Be the answer when shoppers ask AI

Shoppers now ask Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity what to buy. We make sure AI search can reach, understand and cite your store, using the same foundations that rank you in Google.

Get an AI visibility check What’s included

Free · No obligation · Reply within one business day

Crawler access for AI search bots
Answer-first content and clean product data
Tracking of AI citations and referrals

An AI answer card citing a store page as its source

Stores we have built and run

By the Mistri engineering team · Updated 1 November 2026

AEO, or answer engine optimization, is the work of getting your store found and cited when shoppers ask AI assistants instead of typing keywords. For Google AI Overviews and AI Mode it rests on normal SEO, as Google itself says. For ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Copilot it also means letting their search crawlers in, keeping product and brand data consistent, and measuring how often you are cited.

How a store gets cited in AI answers

A simplified view; each assistant uses its own index and sources.

1. ReachSearch and AI crawlers can fetch your pages and product data.

2. UnderstandClear answers, structured data and consistent facts about products and brand.

3. TrustReviews, mentions and authors that other sources confirm.

4. CiteThe assistant quotes your page and links to it in its answer.

Why it matters

What being cited by AI means for your store

Found by AI searchSearch and AI crawlers can reach the pages that matter, and nothing important is blocked by accident.

Easy to citeClear answers, tables and accurate product data that AI answers can quote and link to.

Measured, not guessedAI referrals and citations tracked next to your normal search traffic.

SEO first, then the AI layer

Google says its AI features need no special files or markup: they use the same signals as Search. So we fix technical SEO and content quality first, then check the parts that only matter for other AI assistants, such as their crawlers and how they describe your brand.

How it works

What’s included

Crawler accessrobots.txt, CDN and bot rules checked for Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot.

Answer-first contentCategory guides, buying guides and FAQs that answer the question in the first lines.

Structured dataProduct, offer, review, breadcrumb and organisation markup that matches the page.

Product data qualityComplete attributes, specs and feeds, so answers about your products are right.

Entity and brand signalsConsistent company details, about and author pages, and reviews on trusted sites.

AI visibility trackingPrompts that matter to you checked across AI assistants, plus AI referral traffic in analytics.

Is this right for you?

A good fit if

Your category is one buyers research before purchase
Competitors are named in AI answers and you are not
Your robots.txt or CDN may block AI search crawlers
You already rank in Google and want to protect that traffic

Probably not the right fit if

Your site has basic SEO problems: fix those first with technical SEO
You want guaranteed placement in AI answers: nobody can promise that

What you receive

AI visibility baseline for your buyer prompts
Crawler access and structured data review
Content and product data fixes, prioritised
Monthly citation and AI referral report

What we track every month

AI answers change daily and no one can guarantee a citation, so we report trends rather than promises.

Citations and mentions for a fixed set of buyer prompts
Referral visits from AI assistants in analytics
Search Console impressions and clicks, which include AI Overviews

How it works

You see the findings, the scope and the price before any code changes.

AuditWe review code, extensions, hosting and speed.
Plan & priceA fixed scope and price, or a retainer.
Build on stagingTested on a copy of your store, never live.
Launch & supportA planned release, rollback ready, then monitoring.

For your technical team

How we build it

The stack, standards and handover your developers can expect.

Crawler access

robots.txt plus CDN and firewall bot rules
Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot
Server logs checked for blocked requests

Structured data

Product, Offer, Review and BreadcrumbList JSON-LD
Markup that matches visible page content
Merchant Center feed kept consistent

Tracking

AI assistant referrals segmented in GA4
A fixed set of buyer prompts checked monthly
Search Console data, which includes AI Overviews

Related guides

In-depth articles from the Mistri blog.

Questions before you book

Frequently asked questions

What is AEO?

Answer engine optimization means making your content easy for AI assistants and AI search features to find, understand and cite. For Google it is the same work as good SEO; other assistants add their own crawlers and sources.

Is AEO different from SEO?

Mostly not. Google states that no special optimisation is needed for AI Overviews and AI Mode. The extra AEO work is checking access for other AI crawlers, measuring citations and making product data and brand information consistent everywhere.

Do I need an llms.txt file?

Google does not use it, and no major assistant requires it. We only add one if a specific assistant you care about documents support for it.

Can you guarantee my store appears in ChatGPT or AI Overviews?

No one can. We improve the inputs AI systems rely on and measure the results honestly.

Should I block AI crawlers?

Separate search from training. Crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot fetch pages to show and link them in answers; training crawlers such as GPTBot collect data for models. Many stores allow the first and decide case by case on the second.

Will letting AI crawlers in increase server load?

Some bots crawl heavily, so we check server logs and set CDN or bot rules that let search crawlers in while rate-limiting abusive traffic.

Do we need to rewrite all our content?

No. We start with the category pages, buying guides and FAQs that match your most important buyer questions, then improve the rest over time.