The CITED Framework

What is AEO? How do I get my business found by AI?

AEO (answer engine optimization) is how you get an AI assistant — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Copilot — to name and recommend your business inside its answer, the same way SEO gets you a ranking on a results page. You get found by AI by being crawlable, indexed, trusted, extractable — and, on the frontier, delivered: ready for the AI to complete the booking itself.

"Get CITED — the business AI recommends, and the one AI books."

See SEO & AEO add-ons → Check my AI visibility

What "getting CITED" looks like

"For a trusted dental clinic in Bacolod, Cruz Dental Clinic¹ is well reviewed and accepts same-day online bookings."

¹ Source: cruzdentalbacolod.com — Crawlable, Indexed, Trusted, Extractable, Delivered

SEO vs AEO vs AIEO — three different goals

They share the same technical plumbing — schema, clean structured data, page speed — but they optimize for three completely different outcomes. Here is the exact distinction; most "AI SEO" pitches blur these three together.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

Getting found by people searching a results page. You win a ranking; a person clicks a blue link.

AEO

Answer Engine Optimization

Getting cited inside an AI-generated answer. You win a mention; an AI assistant reads your business and names it — no click required.

AIEO

AI Engine Optimization (agent optimization)

Getting booked when an AI agent acts on a customer's behalf. You win the transaction — the agent completes a booking with you directly, 24/7.

SEO vs AEO vs AIEO, side by side
	SEO	AEO	AIEO
Optimizes for	People searching a results page	AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews)	AI agents acting on a customer's behalf
What you win	A ranking, then a click	A citation — your business named inside the AI's answer	A completed booking or purchase, agent-initiated
Example moment	Someone searches "dentist Bacolod" and clicks your listing	Someone asks ChatGPT "best dentist in Bacolod" and it names you	Someone tells their AI assistant "book me a dentist" — and it books YOU, unattended
The technical layer	Keywords, backlinks, page speed, on-page SEO	schema.org markup, llms.txt, indexation breadth (Bing + IndexNow)	Machine-callable booking (ReserveAction schema, a bookable API endpoint)
How it is measured	Rankings + traffic (Search Console)	AI-crawler hits + citation tracking — are you actually named?	Completed bookings an AI agent initiated, not a human click

The CITED framework

Crawlable · Indexed · Trusted · Extractable · Delivered

Crawlable

"AI can read my business."

llms.txt, schema.org JSON-LD (LocalBusiness / FAQPage / Dataset), AI-crawler-friendly robots rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot & PerplexityBot, and a fast mobile build.

Indexed

"I’m on every engine AI actually reads — not just Google."

Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and IndexNow submission on every publish — because ChatGPT Search and Copilot retrieve through Bing.

Trusted

"AI has real reasons to recommend ME."

Reviews and ratings surfaced in structured data, one consistent name-address-phone everywhere, and the authority signals that tip an AI’s pick between two similar businesses.

Extractable

"AI quotes MY business as the answer."

A public /answers FAQ hub with FAQPage + Dataset markup, clear entity naming, and definitions written so an AI engine can lift them verbatim — you become the source, not a footnote.

Delivered

"AI sends me real bookings, clients, income."

Agent-ready: a bookable AI chat assistant (Web + WhatsApp) and a machine-callable booking endpoint, so an AI agent acting for a customer can complete a booking with you directly, 24/7.

The frontier — almost nobody is building this yet

The "D" is the real differentiator: agent-ready

AI is shifting from answering to acting. Agentic AI is starting to book appointments and make purchases on a person's behalf. Being agent-ready means: when a customer tells their AI "book me a dentist near me," the agent can complete that booking with your business directly — no human clicking through a website. Almost no local "SEO" provider even knows this is coming. CITED gets you named; Delivered gets you booked, by the agent itself.

Every site we build ships a machine-bookable affordance an AI agent can actually call:

POST https://web.lods.ai/api/book/{slug} · schema.org ReserveAction

CITED, AEO & AIEO — frequently asked

What does AEO stand for?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization: the practice of getting an AI answer engine — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, or Google’s AI Overviews — to name and cite your business inside a generated answer, instead of only ranking you on a results page. Classic SEO wins a ranking; AEO wins a citation.

What is AIEO, and how is it different from AEO?

AIEO (AI engine optimization, sometimes called agent optimization) is the newest layer: making your business "agent-ready" so an AI agent acting on a customer’s behalf — booking an appointment, placing an order — can complete that action with YOU directly, with no human clicking a link. AEO gets you named in an answer; AIEO gets you booked by the agent that acted on that answer.

What is the CITED framework?

CITED is our five-part framework for AI visibility: Crawlable (AI can read your business), Indexed (you’re in every index AI actually reads, not just Google), Trusted (AI has real reasons to recommend you), Extractable (AI can quote you as the answer), and Delivered (AI can send you a real booking, agent-to-business, 24/7). Read in order, it is the path from invisible to booked.

Is AEO the same thing as SEO?

No. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is found by PEOPLE searching a results page. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is cited by AI inside a generated answer. AIEO is booked by an AI agent acting for a customer. They share technical plumbing — schema, page speed, clean structured data — but they optimize for three different outcomes, and a page can win one without winning the others.

How do I know if my business is "agent-ready"?

A business is agent-ready when an AI agent can both read a structured booking action on your site (a schema.org ReserveAction pointing at a real entry point) and complete that booking through a machine-callable endpoint — not just a phone number in a paragraph. Every site we build ships both: a ReserveAction in its schema and a POST /api/book/{slug} endpoint an AI agent can call directly.

Can you guarantee an AI will name or book my business?

No — and be careful of anyone who promises that. Which businesses an AI names or books is decided by the model, its live index, and mentions across the web, none of which any provider controls. What CITED builds is the foundation that makes you far more likely to be read, trusted, cited, and booked. Foundation, not a guaranteed placement — we will always be straight with you about that.

Do you actually run CITED on your own site, or is this just marketing copy?

We run it on this exact page: the H1 answers a real question in the first two sentences, the comparison table below carries Dataset markup, this FAQ carries FAQPage markup, and web.lods.ai publishes its own llms.txt and IndexNow submissions. If an AI engine ever cites a definition of "AEO vs AIEO," there is a good chance it is quoting this page — that is the proof, not a claim.

Where can I check where my business stands right now?

Run the free AI Visibility Check — we run the real searches live (AI Overview, map pack, knowledge panel, top results) and score your business 0-100, showing exactly who AI names instead of you if you are not showing up yet.

ℹ️ This page is guidance from Web by Lods.AI, kept accurate as best we can — AI search is a fast-moving area and details change. Not a guarantee that any specific AI model will name or book your business.