When someone types “best plumber in Edmonton” into ChatGPT, they do not get a list of blue links. They get an answer: a recommendation, maybe a name and a phone number, and a reason to call.
If your business is not in that answer, you missed the customer. That is what AEO is about.
What is AEO?
AEO stands for answer engine optimization. It is how you make sure your business gets mentioned when AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews answer the questions your customers ask.
Traditional SEO gets you ranked on a page of search results. AEO gets you named in the answer itself. Think of it this way: SEO is written for a person about to click a link, and AEO is written for a model about to write a sentence with your business in it.
The two are related, but they are not the same. You can rank first on Google and still be invisible to AI search if your site is not set up for it. Google ranks pages. AI assistants pull out facts, and those facts have to be clear, machine readable and tied to a real business before a model will repeat them.
Why it matters for Edmonton businesses right now
A growing share of people find local services by asking an AI assistant. Not just tech people. Anyone who asks their phone “who does furnace repair in Edmonton” or “good Thai restaurant near me” is using one, knowingly or not.
Three things changed around the same time:
- AI assistants became real search tools. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity now give answers with sources for “best of” and “near me” questions, and Edmonton questions get Edmonton answers.
- Google added AI Overviews to local searches. Search “Edmonton dental clinic” and the first thing you often see is an AI summary with a few cited sources, pulled from the same kind of structured signals the chatbots use.
- llms.txt caught on. This small text file, proposed in late 2024, has become a common way for a website to tell AI tools what the business does and what to cite.
These tools do not send visitors to ten different websites. They pick one or two sources and cite them. Everyone else gets nothing from that search. Most local businesses here still do not have the basics in place, so the window to get cited before your competitors is still open.
What AEO looks like on a website
There are six signals that make a site easy for AI tools to understand and cite.
1. Structured data (schema markup). Code that tells AI exactly who you are, what you sell and what it costs: LocalBusiness for your business, Service for what you do, Offer for prices, FAQPage for common questions. If your page says “starting at $499” in a sentence, a model has to guess. If the page also carries an Offer with a price of 499 in CAD, there is nothing to guess.
2. A curated llms.txt file. A plain text file at yoursite.com/llms.txt that sums up your business for AI models. Think of it as a resume you hand straight to the AI, with your services, prices, location and contact details up front. A hand written one beats an auto generated list of page titles.
3. AI crawlers allowed in robots.txt. The same robots.txt file that guides Google also tells AI crawlers what they can read. To be cited by ChatGPT you need to allow GPTBot, for Claude ClaudeBot, for Perplexity PerplexityBot, and for Google’s AI features Google-Extended. Many sites block them by accident or never mention them.
4. FAQ content written for citation. AI tools answer questions, so pages that answer real customer questions directly get quoted. “How does your service compare?” is too vague. “How much does a portable sign cost in Edmonton?” is specific, useful and easy to cite.
5. Entity clarity. AI systems build a picture of your business from everything they find. Your name, address, phone number and category need to match everywhere: your site, your Google Business Profile and your directory listings. Links from your schema to those profiles (the sameAs property) help a model tell you apart from a business with a similar name.
6. Third party mentions and comparison content. AI tools trust sources that other sources mention, so listings on reputable directories help. Honest comparison pages (“X vs Y”, “best X in Edmonton”) also get cited often, because they answer the exact question being asked.
Does my business actually need this?
If you depend on local customers finding you, yes. People who used to search Google for “dentist near me” now ask their phone’s assistant, get a recommendation and call that business. It matters most for:
- Trades. Plumbers, electricians, HVAC and roofers. Urgent searches like “furnace broke Edmonton” go straight to quick AI answers.
- Restaurants and food businesses. “Good pho near me” and “best brunch in Edmonton” are exactly the questions AI answers directly, using menus, hours and reviews.
- Clinics and professional services. Dentists, lawyers, accountants and real estate agents. People ask AI who to trust before they ever call, so consistency and trust signals matter.
- New businesses. With no review history yet, AEO lets you get visible in AI answers sooner, because it is about structure as much as age and links.
How to tell if your site is ready
The quickest test is honest and free. Open ChatGPT or Claude and ask “What does [your business name] do?” Then ask “Best [your category] in Edmonton”.
If the answer names your business with accurate facts, you are in. If it is vague, missing or wrong, your site is not ready for AI search yet. You can also run our free AEO scorecard to check the basics yourself.
What we do for AEO
We build AEO into every website we make, at every tier. Every client gets schema markup across the site, a hand written llms.txt, FAQ blocks on service pages, AI crawlers allowed in robots.txt and clean HTML that AI models can read. It costs almost nothing to do this while a site is being built, and a lot more to add it later, so we just build it in.
If you already have a website, our AEO audit is $499, one time. We check your site against 25 AEO criteria and give you a fix list in order of importance, within five business days. Do the fixes yourself, hand them to your developer or have us do them.
If you need a new site, our Launch tier starts at $499 and includes AEO on every page at no extra cost. Edmonton businesses can also see our Edmonton web design page.
The next time someone asks ChatGPT “who is the best [your category] in Edmonton”, your business should be one of the answers. Book an AEO audit or get in touch and we will tell you where you stand.