Find the problems
AEO Audit
$750
What search engines and AI assistants currently say about the business, and what to fix first.
- Where the information is inconsistent
- An ordered list of what to fix, and why
- What is already fine, stated plainly
Answer Engine Optimization
Making a business’s information clear, consistent and easy for search and AI systems to understand, extract and quote correctly.
Recent work
What it is
Understood correctly by search and AI
Answer Engine Optimization is the work of making a business’s information clear enough, consistent enough and structured enough that search engines and AI assistants can understand it, pull the right facts out of it and repeat them accurately.
That is the entire idea. It is not a second ranking system sitting behind the first one, and it is not a set of hidden files or tags that persuade an AI model to prefer you.
Read more
Google is unusually direct about this. Its own guidance for site owners says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimizations necessary. In May 2026 Google went further and said in writing that optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and is therefore still SEO.
Kreated agrees with that, and says so on the page that sells the service. What is real is narrower and less exciting than the marketing around it: most business websites are genuinely hard to read, hard to verify and inconsistent with the business’s own listings. That is fixable work, it helps people as much as machines, and it is what this service actually covers.
How an answer gets built
One version of the facts
The facts exist, but they often live in different words on the website, the profile and every directory.
Two pieces of work
An audit, then the fix
Sold separately so the first can be bought without committing to the second.
Fix them
AEO Foundation
$1,250–$1,750
The audit implemented, priced on the scope it actually found.
- Answer-first structure where needed
- Consistency across the sources
- A re-check afterward
How it runs
Audit, fix, re-check
Typical timeline: 1–2 weeks for the audit and the foundation
- UnderstandAuditHow the business currently reads to the systems that answer questions about it.
- DecideOrdered fixesWhat to fix first, with the reason each one matters.
- BuildFoundationAnswer-first pages and consistent facts across the sources.
- VerifyRe-checkAfterward, so you can see what changed.
Each step sits inside one of the five in the Method.
Every project is scoped and priced in writing before it begins.
Compared
Local SEO, or AEO
They share prerequisites and they are usually done in that order.
| Local SEO | Answer Engine Optimization | |
|---|---|---|
| Competes for | Visibility in a place | Being understood correctly |
| Prerequisites | The same foundations | The same foundations |
| Usually done | First | Once the foundation exists |
More on local SEO.
How it relates to SEO
Mostly SEO, with a different emphasis
Answer Engine Optimization and SEO overlap heavily. The prerequisites are identical, and a site that fails at SEO fundamentals will not be read correctly by an AI system either.
Read more
AI answers are drawn from the same index as ordinary search results. A page has to be crawlable, indexed and eligible to show a snippet before it can be quoted anywhere. Its important facts have to exist as real text rather than being locked inside an image or assembled by a script. And traditional search visibility still matters: independent analysis in 2026 found that roughly three quarters of the pages cited in Google’s AI Overviews were also ranking in the top ten conventional results.
So the honest sequence is that Local SEO and a well built website come first. This service assumes those foundations exist, or fixes them as part of the work.
A diagram, not a client
Answer buried
Do you cover Leland?
Yes. We cover Leland.
Answer firstextractable
Do you cover Leland?
Yes. We cover Leland.
What is genuinely different
A narrow set of things, separated by how well established they are.
Established.
These are documented by Google or follow directly from how the systems work.
Read more
- A page has to be crawlable, indexed and eligible for a snippet before it can be cited anywhere.
- Important facts have to exist in text. Anything trapped in an image, a PDF or a script is invisible to the systems doing the reading.
- Structured data helps a machine understand what a page genuinely says. It is one supporting layer. It does not make thin content credible, and there is no special markup for AI features.
- For a local business, a complete and accurate Google Business Profile is named by Google itself as improving visibility in AI responses. That work is its own service.
Emerging.
These are supported by current measurement rather than by documentation, and the picture is still moving.
- Answers placed directly under the question they answer appear to be easier to extract than answers buried several paragraphs down. One 2026 analysis found a majority of sampled AI Overview citations came from the first third of the cited page.
- Consistent naming of the business, its services and its service area across the site, the profile and other listings appears to help systems treat those mentions as the same organization.
- Different assistants behave differently. What one cites is not necessarily what another cites, and no single source dominates.
Anything beyond those two lists is speculation about systems nobody outside the companies running them can observe. It will not be sold here as fact.
Who it’s for
For a business with a foundation already built
This service assumes a foundation already exists.
