Does Your Company Show Up When Your Customers Ask AI?
Our experts can show you how to improve your company’s visibility in search results and AI answers.
The Deciding Factor’s free SEO/AEO audit is your first step to taking control of the narrative. We help you go beyond search engine results. We can guide you in how your company shows up in AI-generated answers and recommendations.
The Reality of Search Has Changed
Search isn’t just about rankings anymore.
- AI tools are now used for B2B purchasing recommendations, not just discovery. It’s changing how buyers evaluate their options, research, and pitch solutions to internal stakeholders.
- Around 70% of the buyer journey is complete before anyone even speaks to your sales reps. That’s the “dark funnel,” and if you don’t have an always-on, pre-sales content engine, you’re missing potential customers.
- There are 2.5 billion prompts entered into ChatGPT daily, with hundreds of millions acting like search queries.
- Organic click-through rates are declining as AI Overview summarizes answers directly in search results.
At the same time:
The takeaway: being found is no longer the priority. You want to be chosen.
Our Team’s SEO & AEO Approach
The Deciding Factor doesn’t treat SEO and AEO as separate tactics. We look at the full picture:
- How your content performs in traditional search
- How AI interprets and presents your brand
- How your messaging compares to competitors
- How all of it connects to your broader marketing strategy
- How you can put people first in your customer journey, even in the age of AI
Visibility without context, differentiation and brand doesn’t drive decisions.
How It Works
Request your audit
Complete a short questionnaire
We analyze your search and AI visibility
Join us for a 30-minute strategy session
We’ll spend this session walking you through what we found, what matters, what doesn’t and what to do next.
More than Just a Report
There are plenty of tools that will give you an “audit.”
Most of them:
- Run hundreds of automated checks
- Deliver a score
- Leave you to figure out what it means
We’re different because:
- Real strategists interpret your audit results
- We tell you what does and doesn’t matter in the report
- We filter out false positives and noise
- We connect SEO/AEO to your broader marketing efforts
What’s Inside Your Audit
You will receive a report that is built around how your audience actually searches and asks questions when they’re using ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overview. We evaluate:
Keyword visibility
(what you rank for today)
AI query visibility
(what you’re mentioned or cited in)
Buyer prompts
(what your audience is asking AI)
Competitor positioning
(who shows up instead of you)
Content gaps
(what’s missing or misaligned)
Get Your Free SEO/AEO Audit
Maybe your SEO is working but your AI visibility isn’t. Maybe you’re struggling with both!
TDF has experts that can help.
Frequently Asked Questions About SEO and AEO
Our work is grounded in research, strategy and collaboration. We ensure that solutions are not only creative, but practical, sustainable for the long term and reflective of your vision.
Our robust suite of services and capabilities include:
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vs Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
SEO focuses on ranking in search engines. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) focuses on being selected or cited in AI-generated answers on AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google’s AI Overview. Both tactics are now essential.
What is the difference between Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
The debate is still unsettled. You’ll get different answers from different sources, ranging from they are the same thing to they are distinctly different strategies. Our perspective is that our goal is to optimize for the engine. In this case, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google’s AI Overview, and AI voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Your online presence should support those platforms delivering results that:
- Provide reputational reinforcement and positive sentiment about your company and products
- Make you visible when people use these platforms as a research tool
- Use your authoritative content to answer technical questions and position your company as a thought leader
Some pundits separate these objectives into the two different acronyms. No matter what you call it, it’s a group of strategies that target the same mechanisms for interacting with your content, and our team is dedicated to working holistically across your content strategy to achieve all these goals.
Why does AI visibility matter?
Because buyers are increasingly using AI tools to evaluate options. If you’re not mentioned or recommended, you’re not part of the conversation.
Can’t I just use an SEO audit tool?
You can, but most tools provide data without interpretation. The real value comes from understanding what to do with that data, prioritizing and taking the next steps to improve your online visibility.
Do I need to be using AI already to get an AEO audit?
You can in any place in your AI adoption journey, from AI curious to AI expert. In fact, the audit and consultation can be a valuable step for teams trying to figure out how AI visibility is affecting their business and where AI usage fits into their marketing strategy.
How does this fit into my overall marketing?
SEO and AEO don’t operate in isolation. They are simply tactics in the toolbox that are central to understanding the connections between your messaging, your content, your brand and your broader marketing strategy.