GEO & AEO · Dayton, OH

When customers ask AI, be the answer.

More people are asking ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity for a local contractor instead of scrolling through results. Those tools name two or three businesses. We structure your site so it can be one of them — readable, verifiable, and hard to leave out.

Get A Visibility Check What's Involved
4
Engines Targeted
llms.txt
On Every Site
Included
In Every Build
The Shift

The Search Result Is Disappearing

For twenty years the game was getting into a list. Ten blue links, and your job was to be one of them. That list is quietly being replaced by a paragraph that names two or three businesses — and if you are not named, there is no page two to be found on.

This is what the industry has started calling generative engine optimization (GEO), or answer engine optimization. It is not a replacement for local SEO — you still want to show up in the map pack, and the same clean foundations help both. It is a different question: when an assistant is deciding who to recommend, does it have what it needs to recommend you?

Mostly that comes down to unglamorous things. Can the AI crawlers reach your pages, or is your host quietly blocking them? Are your services and service area stated in machine-readable code, or only implied in a hero image? Does a specific question have a specific answer on your site? Do your facts agree across your website and your Google listing?

Almost nobody in the Miami Valley is doing this yet. That is the opportunity — and it is why every site we build ships with the foundations already in place.

Proof

We do this on our own site first

This is not theory we read about. Open blackoutds.com/llms.txt and you will find the file we put on every site we build. View the source of this page and you will find LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList markup. The FAQ below is written to be quotable on its own. If we could not do it for ourselves, we would have no business selling it to you.

What's Involved

Six Unglamorous Things That Decide It

Reachable by AI crawlers

GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and the rest have to be able to reach your pages. We check what your host or security layer is blocking and make it a deliberate choice instead of a default nobody looked at.

Schema.org structured data

LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList markup, so your trade, service area, hours and prices are stated as facts in code rather than inferred from marketing copy.

An llms.txt summary

A plain-text file at your site root that tells an AI model who you are, what you sell, what it costs and where you work — in the order a model reads. Ours is public at blackoutds.com/llms.txt.

Answers, not just pages

AI tools quote passages, not whole pages. We write each answer so it stands on its own — one question, one self-contained answer that still makes sense when it is lifted out of context.

The same facts everywhere

Your name, address, phone, hours and services matched across your website, your schema and your Google Business Profile. Contradictions are the fastest way to get treated as unreliable.

Checked, not assumed

We verify the markup validates, the crawlers are allowed, and the facts agree — then re-check when things change, because defaults get flipped during hosting and plugin updates.

Process

How It Works

Four steps, and the first one tells you whether you need the other three.

01

Visibility check

We look at what an AI assistant can actually see: which crawlers your site blocks, what structured data exists, whether your facts agree across the web, and what your site says when someone asks a specific question.

02

Fix the foundation

Crawler access, schema markup, an llms.txt file, clean headings, and a service-area statement that is explicit rather than implied.

03

Write the answers

The questions your customers actually ask — pricing, service area, emergency availability, what a job involves — each answered directly on the page instead of buried in a paragraph about your commitment to excellence.

04

Verify and re-check

We confirm the markup validates and the crawlers are allowed, then check again periodically. Nothing here is set-and-forget — hosts flip defaults and AI tools change what they read.

Pricing

Included In Every Build

From$199/month · no contract

Schema markup, an llms.txt file, crawler access, and answerable page structure come with every website we build — they are not an upsell. Ongoing question-and-answer content, Google Business Profile alignment, and periodic re-checks come with Pro and Elite. Already have a site you like? A standalone AI visibility audit is available by quote.

Compare All Plans
FAQ

GEO Questions, Answered Straight

What is AI search optimization?
It is the practice of structuring a website so AI assistants — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot — can read it, understand what your business does, and recommend you by name. You will also see it called generative engine optimization (GEO) or answer engine optimization (AEO). Traditional SEO competes for a spot in a list of links. This competes to be the answer itself, because an assistant usually names two or three businesses — not ten.
Is GEO the same thing as SEO?
They overlap, but no. Both need clean, crawlable, factually clear pages, so good SEO helps you here. The difference is the goal: SEO optimizes for ranked links and clicks; GEO optimizes for being quoted inside an answer where there may be no click at all. GEO leans harder on structured data, self-contained passages, consistent facts across every profile, and simply letting AI crawlers reach the site.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No — and nobody honestly can. These tools decide what to cite using models and data we do not control, their answers differ between users, and they change without notice. What we can control is whether you are eligible at all: reachable by AI crawlers, described in machine-readable structured data, factually consistent everywhere, and written so a specific question has a specific answer. Anyone promising guaranteed AI rankings is selling something they cannot deliver.
Why does this matter for a plumber or a roofer?
Because the question is changing shape. A homeowner who used to search “plumber near me” and scan the results now sometimes asks an assistant “who should I call for a burst pipe in Kettering?” and gets two or three names. If you are not one of them you were never in the running — there is no page two to be found on. Same competition, same customer, decided earlier and with fewer slots.
What is an llms.txt file?
A plain-text file at the root of your site that summarizes your business for AI models to read — like robots.txt, but about meaning instead of permissions. It states who you are, what you sell, what it costs and where you work, so an assistant does not have to infer any of it. It is a young convention rather than a settled standard, it costs almost nothing to add, and every site we build gets one. Ours is public: blackoutds.com/llms.txt.
What is schema markup?
Structured data in your site's code that states facts outright instead of leaving them to be guessed — that this is a local business, these are its services, this is its service area, these are its hours. Search engines use it for rich results; AI systems use it as a dependable source of facts. Every site we build ships with LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList markup as standard.
Are AI crawlers really blocked on most sites?
Sometimes — and usually by accident. Hosts and security services increasingly ship with AI-crawler blocking switched on by default. Blocking GPTBot or ClaudeBot keeps your content out of training data, but it also removes you from the answers those tools give. For a local service business trying to get found, that is normally the wrong trade. We check it and make it your decision instead of a default nobody saw.
How much does it cost?
The foundations — schema markup, llms.txt, crawler access, answerable page structure — are included in every website we build, starting at $199/month with no upfront build fee. Deeper ongoing work (question-and-answer content, Google Business Profile alignment, periodic re-checks) comes with Pro and Elite. Already have a site you like? A standalone AI visibility audit is available by quote — call (937) 430-0359.
Free Visibility Check

Find out what AI can see.

Leave your website and email. We'll check what AI crawlers are blocked, what structured data you have, and whether your facts line up — then tell you straight, whether or not there's work in it for us.

Prefer to talk? Call or text (937) 430-0359.

Call Get Started