Whitehat's AEO service ensures your brand gets cited—not just ranked—when buyers ask ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude for recommendations. AI-referred visitors convert 3-6x higher because they arrive pre-sold by the AI's endorsement.
Answer Engine Optimisation for UK Brands
AI Search Visibility
Get Cited Where Your Buyers Are Already Looking
810 million people use ChatGPT daily. Google AI Overviews now appear in 25%+ of searches. Your buyers are getting answers from AI before they ever visit your website — we make sure those answers include your brand.
⚡ Free AI visibility audit — see where your brand appears (and doesn’t) in AI answers
BOOK YOUR FREE AEO AUDIT
What Is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)?
Answer engine optimisation is the practice of structuring your website content, technical markup and brand signals so that AI-powered search platforms — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Claude — cite your brand when answering user queries. Unlike traditional SEO, which targets page rankings in a list of blue links, AEO targets direct citation within AI-generated responses.
The shift is structural, not cosmetic. Around 93% of AI search sessions now end without a website click (Semrush, 2025). Yet AI-referred visitors who do click through convert at 4.4 times the rate of standard organic traffic. This means fewer visits but dramatically higher-quality ones — if your brand is the one being cited.
AEO sits alongside traditional SEO, not in place of it. You need both: SEO for the 75% of searches that still return traditional results, and AEO for the 25% — and growing — that trigger AI-generated answers. At Whitehat, we build both into a single integrated strategy connected to your HubSpot CRM, so you can attribute AI-sourced leads to pipeline and revenue.
Why Your Brand Needs AEO in 2026
AI search is no longer experimental. It is the primary research channel for a growing proportion of your buyers. The data makes the case clearly:
AI Overviews Are Everywhere
Google AI Overviews now appear in over 25% of all searches, up from 6.5% in January 2025 (Conductor, 2026). For informational queries, that figure is approaching 60–70%. Your existing rankings may still show — but they appear below the AI answer.
ChatGPT Is a Search Engine Now
ChatGPT processes 2 billion queries daily and has surpassed Bing in monthly visits (5.7 billion vs 2.2 billion). It drives 87% of all AI referral traffic to websites. Your B2B buyers are already using it to shortlist vendors.
Traditional CTR Is Falling
When AI Overviews appear, organic click-through rates drop by 61% — from 1.76% to 0.61% (Dataslayer, 2025). Gartner predicts traditional search volume will fall 25% by the end of 2026. The brands that get cited in AI answers capture the traffic that remains.
The GEO/AEO market was valued at $848 million in 2025 and is projected to reach $33.7 billion by 2034 — a 50.5% compound annual growth rate (Dimension Market Research). This is not a niche trend. It is the next major shift in how businesses generate demand online.
AEO vs SEO: What’s the Difference?
Answer engine optimisation and search engine optimisation target different surfaces of the same buyer journey. SEO positions your pages in ranked results. AEO positions your brand inside AI-generated answers. You need both — here is how they differ:
| Factor | Traditional SEO | Answer Engine Optimisation |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank in top 10 blue links | Get cited in AI-generated answers |
| Platforms | Google, Bing organic results | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Claude, Gemini |
| Content format | Long-form pages optimised for keywords | Structured answers, entity-rich content, direct definitions |
| Technical signals | Backlinks, page speed, crawlability | Schema markup, entity associations, citation patterns, brand mentions |
| Measurement | Rankings, traffic, conversions | AI citation rate, brand mention frequency, AI referral traffic, conversion quality |
| Conversion quality | Standard organic conversion rate | 4.4× higher conversion rate (Semrush, 2025) |
| Timeline | 3–6 months to meaningful results | 4–12 weeks for initial citation gains; compounding over 6+ months |
Whitehat delivers both through a single integrated programme. Our SEO services protect your traditional rankings while AEO builds your presence in AI search — and both feed into one HubSpot CRM for closed-loop attribution.