Businesses with a working site whose information is scattered
The facts exist, but they live in different words on the website, the Google profile and every directory, so nothing reading them can be confident which version is true.Businesses that are described accurately by nobody, including themselves
Services described in language customers never use, a service area that is implied rather than stated, and no page that plainly answers what the business does.Businesses whose good answers are buried
The site does answer the real questions, but four paragraphs into a page about something else, where neither a reader in a hurry nor a machine will find it.Businesses being compared before anyone visits the site
Buyers increasingly read a summary before they read a website. What that summary can say is limited by what the business has made explicit.
How it is measured
Measured honestly: not very well yet
There is no equivalent of a rank tracker for AI answers, and anyone offering one is describing something the platforms do not currently publish.
Read more
Microsoft is the exception. Its Bing Webmaster Tools added an AI Performance report in February 2026 that shows how often pages were cited by Copilot and which queries prompted it. Microsoft states plainly that the data is a sample rather than complete activity, that it cannot be exported by API, and that it covers a rolling window of roughly ninety days. Google offers no comparable report.
So measurement here means a baseline where one exists, the ordinary search measurement that was always going to matter, and a clear account of what changed on the site. It does not mean a monthly number describing your position inside an AI assistant, because that number does not exist.
What this is not
No citation guarantees
The list matters more here than on any other service.
Not a guarantee of a citation in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or any other assistant.
No agency controls what those systems quote.- Not a guarantee of inclusion in Google AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- Not a ranking guarantee, and not a traffic guarantee.
Not a set of special files or markup that AI systems look for.
Google has said directly that no such thing is required.Not a replacement for Local SEO.
The prerequisites are the same, and this work sits on top of them.Not an ongoing monthly retainer of its own.
The recurring version is kept current in Local Growth and worked in depth in Market Expansion.Not paid placement.
Nothing here buys a mention anywhere.
New to the idea? What answer engine optimization is, and whether a local business needs it explains it without the sales case.
Questions
AEO, answered
The ones worth asking before buying this.
What is Answer Engine Optimization?
It is the work of making a business’s information clear, consistent and structured enough that search engines and AI assistants can understand it, extract the right facts and repeat them accurately. In practice that means explicit definitions, answers placed where they can be found, and the same facts everywhere the business appears.
Is AEO different from SEO?
Mostly not. The prerequisites are identical, and AI answers are drawn from the same index as ordinary results. Google published guidance in May 2026 saying that optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and is therefore still SEO.
What differs is emphasis. This work concentrates on clarity, consistency and extractability rather than on competing for a position, and it treats the Google profile and other listings as part of the same picture.
Is this just SEO with a new name?
Sold badly, yes, and a lot of it is. Google’s own search advocate has said the acronym itself signals scams, which is worth knowing before buying it from anyone.
What is defensible is the underlying work. Most small business sites genuinely fail at explicit definitions, consistent facts and findable answers, and that is real work with a real deliverable. It is sold here as two one-time projects rather than as a permanent retainer, because that is what it honestly is.
Can Kreated get my business cited by ChatGPT?
No. Nobody can promise that. What can be done is remove the reasons a system would get your business wrong or skip it: information that cannot be crawled, facts that only exist inside images, services described vaguely, and a website that disagrees with your own Google profile.
Can you guarantee inclusion in Google AI Overviews?
No, and Google does not offer a route to it. Its documentation states that there are no additional requirements and no special optimizations for appearing in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Eligibility comes from being indexed and being genuinely useful, which is the same thing ordinary search has always rewarded.
How is AEO measured?
Partially, and honestly not well yet. Bing Webmaster Tools reports how often Copilot cited your pages, on sampled data over about ninety days, with no export. Google publishes no equivalent. Everything else is ordinary search measurement plus a clear record of what changed on the site.
Do I need this if my SEO already works?
Possibly not, and that is worth checking before spending anything. If the site already ranks, states its facts plainly and agrees with the Google profile, most of this is already done. The audit exists to answer that question for $750 rather than assuming the answer is yes.
Is this included in a website project?
The structure is. A website built here launches with information laid out so it can be read and quoted correctly: real text, explicit services, a stated service area and answers placed where they can be found. That is a build standard, not an ongoing campaign, in the same way a site launches search ready rather than with an SEO program attached.
Is it included in the monthly programs?
Yes, at two depths: kept current in Local Growth, worked in depth in Market Expansion. Keeping answers current, adding them as new questions appear and holding facts consistent across the site and the profile is already what the monthly program does. That work is not charged for twice.