Answer-Engine Optimization (AEO) is the art of making sure a brand’s content is the source that large-language-model (LLM) assistants quote when buyers ask for advice.

It’s not a replacement for SEO—but it is where search visibility is headed.

In fact, global search interest in “answer engine optimization” climbed 118% year over year.

Below are ten agencies pushing the discipline forward, plus a checklist to help you choose the right partner.

Why AEO budgets are surging in 2025

Sixty-eight percent of CMOs say they’ll increase or shift budget to AEO during the next 12 months. Google Trends shows “AEO agency” searches quadrupled between January 2024 and October 2025.

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and the new Google AI Overviews have blurred the line between “search engine” and “answer engine.”

When those tools pull an answer from the web, the brands they cite get credibility, traffic, and pipeline—often without a single click.

Winning that citation requires technical schema, bulletproof factuality, and off-site authority signals that go beyond typical backlink campaigns.

All of which explains the fresh line item on this year’s marketing budgets.

Criteria for choosing these agencies

The ten firms below demonstrated at least four of the following:

• Repeatable wins across multiple LLMs (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini)
• Strong technical depth (schema, entity markup, crawlability)
• Multi-channel authority building (Reddit, Wikipedia, digital PR, video, etc.)
• Documented knowledge-sharing (blog, studies, podcasts, public tooling)
• Client-mix diversity showing success beyond a single niche
• Cultural fit markers—transparency, sprint cadence, and reporting rigor

1. Growth Marketing Pro — The fast-mover playbook

Growth Marketing Pro turns AEO and GEO into a sprint game, prioritizing quick wins that often surface brands in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews within weeks.

The team layers Reddit buzz, Wikipedia authority, and an airtight schema on top of classic SEO discipline, making it a go-to for SaaS and ecommerce companies that need a pipeline fast.

What they do best

• Hybrid AEO + SEO execution—technical schema, Reddit engagement, Wikipedia page building, and high-authority link outreach.
• GMP monitors citation performance across major answer engines and iterates content based on the findings.
• Hands-on founders with deep SaaS and ecommerce backgrounds keep strategy tied to revenue, not vanity metrics.

Mini case-study

SmartRecruiters reported a 37x increase in leads after working with GMP on paid strategy and SEO.

Ideal for: Funded SaaS or ecommerce teams that measure success in pipeline creation and can handle a brisk, test-and-iterate cadence.

2. First Page Sage — Thought-leadership engine

First Page Sage approaches AEO as a long-form authority builder. Their analysts mine proprietary data and original research, then craft pillar content that LLMs treat as canonical answers—ideal for firms that value evergreen expertise over short-term spikes.

What they do best

• Applies its famous “Thought Leadership SEO” framework to AEO, producing data-rich pillar articles that answer engines view as canonical.
• Heavy investment in proprietary studies and statistics that bolster E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust).
• Mature processes—editorial calendars, style guides, subject-matter-expert interviews—reducing lift for busy internal teams.

Ideal for: Mid-market or enterprise companies willing to play the long game and build a permanent content moat rather than chase quick wins.

3. iPullRank — Enterprise technical powerhouse

iPullRank is the architect’s choice: they de-risk AEO for massive, multilingual sites by rebuilding schema, crawl paths and entity relationships from the ground up.

Fortune-1000 brands lean on their in-house tooling to see exactly where AI models pick up (or drop) their content.

What they do best

• Engineers custom crawl simulations to uncover LLM blind spots on million-page sites.
• Builds entity-rich knowledge graphs that improve how international content is interpreted in multiple languages.
• Maintains in-house monitoring dashboards that show exactly where (and why) a brand is being cited—or ignored—across answer engines.

Ideal for: Global enterprises with legacy tech stacks, multiple language sites, and internal dev teams who need rigorous technical specs before touching production.

4. PressHERO — Digital-PR link builder for AEO authority

PressHERO specialises in earning high-authority backlinks that large-language models treat as trust signals. Through digital PR campaigns, HARO outreach and curated guest-post placements, the team gets brands featured in top-tier publications and on niche listicles—assets that strengthen both classic SEO and modern AEO visibility.

What they do best

• Digital PR, HARO link building, outreach guest posts and white-label link fulfilment.
• Proven wins: case–study portfolio shows 4×–15× organic-traffic lifts after securing DR-70+ links on news and industry sites.

Ideal for: SaaS, ecommerce and agencies that need a steady cadence of authoritative mentions to reinforce structured-data and on-site AEO work.

5. Avenue Z — Brand-building meets AEO

Avenue Z fuses digital PR with answer-engine tactics, ensuring big-name press citations that LLMs can’t ignore.

If you’re a challenger brand looking to punch above your weight through credibility and share-of-voice, their newsroom-style team keeps you in the headlines—and the AI snippets.

What they do best

• Lands tier-one media placements and thought-leader bylines, then stitches those mentions into structured-data clusters.
• Operates a newsroom-style content team that reacts to industry news within hours, ensuring clients become the “fresh” source LLMs surface.
• Offers cross-channel brand-lift campaigns (podcasts, webinars, social) to reinforce authority signals beyond text.

Ideal for: Scale-ups eyeing Series B+ press cycles or challenger brands looking to unseat entrenched players through share-of-voice.

6. Omniscient Digital — SaaS content ecosystem

Omniscient Digital maps every question a buyer might ask, then surrounds it with interconnected articles, videos, and graphics.

