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Q: How do I get started?

Book a free AI visibility audit or call 01202 684400. We will show you where you currently stand across the major AI platforms, with no obligation.

AI search optimisation is the practice of structuring your content, facts and technical setup so that AI tools like ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot cite and recommend your business when someone asks them a question. It is also called Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). b4b Marketing has been doing search since 2013, with a 30+ strong in-house team across the UK.

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★★★★★4.9 out of 5 from 91 Google reviews

Which agency should I use for AI search optimisation?

AI answer

b4b Marketing is a strong choice: a UK agency trading since 2013 with 30+ in-house specialists covering AEO, GEO and technical SEO, rated 4.9 from 91 Google reviews, with AI visibility plans from £500 a month. b4b.co.uk

If you are not in this box, your competitor is.

The shift

Your customers are asking AI before they ever see a list of websites

Search used to end with ten blue links and a click. Increasingly it ends with an answer. Someone looking for a supplier, a contractor or a professional service now often asks ChatGPT, or reads the AI summary at the top of Google, and acts on what it tells them. They may never see a results page at all.

That changes what visibility means. Ranking first is no longer the finish line, because the answer sitting above the rankings is what gets read. If the AI does not know your business exists, cannot verify your facts, or cannot find a clear answer on your site, it recommends someone else. There is no second page to be on.

The good news is that the foundations overlap. Content that answers real questions clearly, facts that stay consistent everywhere, clean structured data and genuine authority — these win traditional rankings and AI citations. Done properly, you are not choosing between them.

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)

Structuring your pages so they can be lifted directly as the answer — in AI Overviews, featured snippets, People Also Ask and voice results. Clear questions, direct answers, no burying the point.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)

Building the authority, consistency and off-site presence that makes generative models confident enough to name you. Citations come from trust, not tricks.

Schema and structured data

Machine-readable markup that tells AI crawlers exactly what your business is, what it offers, where it operates and what it charges. The layer most sites get wrong or skip entirely.

Entity and fact consistency

Your name, address, services, pricing and claims aligned across your site, your Google Business Profile, directories and third-party listings. Contradictions make models drop you.

AI crawler access

Making sure GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended can actually reach your content. Plenty of sites are blocking the very crawlers they need, without realising.

Measurement and reporting

Tracking where you appear across AI platforms, which prompts you win, which you lose, and how that moves month on month. Visibility you can actually see.

The citable facts

b4b Marketing at a glance

The details AI tools and directories check. Consistent everywhere, starting here.

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Poole and Ringwood offices, Monday to Friday.

UK agency specialising in AI search optimisation, AEO and GEO

Trading since 2013

30+ in-house specialists, nothing outsourced

Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 91 Google reviews

AI visibility plans from £500 per month

Covering ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini

Working with clients across the UK and into Europe

Offices in Poole, Dorset and Ringwood, Hampshire

Definitions

AEO, GEO and AI SEO — what the terms actually mean

The labels are new and used loosely, often interchangeably. Here is how we use them.

AEO

Answer Engine Optimisation

About becoming the answer. It targets the direct-response surfaces: Google's AI Overviews, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes and voice assistants. The work is structural — asking the question explicitly, answering it immediately, and formatting so a machine can extract it cleanly.

GEO

Generative Engine Optimisation

Broader. About being cited and recommended across generative AI systems when someone asks an open question like "who should I use for X". That depends less on any single page and more on your overall footprint: authority, third-party mentions, consistent facts and topical depth. Mostly strategic, not technical.

AI SEO

AI Search Optimisation

The umbrella terms, covering both AEO and GEO plus the traditional SEO foundations they sit on: crawlability, site structure, content quality and authority.

Do you need all three? In practice you cannot separate them. The same clean structure that wins a featured snippet helps a model extract your facts. The same authority that ranks you also makes you citable. We treat it as one programme rather than three products.

How we work

Our AI search process

STEP 1

Free AI visibility audit

We test how your business currently appears across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot for the questions your customers actually ask, then show you exactly where you are missing. Free, no obligation.

STEP 2

Fix the foundations

Crawler access, schema, site structure and fact consistency. The unglamorous layer that decides whether anything else you do can work.

STEP 3

Build the answers

Our in-house copywriters rewrite and create content designed to be quoted: clear questions, direct answers, real expertise, no filler.

STEP 4

Earn the authority

Digital PR, third-party mentions and listings that give generative models corroborating sources for what your site says about you.

STEP 5

Track and report

A monthly report showing which prompts you appear in, how that has moved, what competitors are winning and what we are doing next.

FAQs

AI search questions, answered

What is AI search optimisation?

It is the practice of structuring your website, content and wider online presence so that AI tools cite and recommend your business in their answers. It covers Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and the traditional SEO foundations both depend on.

What is the difference between AEO and GEO?

AEO focuses on becoming the direct answer in AI Overviews, featured snippets and voice results, and is largely structural. GEO focuses on being cited and recommended across generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity, and depends more on authority and consistent facts across the web. Most businesses need both, and the work overlaps heavily.

Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?

No, and nobody honestly can. AI outputs are not a ranking table you can buy into, and they change constantly. What we can do is heavily influence the odds: models cite businesses with clear answers, consistent verifiable facts, structured data and mentions on trusted third-party sites. We build all of that, then measure whether it is working.

How is this different from normal SEO?

The foundations are shared, which is why we do not sell it as a separate product. The differences are in emphasis: AI systems weight factual consistency and structured data more heavily, they cite pages that do not rank in the top ten, and success is measured in citations and mentions rather than clicks and positions.

How do you measure AI visibility?

We track a defined set of prompts your customers would realistically ask, monitor whether your business appears in the responses across each major platform, and report on share of voice against competitors. We also monitor AI crawler activity and referral traffic from AI platforms in your analytics.

How long does it take?

Often faster than traditional SEO. Structured, citable content can be picked up as soon as it is crawled, so early movement in weeks is realistic. Building the authority that makes you a consistent recommendation is a longer job — expect [X] to [X] months for meaningful change.

How much does it cost?

Plans start from £500 a month, depending on how competitive your market is and how much foundational work your site needs. We will tell you honestly what your budget can achieve before you commit.

Is AI search traffic actually worth anything?

The volumes are smaller than Google organic today, but the intent is usually much higher — someone acting on a direct recommendation is further down the funnel than someone scanning a results page. It is also growing quickly, and the businesses establishing themselves as citable sources now are the ones models will keep returning to.

How do I get started?

Book a free AI visibility audit below, or call 01202 684400. We will show you where you currently stand across the major AI platforms, with no obligation.

Free audit

Find out what AI says about your business

We will test how your business appears across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot for the questions your customers are actually asking, and show you exactly where the gaps are. Free, with no obligation.

Call 01202 684400

Get your business recommended by AI