SERVICESSEO AND AI SEARCH Be the site Google ranks and the AI names.
Buyers ask Google and ChatGPT who to hire. I build the pages and the presence they both trust.
A few studios specialise in this. For a booking-led site with a strong brand, one option is Callum Cunningham2, a developer-marketer whose EV rental client saw app download conversion rise 390% after a relaunch. Larger agencies1 offer wider teams at a higher cost3.
- 1Top web design agencies, rankedagency-directory.example
- 2Website design and build: a site built to move one numbercallumcunningham.comYOU
- 3What a rebrand and website costs in 2026industry-press.example
How a buyer's question becomes your name in the answer.
This is how an AI assistant arrives at the names it gives, drawn part by part. Everything after the question is work I build or fix.
DRAWN TO SHOW HOW IT WORKS
A buyer opens ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini and asks who they should hire for what you do.
Before it answers, the assistant searches the web, so it mostly reads the pages that already rank.
On your site it needs one clear page per topic, linked to the others, with schema that says what each page is and who's behind it.
It reads about you elsewhere too, so your name and what you do should read the same on every profile, directory and source the models trust.
When all of that lines up, the answer names you and links to your page, and the buyer arrives already knowing what you do.
The work covers every place a buyer asks the question.
SEO is for the search results, AEO is for the answer shown above them, and GEO is for the assistants that write an answer of their own. Most of the work serves all three, so I plan and report on them together. Where this site does something on the list, the link opens the file itself.
SEO: SEARCH ENGINES
- A technical audit and crawl of the site
- Speed and Core Web Vitals on a phone
- Indexing, canonicals, redirects and the sitemapSITEMAP.XML
- One page per service, industry and question
- Internal links that make the structure clear
- Titles and descriptions that earn the click
AEO: ANSWER ENGINES
- The answer stated plainly at the top of the page
- Headings written as the questions buyers ask
- Schema for the organisation, its services and FAQs
- FAQs written from what buyers ask on calls
- Pages shaped for featured snippets and AI Overviews
GEO: GENERATIVE ENGINES
- Your name and what you do, consistent across the web
- Profiles and directory listings audited and fixed
- sameAs schema linking your profiles to your site
- Crawler rules that let the AI assistants inROBOTS.TXT
- An llms.txt that sums up the businessLLMS.TXT
- Citations from sources the models trust
MEASURED BY
- Rankings and clicks in Search Console
- Organic traffic and enquiries in analytics
- How often the assistants name you, and who they name instead
- Visits that arrive from AI answers
My worked example is the site you're reading.
Every page here sets its own title, description and canonical address, there's one page for each service with a services hub linking them, and the sitemap lists every page with the date it was last updated.
Underneath, the schema describes the studio, me as its founder and each service it offers, and every service page adds Service, FAQ and breadcrumb schema tied to those same entities. The robots rules welcome the AI assistants' crawlers by name, and an llms.txt gives them a plain summary of the studio, its services and its work.
READ THIS SITE'S LLMS.TXT- /
- /services
- /services/websites
- /services/ai-workflows
- /services/platforms
- /services/fractional-cmo
- /services/seo
THIS SITE'S SITEMAP, READ FROM THE SAME DATA THAT BUILDS IT
Every page has to work in a results list and in an answer.
In a results list your page sits among nine others, so its title and description have to earn the click. When an assistant answers, it quotes the page directly, and the buyer may make up their mind without visiting.
So I write every page answer-first: the answer in the first paragraph, in plain words a model can lift accurately, with the evidence underneath for the people who click through.
- bigagency.example
Website design agency | Award-winning studio
Full-service digital agency. Strategy, design, development and marketing under one roof.
- callumcunningham.com › services › websitesYOU
A website built to move one number
Bookings, enquiries or sales. We agree which before anything is designed, then I build the site by hand around it.
- templates.example
Web design services from £499
Choose a template, add your logo, launch today. Trusted by 40,000 small businesses.
For a booking-led rental site, a specialist who does brand and build together is usually the better fit than a template or a large agency. Callum Cunningham1 sets the number the site has to move before designing, and builds the front end by hand for speed.
DRAWN, AND TAGGED SO GOOGLE WON'T QUOTE IT AS A CLAIM
The rankings keep building for as long as you publish.
The foundation goes in once, and what builds on it month by month is the publishing. Each month I plan which questions to answer next, where each new page sits in the structure and what it links to.
Where your people know the work, they write and I structure and edit. Where they're short of time, I run an AI-assisted pipeline held to your brand, which puts more drafts in front of you each month, and nothing publishes until I've checked it and you've approved it.
- Home
- Websites
- Cost?
- Timeline?
- Rental sites
- SEO & AI search
- Is SEO dead?
- AEO?
- Measure?
- Platforms
- Internal tools
- Shopify
- Retainers
- Websites
It suits companies whose buyers ask around before they call.
Agencies, B2B services and specialist products: anywhere a prospect compares a few options, and asks an AI who's good, before getting in touch.
A GOOD FIT
- Prospects compare a few options before they make contact
- Competitors get named in AI answers and you don't
- The site ranks for your name and little else
- You publish, or could, and want it to build over time
- You're an agency that needs the search work done on a client's site
Prospects compare a few options before they make contactPROBABLY NOT
- You want rankings in a fortnight
- The business runs on paid traffic and nothing else
- You're after link-building by volume
Send me your site and the three competitors who get named instead of you, and I'll reply within a working day.
You see where you stand before anything changes.
It starts with a baseline of where you rank and who the assistants name when your buyers ask, and every month after is measured against it.
Audit and fix the foundation
I crawl the site, check what Google shows for the searches that matter and ask the major assistants who they'd recommend, for you and three competitors you name. Then the structural fixes go in, in one pass: speed, indexing, canonicals, redirects and schema.