The result is a content lattice that lets LLMs find a consistent, trustworthy narrative no matter how the query is phrased—perfect for product-led SaaS teams.

What they do best

• Uses search-intent models and jobs-to-be-done interviews to blueprint entire knowledge graphs before a single word is drafted.
• Produces interconnected articles, infographics and video snippets so LLMs find consistent answers regardless of query phrasing.
• Runs quarterly content gap analyses to keep clusters up to date as AI results shift.

Ideal for: Growth-stage SaaS companies that need editorial horsepower but also crave strategic depth.

7. Focus Digital — SMB specialist

Focus Digital productizes AEO for local and professional service businesses. Affordable bundles of FAQ schema, localized content, and simple dashboards enable clinics, law firms, and home-service brands to future-proof their search without requiring enterprise-level budgets.

What they do best

• Productized AEO bundles centered on FAQ schema, local citations, and service-area pages.
• Emphasizes simple dashboards so owners can see calls, form fill,s and booked appointments—no vanity KPIs.
• Offers pay-as-you-grow retainers, helpful for clinics and boutique firms under USD 10 million revenue.

Ideal for: Dentists, law practices, home services, and other Main Street businesses that want to future-proof search without enterprise price tags.

8. 51Blocks — White-label wizards

51Blocks operates behind the scenes for hundreds of agencies, delivering turnkey AEO audits, briefs, and schema implementations.

Their SOP-driven model lets partner firms add answer-engine services overnight—no new hires, no learning curve.

What they do best

• Provides fully branded deliverables—audits, content briefs, schema mark-up—so partner agencies can add AEO overnight.
• Scalable SOPs and strict QA ensure dozens of client campaigns stay on track.
• Technical onboarding covers CMS quirks, crawl management and hosting constraints, removing headaches for non-technical account managers.

Ideal for: SEO or PR firms that need AEO expertise but prefer to avoid new full-time hires.

9. Algomindz — ROI-driven emerging player

Bangladesh-based Algomindz combines GPT-powered outline generation with human editors and granular KPI dashboards.

The focus is squarely on tying new citations to real pipeline, making it a cost-efficient option for global SMBs watching every marketing dollar.

What they do best

• Uses proprietary GPT-powered tools to draft structured content outlines at scale, then layers human editing for nuance.
• Builds KPI dashboards that tie citation wins to downstream CRM revenue, not just traffic.
• Competitive pricing thanks to a distributed talent model across North America and South Asia.

Ideal for: International SMBs and mid-market brands that value cost efficiency and clear attribution.

10. Marcel Digital — Integrated regional strategists

Marcel Digital treats AEO as one piece of a conversion stack that also includes CRO and web development.

By addressing site speed, UX and schema together, they help multi-location retailers turn newfound answer-engine visibility into actual sales.

What they do best

• Treats technical SEO fixes (site speed, accessibility, CRO) as part of AEO—not a separate upsell.
• Builds custom components in CMSs like WordPress and Craft to automate schema updates when content changes.
• Specializes in regional and multi-location brands that require geo-modifiers and local entity reinforcement.

Ideal for: Retailers and hospitality groups that need both visibility and on-site conversion improvements.

11. ClickSlice — UK-based innovator

London’s ClickSlice was early to entity SEO and still leads the pack with its “question graph” methodology.

Transparent fortnightly reports and education-heavy onboarding make it a strong fit for EU and UK ecommerce merchants who want to see—and understand—the levers being pulled.

What they do best

• Pioneered a “question graph” methodology that clusters hundreds of semantically related FAQs around a core commercial topic.
• Transparent fortnightly reports show citation volatility and next-step experiments.
• Maintains a steady stream of webinars and guides, helping in-house marketers skill up along the way.

Ideal for: EU and UK ecommerce merchants looking for a partner inside the same time zone.

Vetting checklist: seven questions before you sign

1. How do you track citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews?
2. What structured-data formats (FAQ, How-To, Product, Entity) will you implement first?
3. How fast should we expect initial visibility lifts, and what leading indicators will you show in month one?
4. Will you manage off-site channels such as Reddit and Wikipedia or just consult?
5. How will your team integrate with our existing content workflow?
6. Which KPIs tie AEO performance to revenue, and how often will we review them?
7. What contract or sprint structure lets us adjust scope if AI platforms shift suddenly?

Red flags to watch out for

• Guaranteed “overnight” rankings in AI answers.
• Recycled SEO playbooks repackaged as AEO without any schema or citation tracking.
• Zero access to first-party dashboards or proprietary monitoring tools.
• Agencies that refuse to discuss how they’ll keep pace with weekly LLM updates.

Budget bands and engagement models

Most AEO retainers mirror existing SEO pricing—but hours focus on schema, entity optimisation, and off-site signals:

• SMB packages: USD 2,000–5,000 per month (FAQ schema, citation monitoring, quarterly content).
• Mid-market retainers: USD 6,000–15,000 per month (multi-channel authority campaigns, monthly sprint cycles, AI-overview auditing).
• Enterprise programs: USD 20,000+ per month (international schemas, custom reporting, dev-team integration).

Many brands simply re-allocate 20–30% of their SEO budget to AEO, treating it as the natural evolution of search.

Conclusion

Answer-engine visibility is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s the first touchpoint for buyers who type (or voice-prompt) their way down the funnel.

Pick a partner that treats AEO as a revenue engine, not a buzzword, and you’ll stay ahead of the algorithm curve.

Already working with an agency? Drop your experience in the comments and let the Fastlane community know what’s working.