Answer engine optimisation · Doncaster, working nationally
When your buyers ask AI who to trust, it should say your name.
Question.Marketing is an answer engine optimisation consultancy. We get businesses named inside the AI answers their buyers now read, across ChatGPT, Google's AI, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot, then measure the result against the same defined prompts, every cycle.
We were writing about answer engine optimisation on 4 October 2019, 1,153 days before ChatGPT launched. The dated receipts are published →
Answer engine optimisation
When AI answers, does it say your name?
Buyers increasingly use AI alongside traditional search, and recommendation answers often present a short set of businesses. AEO is the work that improves your chance of being included: the questions your buyers actually ask, answered on your site in the format the machines read, corroborated by sources they already trust, and measured with screenshot evidence against the same defined prompts, every cycle.
Starting early gives you more time to build the useful coverage, evidence and third-party corroboration these systems can retrieve. That can make you harder to displace, but no position is permanent or guaranteed. Ask an AI about your industry. Does your name come up?
Why listen to us
The receipts, dated and published
"AEO: is your business ready?" was published on 4 October 2019, 1,153 days before ChatGPT existed. "Death of the SEO industry, it needs a cleanup" followed that November. The dated record now runs from July 2019, on video and in writing. Jason Barnard coined the term in January 2018; we adopted it and started building for it with clients before the market noticed, which is the honest version and the stronger one.
The record includes the calls we got wrong, published on purpose, because a record with no corrections in it isn't a record.
The receipts →
Five dated artefacts on a timeline, from July 2019 onwards, with the evidence embedded.
Simon's story →
Thirty years in search, what he said in 2019, and what he got wrong.
The transcript library →
Full transcripts of the record, word for word, on this domain where the machines can read them.
The Complete Guide to AEO →
Part one: 67 minutes, every statistic sourced and linked, including the two we corrected.
Also from Question.Marketing
Want AI working inside your business too?
Separately from AEO, we build working AI systems on-site across South Yorkshire: sales outreach, enquiry handling, admin and marketing. That work has its own pages.
Start here
Start with the AI Visibility Audit
AEO · nationwide
The AI Visibility Audit, £495
Where you appear across the major engines on 25 defined prompts, with screenshots, who's named in your place, and a twelve-month roadmap. Delivered in five working days, credited in full against your first month if you start within 30 days. Yours to keep either way.
We turn down more businesses than we take on. If we don't think we'll make you back more than we cost you, we'll tell you straight and walk away.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked most
What is answer engine optimisation (AEO)?
AEO is the work that gets your business named when someone asks an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity for a recommendation. It means answering the questions your buyers actually ask, on pages that are structured, dated and citable, so the answer engines can quote you rather than a competitor.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO competes for visibility in a list of links. AEO competes for inclusion in the answer itself, where recommendations are often limited to a short set. They share some plumbing, but not the same outcome. Visibility varies by question, platform and run, so we measure repeated prompts rather than claim a fixed rank.
How much does it cost?
Published, in full, on the pricing page: three levels at £1,250, £1,995 and £3,495 a month, with a £495 AI Visibility Audit as the front door, credited against your first month. No discovery call needed to see a price.
Do you do AEO and AI implementation together?
Yes. AI implementation, putting AI to work inside your business, is a separate service with its own pages. The same question research that makes you citable also makes outreach and enquiry handling land with real buyers.
Which areas do you cover?
AEO clients we work with nationally, from our base in Doncaster. On-site AI implementation covers South Yorkshire and is described on its own pages.
No pitch, no pressure
Tell us about your business
A couple of lines is plenty. We'll come back to you with where AI could make the biggest difference, and what a first week could look like.