When someone asks,
are you the answer?
Search increasingly resolves before the click. Featured snippets, voice assistants, knowledge panels, and the local pack hand your customers an answer without a visit to anyone's site. The question is whether that answer is yours — or your competitor's.
What answer engine optimization is
Traditional SEO competes for a ranked link. Answer engine optimization competes for the answer itself — the snippet read aloud by a voice assistant, the box at the top of the results, the business shown in the local pack, the fact pulled into a knowledge panel.
It sits between classic SEO and the newer world of AI engines. Much of it is driven by structured data: the JSON-LD markup that tells search engines exactly what your content means, rather than leaving them to infer it.
For local and service businesses — which describes most law firms and real estate practices — AEO is often where the highest-intent traffic is won or lost. Someone asking their phone "real estate attorney near me" gets one answer, not ten blue links. Being that answer is the whole game.
What the audit covers
Six areas that determine whether you own the answer surfaces.
Schema markup audit
A complete review of your structured data: what's present, what's missing, what's malformed. We validate your JSON-LD and identify the schema types — Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Review — that unlock answer surfaces for your category.
Featured snippet targetability
Which queries in your space trigger a snippet, whether you currently hold any, and which ones you're positioned to win. Plus the content formatting — lists, tables, concise definitions — that snippets reward.
People Also Ask presence
The expanding PAA boxes are prime real estate. We map the questions your audience asks, check where you appear, and identify the gaps your content should be answering directly.
Voice search alignment
Voice queries are longer and conversational. We assess how well your content matches natural-language questions and whether it's structured to be read aloud as a clean, standalone answer.
Google Business Profile
For local answer surfaces, your profile is decisive. We audit completeness, category accuracy, NAP consistency, review signals, and the attributes that determine whether you surface in the local pack and map results.
FAQ structure & microformatting
How answerable your content is at the page level — question-and-answer structure, semantic headings, concise lead answers, and the microformatting that helps engines extract a clean response.
A map of the answers you can own.
A full schema audit with validated markup and a list of types to add
Featured snippet and PAA opportunities, ranked by reachability
A Google Business Profile assessment with specific corrections
Voice and conversational query gaps your content should fill
Page-level formatting recommendations for answer extraction
A prioritized action plan, plus a 60-minute walkthrough and 30-day check-in
Concrete and specific — "add FAQ schema to these eight pages," not "improve your structured data."
Who this is for
This audit makes sense if…
- You're a local or service business where "near me" searches matter
- Your competitors keep showing up in snippets and the local pack and you don't
- You've never had structured data implemented — or aren't sure if it's right
- You want to capture voice and conversational search before rivals do
- Your Google Business Profile has never been properly optimized
It's probably premature if…
- Your site has fundamental technical or indexation problems — start with an SEO audit
- You have little content for engines to extract answers from
- You operate purely B2B with no local or question-driven search demand
- You want implementation rather than diagnosis — we do the latter only
What it costs
For a single-location business with a standard site.
Multi-location and franchise setups, where each location needs its own profile and local audit, are quoted after a brief scoping call.
Common questions
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO competes for a ranked link in the results. AEO competes for the answer that appears above or instead of those links — snippets, voice responses, the local pack, knowledge panels. They overlap, but AEO leans heavily on structured data and content formatting. Many businesses benefit from both; we'll advise on sequencing.
Is AEO the same as GEO?
Related but distinct. AEO targets answer surfaces inside traditional search engines — snippets, voice, local pack — and predates the AI boom. GEO targets being cited inside generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. The underlying structured data overlaps, which is why some clients combine the two.
Do you implement the schema and changes?
No. We diagnose and hand you a precise plan. We'll recommend implementation partners or work with your existing developer. Keeping diagnosis separate from treatment is what keeps it honest.
Will adding schema guarantee I get featured snippets?
No one can guarantee a snippet — the engine decides. Proper schema and formatting make you eligible and competitive, which is the most any honest provider can offer. We focus on the opportunities you're realistically positioned to win.
I already have a Google Business Profile. Do I still need this?
Often, yes. Most profiles are set up once and never optimized — wrong primary category, missing attributes, inconsistent NAP, neglected reviews. Small corrections there frequently produce some of the fastest visibility gains of any audit.
Fifteen minutes. No pitch.
Tell us about your business and where your customers are searching. You'll learn whether an AEO audit fits, what it would cover for you, and what it would cost.
Book a free 15-minute diagnostic