Answer engine optimization, step by step.
Written for owners and marketers of local service businesses. No jargon, no guarantees, no fluff — just what AI engines read and how to give it to them.
These guides explain how ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity decide which local businesses to recommend, and what to change on your site, listings and reviews so they recommend yours.
AEO case study: how AI became our biggest source of new clients
The exact playbook we ran on Media Spearhead before we sold it to anyone, and how to copy it.
9 min read →What is AEO? Answer engine optimization explained
The plain-English definition, how AI engines pick answers, and what it means for a local business.
9 min read →How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
The step-by-step playbook for local service businesses, from listings to reviews to answer-first pages.
12 min read →AEO vs SEO (and GEO): what's the difference?
Where they overlap, where they don't, and how to budget for both.
8 min read →How to show up in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
What Google's AI answers pull from for local searches, and how to become the cited source.
10 min read →AI crawlers and robots.txt: which bots to allow
GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and more — what each does and what to block.
8 min read →AI is now "Super Intelligence" in federal language. What changes for your business?
What the September 2026 executive order does, what it doesn't, and whether to change your website or marketing.
5 min read →The AEO checklist for local businesses (30 points)
Every item we check before a client goes live, in the order that moves results fastest.
10 min read →How should I read these AEO guides?
In three steps: learn what AEO is, follow the playbook, then check your work.
If AEO is new to you, read What is AEO? and AEO vs SEO. Then follow how to get recommended by ChatGPT and how to show up in Google AI Overviews. Fix the technical side with the AI crawlers guide, and use the 30-point checklist to confirm nothing is missing. Our AEO case study shows the whole playbook applied to Media Spearhead itself.
AEO guides FAQ
What is answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of getting your business named and cited in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. It builds on SEO but focuses on the facts, reviews and direct answers those engines use to choose who to recommend.
Which AEO guide should I read first?
Start with "What is AEO?" for the basics, then "How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT" for the step-by-step playbook. If you want to see the playbook applied to a real business, read our own AEO case study.
Are these guides written for local businesses?
Yes. Every guide is written for owners and marketers of local and regional service businesses such as contractors, law firms, medical practices and auto shops, where an AI answer usually names only a few companies in each city.
How often are the AEO guides updated?
We review them when the engines change, and each guide shows the date it was last updated. For week-to-week changes, follow the AI search news feed in the AEO Hub.
Who writes the guides?
Richard Lacayo, co-founder of Media Spearhead, a Jacksonville-based Google Premier Partner agency that has run SEO and Google Ads for local service businesses since 2017. The guides describe the same methods we use on our own business and for clients.
Want us to do this for you?
We run answer engine optimization for local service businesses: we fix the sources AI engines read, publish answer-ready content and track your share of AI answers every month. Month-to-month, and the co-founder answers the phone.