AEO agency
AEO agency for citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews
Your buyers now ask an AI which vendors to consider. Being unranked is a problem. Being uncited is invisibility.
The short answer
Momentence is an AEO agency. Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of getting your content cited inside AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. We handle the content structure, entity graph, and citation tracking that make a software company quotable, and we run it alongside SEO rather than as a separate product.
- AEO optimizes for citation inside an AI answer; SEO optimizes for a ranking. You need both
- Deliverables include answer-first restructuring, AI crawler access, structured data, and a fixed prompt set we observe and report
- Citation share across your category prompts is a reported metric, tracked month over month
Free original research
AI Discovery Technical Hygiene Benchmark 2026
We crawled 160 live software sites across 10 technical hygiene signals. Median score is 7/10, 52% serve a real llms.txt, and 38% publish no JSON-LD at all. Read the findings, or drop your email and take the raw dataset.
Fielded 2026-08-09. Free to cite and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link.
What answer engine optimization actually is
Answer engine optimization is the discipline of structuring your content, entity data, and third-party presence so that large language models cite you when they answer questions in your category. It overlaps heavily with SEO, but the unit of success is a citation, not a position.
The same work is sometimes called LLM SEO or generative engine optimization. The naming is unsettled; the mechanics are not.
- Answer-first content structure: a definitional lead sentence every model can lift cleanly
- Entity graph and structured data so models can resolve who you are and what you do
- AI crawler access and indexable server-rendered pages so AI systems can actually read the site
- Third-party presence, since models weight sources they already trust
- Prompt-level citation tracking across the major engines
Why AEO is a real channel, not a trend label
Software buyers have shifted a meaningful share of early research into AI assistants. That research happens before any click, which means it happens before analytics can see it. The shortlist is formed off-platform and arrives at your site as branded traffic that looks like it came from nowhere.
The practical consequence: you can be losing deals in a surface you are not measuring. AEO makes that surface visible and then contestable.
How we measure it honestly
We run a fixed set of category prompts against ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews on a repeating schedule and track whether you are cited, how you are described, and who is cited alongside you.
That measurement is directional, not deterministic. Model outputs vary between runs. We report the trend across a stable prompt set rather than pretending a single query is a ranking.
AEO does not replace SEO
Models cite pages that exist, are crawlable, and are corroborated elsewhere. Almost everything that makes a page citable also makes it rankable. Running AEO without SEO means building citations on a foundation that search cannot support.
This is why we run one program. Our detailed comparison of AEO and SEO covers the mechanics in depth.
Pricing, in public
Every engagement is published pricing on a 6-month minimum: Ignite at $7.5K/mo plus a one-time $4,500 implementation fee, Momentum at $15K/mo, Category Leadership at $30K/mo, and Custom starting at $50K/mo for a fractional multidisciplinary pod. You will know what this costs before you ever get on a call.
Self-qualify
Is this the right engagement for you?
A partner only helps if the problem lines up. Read both columns honestly.
This is for you if
- Your buyers research through AI assistants before they contact vendors
- You already rank reasonably and want the next surface
- You are in a category where AI answers name specific vendors
- You want citation tracking reported, not asserted
This isn't for you if
- You want a guaranteed position inside an AI answer, which nobody can sell honestly
- Your site is not crawlable and you are not willing to fix that
- You want AEO as a standalone product with no SEO underneath it
- You expect results without publishing anything new
The system
What we actually operate.
Eight stages between market demand and qualified pipeline. Step through each one to see what it produces and how it is measured.
Stage 01
Growth strategy and prioritization
One roadmap decides what gets built, published, and funded next, and what waits.
Pricing
Published rates, 6-month minimum.
You know the number before the first call.
Ignite
Pre-Series A software companies under ~$3M ARR
6-month minimum
Plus $4,500 one-time implementation fee
A modern site and a working search foundation that starts producing qualified traffic.
- AI-powered marketing site, up to 50 core pages
- Technical and on-page SEO foundation
- AEO and GEO foundation with 5 observed prompts
- 4 net-new SEO pages every month
- Analytics, conversion tracking, and a monthly report
Momentum
$3M-$15M ARR software companies scaling pipeline
6-month minimum
Plus Media budget from $15K per month, billed directly to you
Inbound pipeline compounding month over month from search, content, and paid together.
- Everything in Ignite
- 12 SEO pages per month across intent clusters
- AEO and GEO programs with 20 observed prompts
- Paid media on up to 2 channels, creative and landing pages included
- Quarterly CRO experiments and a live dashboard
Category Leadership
$15M+ ARR software companies going after category leadership
6-month minimum
Plus Media budget from $15K per month, billed directly to you
Becoming the default answer in your category across search, AI assistants, and paid.
- Everything in Momentum
- Programmatic SEO page systems for long-tail intent
- 20+ net-new content pieces per month
- Advanced AEO and GEO with 50+ observed prompts
- Paid media on up to 4 channels with a creative studio
Custom
Multi-product, multi-brand, or multi-geo software companies
Custom term
One connected growth system running across multiple products, brands, or markets.
- Everything in Category Leadership, scaled to your surface area
- Multi-language and multi-region SEO, AEO, and GEO
- Multi-brand content, paid, and entity graph programs
- Fractional pod across every discipline, allocated per SOW
- Warehouse and BI integration with executive reporting
FAQ
Common questions.
An agency that optimizes your content, structured data, and third-party presence so AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews cite you when answering questions in your category.
No. AEO is the on-site work that earns a citation when a model answers a specific question. GEO (generative engine optimization) is the mostly off-site work that shapes how models describe your brand and whether you appear in generated shortlists at all, cited or not. We run both, and you can read the full boundary in our GEO vs AEO guide.
No, and neither can anyone else. Model outputs are non-deterministic and change between runs and versions. What we can do is track citation share across a stable prompt set and improve it month over month.
First citations on tuned pages typically appear within 90 days. Consistent citation share across a category prompt set takes longer, generally 6 to 12 months.
Usually not. AEO is mostly content structure, entity schema, and crawler access, which is stack-flexible. If your site blocks AI crawlers or renders content client-side only, that gets fixed first.
Keep reading
Related pages.
Want an honest read on whether we can help?
Thirty minutes, no pitch deck. We will tell you which tier fits, what the first 90 days look like, and whether you are better served elsewhere.