What Makes AI Engines Cite Your Brand
AI answer engines do not rank pages. They synthesise answers from multiple sources and cite the brands that meet specific trust and clarity signals. Research from SE Ranking (2.3 million pages analysed) and multiple platform studies reveals the key citation drivers:
Domain Authority & Traffic
Domain traffic is the number-one predictor of AI citations (SHAP value 0.63). High-traffic sites earn 3× more citations than low-traffic ones. This means SEO and AEO reinforce each other — stronger organic performance feeds stronger AI visibility.
Content Structure & Freshness
Content with statistics and citations achieves 30–40% higher AI visibility. Pages updated within two months earn 28% more citations. And 44% of all LLM citations come from the first 30% of text — so opening paragraphs must deliver direct, citable answers.
Brand Mentions & Entity Signals
Branded web mentions have the strongest correlation (0.664) with AI Overview appearances — higher than backlinks (0.218). Schema markup, consistent entity data, and third-party mentions all strengthen your brand’s entity profile in AI knowledge graphs.
Whitehat AEO Services
Our answer engine optimisation programme is built for UK B2B companies that need measurable results, not theory. Every element connects to your HubSpot CRM so you can track AI-sourced leads from first touch to closed deal.
AI Visibility Audit
We query ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews for your target terms and map where your brand appears, where competitors appear, and where nobody appears yet. This audit becomes your AEO baseline.
Content Restructuring
We restructure your existing content for AI extraction — adding direct-answer opening paragraphs, definition blocks, structured data, and entity-rich sections that LLMs can parse and cite. No content wasted; every page earns its place.
Schema & Entity Markup
Comprehensive JSON-LD schema deployment across your site — Organisation, Service, FAQ, HowTo, Article, and BreadcrumbList types. This gives AI engines structured, machine-readable data about your brand, services and expertise.
Brand Entity Building
Systematic brand mention campaigns across high-authority platforms, industry directories, and editorial publications. We build the off-site signals that AI models use to validate your brand as a trusted source worth citing.
AI-First Content Creation
New content engineered for AI citation from day one. Definitive guides, comparison pieces, and data-driven resources structured with direct answers, quoted statistics, and source attribution — the exact signals AI engines use to select citations.
Measurement & Attribution
AI referral tracking via HubSpot CRM, Google Analytics 4, and dedicated AI search monitoring tools. We report on citation frequency, AI referral traffic, lead quality by source, and pipeline attributed to AI channels — not vanity metrics.
How Our AEO Programme Works
A structured four-phase programme designed to build measurable AI visibility within 90 days:
AI Visibility Audit (Weeks 1–2)
We map your current visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot and Gemini. We identify which competitor brands are being cited for your target queries, where gaps exist, and which queries have no authoritative answer yet — your biggest opportunities.
Technical Foundation (Weeks 2–4)
Schema markup deployment, entity consolidation, content restructuring for AI extraction, and HubSpot tracking setup. This phase builds the technical infrastructure AI engines need to read, understand and cite your content.
Content & Authority Building (Weeks 4–8)
AI-first content creation, brand mention campaigns, and strategic placement across platforms where AI models source citations. We target the queries your audit identified as highest-opportunity and build content specifically engineered for citation.
Monitor, Optimise & Scale (Ongoing)
Monthly citation tracking across all AI platforms, content freshness updates (pages updated within 2 months earn 28% more citations), and expansion into new query clusters. We report results through HubSpot dashboards showing AI-attributed leads and pipeline.
What You’ll Achieve with Whitehat AEO
Brands cited in AI answers see measurably different commercial outcomes:
These are not projections. They are measured outcomes from platform research across millions of queries. The question is not whether AI search matters — it is whether your brand will be the one that gets cited.
AEO + SEO + HubSpot: One Integrated Strategy
Most agencies treat AEO as a standalone experiment. At Whitehat, it is part of a unified inbound programme where every channel — organic search, AI search, and PPC — feeds into one CRM and one reporting dashboard.
