Services
AEO & AI Search Optimization Agency in Bend, OR
Your next customer isn't Googling you. They're asking AI. We make sure it recommends you.
Slade Insights is a Bend, Oregon AEO (answer engine optimization) agency that helps businesses show up in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other AI search tools.
Search is changing faster than it has in twenty years. Customers who used to type “plumber near me” into Google now ask ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, or Grok: “Who should I hire?” The answer is not ten blue links. It is a short list of recommended businesses, assembled by an answer engine from the sources it trusts.
Either you are on that list or your competitor is. Most business owners have no idea which. We fix that, with a repeatable AEO system built on auditing, optimization, and monthly measurement.
What You Get
A Monthly AI Search Visibility Audit
Every month, we run a locked set of real customer-style queries across all six major AI platforms and document exactly what comes back:
- How AI describes your business. Is the information accurate? Current? Flattering? AI tools sometimes get names, service areas, and offerings wrong, and those errors repeat to every customer who asks.
- Whether AI recommends you. For the searches that matter in your market, are you named? How high on the list?
- Competitor comparison. Who is getting recommended instead of you, and why.
- Source and citation analysis. AI answers are built from sources: your website, directories, review platforms, local press. We trace which sources each platform is pulling from, so we know exactly where to apply AEO pressure.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO / GEO)
The audit tells us where you stand. Answer engine optimization, also called generative engine optimization, moves the needle:
- Entity signals. Consistent, unambiguous information about your business everywhere AI looks, so the models know exactly who you are, what you do, and where you serve.
- Structured data. Schema markup that makes your services, reviews, and locations machine-readable instead of guessable.
- Proof-of-work content. AI recommends businesses it can verify. Case studies, project detail, and real evidence of the work you do give answer engines something concrete to cite.
- Citations AI trusts. Building your presence on the sources each platform actually pulls from, not just generic directories.
Monthly Tracking and Reporting
One audit is a snapshot. Monthly tracking is a trendline. We run the same query set every month, measure movement, and report in plain English: where you gained AI search visibility, where competitors moved, and what we are doing next.
How It Works
- Build your query library. The real questions your customers ask, locked so results are comparable month over month.
- Baseline audit. Where you stand today across all six platforms.
- Optimize. Entity cleanup, structured data, content, and citations, prioritized by AEO impact.
- Track and report. Monthly runs, clear reporting, ongoing adjustments.
Want to know what AI says about your business right now? Book a free consultation and we will show you.
Why Slade Insights
We practice what we preach. Our own site is built AI-first, structured from the ground up for how answer engines read, cite, and recommend. Most agencies are still selling yesterday’s playbook. We are already working where your next customer is searching, and as always, we educate as much as we execute. Get Found, Get Trusted, and Get Chosen, wherever the asking happens.
AEO compounds on the same foundation as local SEO: clean entity signals, structured data, and content worth citing. You don’t choose between SEO and AEO; done right, each makes the other stronger.
See it working: our technical overhaul for Windows Well Covered grew their AI search visibility by 432 mentions while holding #1 rankings, and our Bend-first repositioning of Ridgeline Property Management earned AI citations and AI Overview appearances alongside a 166% lift in search clicks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AEO (answer engine optimization)?
AEO is the practice of optimizing your business to appear in AI-generated answers: the responses ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Perplexity give when customers ask who to hire or what to buy. It covers entity signals, structured data, citations, and content that AI systems can verify and cite. You may also see it called GEO (generative engine optimization); the two terms largely describe the same discipline.
What's the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO earns you a ranking on a search results page; AEO earns you a mention inside the answer itself. SEO targets one search engine's crawler and ranking systems, while AEO targets the many AI platforms that synthesize answers from sources they trust. They overlap heavily (clean structure, strong entities, and good content feed both), but AEO adds its own layer: citation analysis across AI platforms, machine-readable proof of work, and monthly tracking of how each AI describes and recommends you.
What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
GEO is the practice of improving how AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity describe and recommend your business. Where SEO earns you a ranking on a results page, GEO earns you a mention in the answer itself. GEO and AEO are near-synonyms, and we use both because different platforms and practitioners favor different terms.
Do people really use AI to find local businesses?
Yes, and the share is growing fast. Customers now ask ChatGPT and Google AI Mode things like 'who is the best fence contractor near me' and get a short list of named businesses. If you are not on that list, you were never in the running.
How do you know what AI says about my business?
We run a structured set of real customer-style queries across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Grok every month, then record whether you appear, how you are described, who appears instead, and which sources the AI cited. Same queries every month, so we can measure change.
Can you actually influence what AI recommends?
You cannot pay your way in, but you can influence it. AI recommendations draw on entity signals, structured data, reviews, and the sources AI trusts. Strengthening those inputs changes the outputs. It is earned visibility, like SEO always was.
How is this different from the SEO you already do for me?
It builds on it. A strong local SEO foundation feeds AI visibility, but AEO adds its own layer: citation analysis, entity cleanup, proof-of-work content, and monthly tracking across six AI platforms instead of one search engine.
How long until AI starts recommending my business?
AI models refresh their sources at different speeds, so changes typically show up over one to three months. That is exactly why we track monthly: you see the trendline, not a one-time snapshot.
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