The citation building. The schema fixes. The review campaigns. The content restructuring. The outreach to comparison article authors. None of that happens automatically — and none of those tools do it for you.
See exactly where you stand — free.
Your free AI visibility audit runs 12 real queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity using the exact phrases your customers type. You'll see your current mention rate, your composite AEO score, which competitors are being recommended instead of you, and the three highest-impact fixes you can make right now.
Most audits come back under 20%. Most businesses are surprised.
Takes 24 hours. No credit card. No sales call unless you want one.
Pricing
Simple monthly plans. Cancel anytime.
Starter
For single-location local businesses ready to start showing up in AI answers.
- Full AEO foundation audit
- Schema markup implementation
- 6-platform citation setup (G2, Capterra, Bing, Google Business, AlternativeTo, Crunchbase)
- ChatGPT monitoring — queries run 3x daily
- Monthly report: mention rate, AEO score, top competitors
- Drop detection alerts (15-point threshold)
Best for: Plumbers, HVAC, roofers, trades, single-location service businesses
Cancel anytime
Growth
For businesses serious about building lasting AI authority.
- Everything in Starter
- Perplexity monitoring added
- Verified review collection campaign (G2 + Capterra)
- Reddit + YouTube presence building
- Monthly competitor share of voice report
- Comparison content strategy
- Position quality score tracking
Best for: Multi-location service businesses, professional services (lawyers, dentists, accountants)
Cancel anytime
Pro
For businesses that want to dominate AI recommendations in their category.
- Everything in Growth
- All 6 AI platforms monitored (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, Meta AI)
- Comparison article outreach ("best X in [city]" publishers)
- Quarterly content creation (FAQ pages, comparison pages, accuracy explainers)
- Bi-weekly strategy calls
- Full share of voice dashboard with 90-day trends
Best for: High-value service businesses where one new client = $5,000+
Dedicated onboarding call
One-Time Audit — $300
Not ready for a monthly plan? Get the full audit report — AEO score, AI query results, citation tier analysis, and your top 3 fixes — as a standalone PDF. Credited toward Month 1 if you sign up within 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is AEO?
AEO — Answer Engine Optimization — is the practice of making your business visible in AI-generated answers. When someone asks ChatGPT "best dentist in Austin" or Perplexity "trusted plumber near me," AI assistants pull from a specific set of signals to decide who to recommend. AEO is the work of building those signals: structured data, external citations, verified reviews, content that AI can extract and quote. It's separate from SEO, which targets Google's ranking algorithm.
How is this different from SEO?
SEO gets you ranked on Google. AEO gets you recommended by AI. They're complementary but completely different systems — only 12% of URLs cited by AI assistants also appear in Google's top 10. Your SEO agency isn't doing this, and their work won't automatically transfer. We work alongside your SEO agency — they handle Google, we handle AI.
How do you know it's actually working?
We run your tracked queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity multiple times daily, aggregate the results, and calculate your mention rate with statistical confidence intervals — so you're seeing a real trend, not a one-day snapshot. Your monthly report shows your mention rate, AEO composite score, and share of voice vs. competitors. If your visibility drops significantly between reports, you get an alert automatically.
How long until I see results?
Citation tier setup shows immediate progress in weeks 1-2 (we can show you the platforms going live). First AI mention rate improvements typically appear in weeks 6-8. A full before/after comparison at 90 days is where most clients see the clearest proof — going from sub-10% to 30-40% mention rates. We require a 90-day minimum engagement because the research is clear: meaningful AI visibility changes take 90 days, and anyone promising faster is not being straight with you.
What if I already have an SEO agency?
Good — keep them. We work alongside SEO agencies, not against them. They handle Google rankings; we handle AI recommendations. Many SEO signals actually support AEO work, so businesses with solid SEO foundations often see faster AEO results.
Which AI platforms does First Answer target?
We optimize for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, and Meta AI. Starter plans include ChatGPT monitoring; Growth adds Perplexity; Pro covers all six. Because most AI platforms pull from similar underlying signals (Bing index, structured data, citation authority), improvements on one platform typically lift visibility across all of them.
Can I do this myself?
Yes — and tools like Otterly ($29/month) will show you your current visibility score. But the work that moves the score — citation building, schema implementation, review campaigns, content restructuring, comparison article outreach — takes 15-20 hours in month one alone, and ongoing management after that. Most business owners hire us because their time is worth more than the monthly fee.
What does the free audit include?
Your free audit runs 12 real queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity — purchase-intent queries based on your specific business type, not generic searches. You get your overall AEO score, mention rate (how often you appear vs. how often competitors do), citation tier analysis across 6 sources, schema markup assessment, and your top 3 highest-impact fixes. It's the same audit we run for paying clients at the start of engagement.
Find out if AI knows you exist.
Most local businesses have never checked what ChatGPT says about them. Some are being recommended. Most aren't. A few are being described wrong — with outdated information or as a different type of business entirely.
Your free audit tells you exactly where you stand in 24 hours.
No credit card. No sales call unless you want one. Just your real AI visibility score.