As a HubSpot Diamond Partner, we configure AI referral source tracking in HubSpot so you can see exactly which leads came from ChatGPT, Perplexity or AI Overviews — and follow them through to closed revenue. No guesswork. No vanity metrics. Just pipeline attribution.
This integration matters because domain authority — the single strongest predictor of AI citations — is built through SEO. And the leads that AI search generates need nurturing through HubSpot workflows. Disconnecting any channel weakens all of them. Our free website audit shows you exactly where these connections are missing.
AEO Investment
Transparent pricing. No long-term lock-in. Unlike US-focused agencies charging £10,000+/month, Whitehat delivers UK-market expertise at price points that make commercial sense for growth-stage B2B companies.
| Programme | Monthly Fee | Best For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Done-With-You | From £1,967 + VAT | Teams with in-house content capacity | AI visibility audit, strategy, schema deployment, monthly tracking, content briefs for your team to execute |
| Done-For-You | From £2,967 + VAT | Companies wanting full-service AEO delivery | Everything in Done-With-You plus content creation, brand entity building, ongoing optimisation, and HubSpot attribution setup |
| Content Add-On | £90–£250 per piece | Additional AI-optimised content at volume | AEO-structured articles, guides, and comparison content. Volume discounts: 5+ pieces at £150, 10+ at £90 |
All prices exclude VAT. Minimum commitment: 3 months (results compound over time). For a complete view of all our service pricing, see our pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is answer engine optimisation?
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your website content, technical markup and brand signals so that AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity cite your brand when answering user queries. It complements traditional SEO by targeting AI-generated answers rather than ranked search results.
Is AEO replacing SEO?
No. AEO and SEO work together. Around 75% of searches still return traditional results, and domain authority — built through SEO — is the strongest predictor of AI citations. You need both. Whitehat delivers them as a single integrated programme rather than two separate services.
How quickly will I see results from AEO?
Initial citation gains typically appear within 4–8 weeks as schema markup, content restructuring and entity signals take effect. Meaningful AI referral traffic builds over 3–6 months as content authority compounds. We track progress through monthly AI visibility reports.
How do you measure AEO success?
We track four categories: AI citation rate (how often your brand is mentioned in AI answers), AI referral traffic (visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.), lead quality (conversion rate and pipeline value from AI-sourced leads in HubSpot), and competitive share of voice in AI answers.
Which AI platforms do you optimise for?
We optimise across ChatGPT (including ChatGPT Search), Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and Gemini. Each platform has different citation patterns — the same brand can see citation rates vary by 46× across platforms — so multi-platform coverage is essential.
Do I need HubSpot to use your AEO services?
HubSpot is not required, but it significantly enhances AEO measurement. As a HubSpot Diamond Partner, we can configure AI referral source tracking that connects citations to pipeline and revenue. Without CRM integration, you can still benefit from AEO but attribution becomes harder to prove.
How much does AEO cost?
Our Done-With-You programme starts at £1,967/month + VAT. The Done-For-You programme, including content creation and full implementation, starts at £2,967/month + VAT. Additional content pieces are available from £90–£250 each with volume discounts. Minimum commitment is 3 months.
What makes Whitehat different from other AEO agencies?
Three things: HubSpot integration (we connect AI citations to actual pipeline revenue), UK B2B specialisation (not a US-first agency), and transparent pricing at price points that work for growth-stage companies. We’ve been optimising for AI search since before the term AEO existed — it’s not a bolt-on to our SEO service.
Find Out If AI Engines Are Citing Your Competitors Instead of You
Our free AI visibility audit queries ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews for your target terms and shows you exactly where you stand. In 30 minutes, you’ll know whether your brand is being cited — or ignored.
Book Your Free AI Visibility AuditNo obligation. No hard sell. Just clarity on your AI search position.