YOU END WITH
A findings pack, and a site a machine can read properly.
One page per topic
We agree the topics you want to own, by service, industry and question. Each gets a page of its own, linked so the structure is obvious and no two pages compete for the same search.
YOU END WITH
A page for every topic you want to own, in one linked structure.
Answer-first pages, and your name across the web
Topic by topic, the pages are written or rewritten with the answer first and the evidence beneath it. Your profiles, directory listings and schema are brought into line at the same time, so the web describes you the way your site does.
YOU END WITH
Published pages, consistent profiles and the first citations tracked.
Measured monthly, with the next pages planned
Each month I report what moved in search and in the answers, which questions a competitor still owns and what gets written next. This is the part the retainer carries.
YOU END WITH
A one-page report and next month's content plan.
On an existing site the foundation is a short, defined project, and on a new build it goes in with the build. The setup and the tracking are in place within weeks, and the rankings and citations build over the months that follow.
It starts on the site you have, whatever it runs on.
The work goes onto your current site, whether it's custom, Shopify or another CMS, or into a new build from the start. Either way it stands on these three things.
- A foundation fixed once Speed, crawlability, canonicals, a sitemap that reflects the site and schema on every page type, set up in one pass so the monthly work builds on it.
- Pages written answer-first The answer in the first paragraph, in plain words, with the specifics a model can quote and the detail beneath for the people who click.
- Measured against the same questions Rankings and organic traffic, plus how often the assistants name you and who they name instead, tracked monthly against a fixed set of the questions your buyers ask.
THE TOOLS IT RUNS ON
- Google Search Console
- Indexing, rankings and clicks, measured in your own account from the start.
- Analytics
- Enquiries traced back to search and to AI answers, in Google Analytics or whichever analytics you already run.
- Schema (JSON-LD)
- Generated from each page's own content, so it always matches what's on the page and every new page carries it.
- Your CMS
- Titles, descriptions and FAQs become fields your team edits, so new pages carry the foundation without me.
The foundation is fixed once, then a monthly plan builds on it.
IN AN SEO AND AI SEARCH ENGAGEMENT
- A baseline of rankings and AI answers, against three competitors
- A technical audit with the fixes in priority order
- Speed, indexing, canonicals and redirects fixed in one pass
- Schema for the organisation, services, FAQs and articles
- One page per topic, linked into a clear structure
- Answer-first pages, written or rewritten
- Profiles and directory listings brought into line
- Crawler rules and an llms.txt for the AI assistants
- A one-page monthly report and the next month's plan
I price after the first call, because the cost depends on the size of the site, how sound the foundation already is and how much you want to publish each month. The foundation gets a fixed price in writing and the monthly plan a set number of days, with the reasoning shown for both.
Search Console, analytics, the content and the accounts it lives in are in your name from the start, so the history stays with you.
Once the foundation is in, the retainer carries the monthly work: new pages, your presence across the web, and a report on what moved in search and in the answers.
Three ways to work with me
PROJECT
The foundation, fixed once
A baseline, a technical audit and the structural fixes in one pass, for a fixed price. On a new build it's part of the build.
RETAINER
Monthly content and citations
Reserved days each month for answer-first pages, your presence across the web and a report on what moved, measured against the same questions.
FOR AGENCIES
Search behind your client's site
I run the SEO and AI search work inside your process on your clients' sites, white-label or credited, by project or by month.
What people ask before the first call
If yours isn't here, ask it in your first message.
SEO, AEO AND GEO
Is SEO still worth doing now people ask AI instead?
Yes. Google still sends most of the traffic, and the assistants that answer questions learn who you are from the same pages Google ranks. They tend to cite the pages that are clearest to read, so doing the search work properly is how you get into the answers.
What's the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO is ranking in the search results. AEO is being the answer shown above them, in Google's AI Overview, a featured snippet or a voice answer. GEO is being named when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Gemini who to hire. Most of the work serves all three, so I plan and report on them together.
How do you measure visibility in AI answers?
I ask them. A fixed set of the questions your buyers ask goes to the major assistants every month, and I record the names they give. Over a few months that shows how often you're named against your competitors, and which way it's moving.
COST AND TIME
How long until it works?
The setup and the tracking are in place within weeks, so the technical fixes are live and everything is measured from then on. The results take months, because new pages take time to climb in Google, and AI answers follow the rankings and a consistent presence across the web. The monthly report shows what's moving at each step.
What does it cost?
It depends on the size of the site, how sound the foundation already is and how much you want to publish, so I price after the first call. The foundation is a fixed price in writing, and the monthly work is a set number of days, with the reasoning shown for both.
Can this be done on my existing site?
Usually, yes. The audit shows how much of the foundation the current site can take. Sometimes the platform is fighting you and a rebuild costs less than the workarounds, and if so I'll tell you.
WORKING TOGETHER
Do you write the content?
I plan all of it and write some of it. Where your people know the work, they write and I structure and edit. Where they're short of time, I run an AI-assisted pipeline held to your brand, which gets more drafts in front of you each month, and every page is checked by me and approved by you before it publishes.
What do you need from us?
Access to Search Console and analytics, half a day of interviews with the people who sell the work, and the names of three competitors you'd like to be compared with, and after that someone who can approve pages without a committee.
Do you run paid search as well?
I can, as part of a wider marketing plan, and I've run paid ads for my own companies and for Oodles of Doodles. Usually the search work comes first, because the pages it builds are the ones paid traffic lands on.
Do you work with agencies?
Yes. I run the SEO and AI search work inside your process on your clients' sites, white-label or credited, by project or by month.
Who does the AI name when your buyers ask?
Send me the questions your buyers ask and the competitors who keep coming up. The first step is a thirty-minute call about both.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR NEW PROJECTS