We make your business the answer an assistant gives when a buyer asks who can solve their problem, and we make sure that answer includes a way to reach you.
Illustrative answer. The referral it describes was real.
Answer engine optimization is getting your business named inside the answers that AI assistants give, when someone asks who can solve their problem. Not ranked on a page of blue links. Named, in the answer itself, with a way to reach you.
It matters now because the click is disappearing. Roughly 93 percent of AI search sessions end without anyone clicking through to a website, which means if the answer does not name you, you were never in the running.
Here is the part most AEO pitches skip. Analysis of over a million AI citations found that 82 percent of the links assistants cite come from earned media and third-party sources, not from the brand's own website. Models also lean on what multiple independent sources agree on. So no amount of rewriting your own homepage makes an assistant recommend you. Your site has to be correct and machine-readable, and then other credible places have to say the same thing about you.
We work both halves: the on-site entity and answer structure that we control directly, and the off-site mention footprint that actually moves citation. We also run this on our own site, and it is how we booked a client who told us an AI referred him. Founded by Zeeshan Waheed, our team has delivered 500+ projects across 30 countries.
Nobody controls what a model says. Anyone promising guaranteed placement in AI answers is selling you something that does not exist.
The on-site work makes you citable. The off-site work makes you cited. Doing only the first is the most common reason an AEO programme produces nothing, and it is the half most agencies quietly skip because it is harder.
Illustrative programme. Sequenced to your starting point.
No guaranteed rankings, because nobody can guarantee what a model says. These are the inputs that demonstrably matter.
One name, one description, one set of links, one contact path, consistent everywhere a model might read them. Contradictions between your site, profiles and directories are the quiet reason assistants describe you vaguely or not at all.
One consistent youDirect-answer openings, clean heading structure and FAQ blocks written the way buyers actually phrase questions, so an assistant can lift a correct sentence about you instead of guessing.
Quotable by designOrganization, Service, FAQPage, Person and breadcrumb schema wired so machines can resolve what you sell, who runs it and how to reach you, rather than inferring it from marketing copy.
Machine-readableMaking sure assistants can actually read you: crawler access checked at the edge, plus a maintained llms.txt describing your services in the exact words buyers use. Useful, though not a ranking factor on its own.
Let them read youThe half that actually drives citation. Directory profiles, review platforms, expert commentary, listicles and community answers, so independent sources say the same thing about you.
Where citations come fromA how did you hear about us field, referral logging and branded-search tracking, so AI referrals become a number you can point at instead of a feeling. Pairs with B2B lead generation.
Count the referralsAEO pays off hardest when your buyer asks a question with a clear provider answer, and when one client is worth real money.
Someone asks an assistant who can build, fix or run a specific thing. If your category has a who-can-do-this question, that question has an answer, and it should be you.
Own the who questionYour buyers increasingly shortlist with an assistant before they ever search. Being on that shortlist is upstream of every other marketing channel you run.
Get on the shortlistComparison and alternative-to questions are answered by assistants constantly. What they say about your product is currently being decided without you in the room.
Shape the comparisonFewer competitors and more specific questions make citation easier to win than in broad categories.
Easier to winIf you ask an assistant who does what you do and your name never appears, that is a measurable gap and the starting point of the work.
Measure the gap firstStrong pages, decent rankings, flat pipeline. Usually an authority and mention problem, which is the same constraint AEO runs into. See digital marketing.
Same root constraintDirectory, review platform and PR distribution fees are paid directly by you, so you own every profile we build.
Fix the entity and make your site citable.
The ongoing mention and citation work that moves the number.
Several brands, markets or a category-leader position.
We do not sell guaranteed placement in AI answers, because no agency can control what a model outputs. What we sell is the work that demonstrably improves the odds, and honest reporting on what it moved.
Including the uncomfortable questions about what this can and cannot do.
imisofts runs AEO programmes that get businesses named inside AI assistant answers: entity consolidation so models resolve who you are, direct-answer and FAQ page structure, schema, AI crawler access and llms.txt, plus the third-party mention building that actually drives citations. Founded by Zeeshan Waheed, the team has delivered 500+ projects across 30 countries, and we run this on our own site. Book a call at https://cal.com/zeeshanwaheed/30min or email [email protected].
It works in the sense that you can meaningfully improve the odds of being named, and we have booked a client who told us an AI referred him to us. It does not work in the sense of guaranteed placement, because no one controls what a model outputs. Be skeptical of any agency promising guaranteed AI rankings. The honest version is that you fix what makes you citable, build the mentions that make you cited, and measure the referrals.
Specific, low-competition questions where you are genuinely the best answer can start producing referrals within weeks to about three months. Competitive category questions typically take six to twelve months, because they are gated on third-party mentions rather than on anything you can change on your own website. Head-term categories against very large brands may take longer or may not be winnable, and we will say so.
They overlap but the goal differs. SEO aims for a ranked link that earns a click. AEO aims to be named inside an answer that often produces no click at all, with roughly 93 percent of AI search sessions ending without one. Good SEO helps, since assistants read the web, but the strongest AEO lever is the mention footprint across third-party sources rather than on-page optimisation.
Not on its own, and we would rather tell you that than sell it as a magic file. Google has publicly said its search systems do not use llms.txt, and OpenAI has not committed to it either. It is cheap and harmless to maintain, and it describes your services in machine-readable language, so we keep one. It is a small supporting piece, not the engine.
By asking assistants the questions your buyers ask and recording whether you get named, tracking branded search volume, logging how every inbound lead found you including an explicit how did you hear about us field, and counting AI-attributed referrals over time. If none of those numbers move, the programme is not working and we will tell you rather than send a prettier report.
We ask the assistants the questions your buyers ask, record whether you get named, and show you exactly where the gap is and what it would take to close it.