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AI SEO and AI search optimisation from one consultant

AI search means the answers people get from ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude. Getting a business cited and recommended in those answers is called generative engine optimisation, or GEO. It's for businesses whose buyers now ask an assistant first. I'm Will Sibley, one consultant, and I do it myself, from £1,000 a month ($1,500).

Send me your site

I reply myself, usually within one working day.

Proof

AI answers are built from search results, and these are mine

An assistant runs searches, fetches a handful of pages and writes its answer from them, so it can only cite a page it can retrieve. These two numbers are search results from a UK Shopify store I work on. I don't have a client result for AI citations to show you yet, and I won't claim one.

438 of 1,000

searches Search Console lists for the store now rank in Google's top ten, 143 of them in the top three

3,000+

impressions a month for one product review on the store. Reviews and buying guides are the kinds of page assistants tend to cite, and the store has both

Read the Shopify store case study

What's included

What AI search work with me includes

This work sits within my wider SEO services, and this website is built the way I'd build yours. All its copy is in the HTML, the plain code every crawler can read, even with JavaScript switched off. Its headings are questions with the answer directly under them. Its llms.txt file, a summary of the site written for AI systems, is generated from the site's own data.
  1. 01

    A record of how assistants describe you now

    I put the five to ten questions a buyer in your category asks to ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude. You get a written record of whether you're named, how you're described and which pages are cited in your place.

  2. 02

    Pages the AI crawlers can read

    The crawlers behind ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity fetch a page's raw HTML and don't run JavaScript. If your content only appears once scripts have loaded, they get a blank page. I check each template, and I read robots.txt, the file that tells crawlers where they can't go, for rules that shut them out by accident. See technical SEO.

  3. 03

    Answers under question-shaped headings

    Assistants lift short passages, so a page that answers plainly near the top gives them something to quote. I rewrite your key pages so each heading is a question buyers ask, with the answer in the first two sentences. See content and on-page SEO.

  4. 04

    Structured data

    Structured data is a set of hidden labels that tell machines what a page is, such as a product, a review or a business. The evidence that it wins citations on its own is thin. It's cheap to add, so I include the types your pages justify.

  5. 05

    Reviews, guides and mentions on other sites

    When someone asks who's best in a category, assistants read reviews, comparison articles, forums and directories. I plan the reviews and buying guides to write on your own site, and the mentions to earn elsewhere. For a local business that starts with Google reviews, covered under local SEO.

  6. 06

    Tracking the trend

    Assistants don't report how often they mention you. I set up Google Analytics to separate visits from chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai, and I repeat the buyer questions each month.

How it runs

How AI search work runs, from first look to monthly report

  1. 01

    Day 1

    A first look

    Send me your address. I put a few of your buyers' questions to the assistants and check whether your pages can be read with JavaScript switched off. Then I reply with what I found.

  2. 02

    Weeks 1 to 3

    Audit and starting record

    A full check of crawling, page code and content, plus the written record of how each assistant answers your buyers today. Later months are compared with that record.

  3. 03

    Month 2 onwards

    Fixes, then pages

    Technical fixes come first, then the rewrites, reviews and guides. The fixes often show in Search Console within a few weeks, and content typically takes three to six months.

  4. 04

    Every month

    A report you can read

    One page on search traffic, visits from assistants and what changed in their answers since last month.

Price

What AI search optimisation costs

AI search work starts at £1,000 a month ($1,500), the same as my monthly SEO, because so much of the work is shared. If you only want to know where you stand, the assistant checks are part of my SEO audit, which has a fixed price quoted on scope.

WhatPriceWhat it covers
Monthly AI search and SEOFrom £1,000 a month ($1,500)Technical fixes, rewrites, reviews and guides, monthly assistant checks and a report.
SEO audit with AI search checksQuoted on scopeA full crawl, a Search Console review and a record of how the assistants answer your buyers' questions.
Shopify SEO auditFreeTwo to three pages within three working days, including whether the assistants mention your store.

How to choose

Should you hire an AI SEO agency, a GEO agency or a consultant?

Hire an agency if you need a lot of content and press coverage produced every month, and a consultant if you need one senior person to fix the site and direct the work. Sibley Digital is one consultant, me, so this table sets out when each is the better fit.
An agency is the better choice whenOne consultant is the better choice when
You need 20 or more articles a month, plus people pitching journalists for coverage.You want the person who questions the assistants to be the person who fixes the site.
You sell in several countries and need the assistant checks run in each language.Your pages can't be read without JavaScript, which is a repair job before anything else.
You want AI search, paid ads and social media under one contract.You already have a writer or a developer and need someone senior to direct them.
Your buying process requires a supplier with a team behind it.You want to be told plainly which tactics have evidence behind them, llms.txt included.

Whoever you choose, ask which parts of their AI search work differ from SEO, and what evidence each part has. Be wary of anyone promising a mention in ChatGPT. If you run an agency, I do this work under your brand through my white-label service.

Questions

AI search and GEO questions

Is GEO different from SEO?

Mostly no. Assistants search the web, fetch pages and write from what they find, so sound SEO gets you most of the way. Two parts are new, which are the weight assistants give to what other sites say about you and the value of a short answer they can quote.

Is LLM SEO the same as AI SEO and GEO?

Yes. LLM SEO, AI SEO, GEO and AI search optimisation are four names for the same work. An LLM, or large language model, is the software behind assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude.

Are you an AI SEO agency or a consultant?

A consultant. Sibley Digital is me, Will Sibley, and I do the checks, the fixes and the reporting myself. I spent ten years in search before this, including as Senior SEO Manager at The Telegraph.

How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?

Make sure ChatGPT can retrieve your pages, then give it something to cite. That means content in the raw HTML, pages that rank for the searches behind the question, a plain answer near the top and reviews on other sites that back you up. Nobody can promise a mention, and I don't.

Does llms.txt help with AI search?

There's no evidence that it does. Ahrefs analysed 137,000 sites and found that 97% of llms.txt files were never fetched by anything. It costs little to add, which is why this site has one, and I wouldn't sell you one as a strategy.

Should I block AI crawlers from my site?

If you sell products or services, almost certainly not, because blocking takes you out of the answers your buyers read. Publishers whose content is the product have a real case for it. In June 2026 the CMA, the UK's competition regulator, required Google to give publishers tools to keep their content out of its AI features.

How much traffic does AI search send?

Very little so far. SE Ranking's analysis put AI referrals at 0.32% of all website traffic from January to April 2026, up from 0.24% in 2025. Those visitors arrive after an assistant has already shortlisted you, so the trend deserves watching.

Guides

Guides on AI search

Written from client work. All guides

Get in touch

Send me your site

Send me the address and two or three questions your buyers ask. I'll put them to the assistants, check your pages and reply with what I found and what I'd fix first.

  1. 1I reply myself, usually within one working day.
  2. 2I look at your site and its search visibility before we speak.
  3. 3If I can help, I send a scope and a price. If I can't, I say so.

Or email will@sibleydigital.com. I work UK afternoons and the full US working day.

All four fields are needed. I read every message myself and there is no mailing list.