AI Search Optimization
AEO is architecture, not a service retainer.
Every Dallas agency now offers "AI SEO." Almost none publish how. Routiine builds AEO, GEO, and LLM optimization into the system architecture from day one — same page, same engagement, same methodology as the software we ship. One team. One Ship-or-Pay guarantee.
The Situation
The search surface moved. Most Dallas sites did not.
Five years ago the entire fight was ten blue links on a Google search results page. Ranking there was the game. That page still exists, but it has been compressed — Google AI Overviews absorb the top third of the viewport on informational queries, ChatGPT and Perplexity capture an ever-larger share of the first search attempt, and the default behavior for the next generation of buyers is to ask the AI before they click anything.
A Dallas-Fort Worth service-business site built in 2021 was optimized for the old surface. The title tags are keyword-stuffed. The schema is thin. The architecture presumes that a human with a browser is doing the searching. When the searcher is a large language model summarizing for the human, most 2021-era DFW sites do not get cited at all.
That is the situation this page addresses.
Six AI Engines We Optimize For
AEO, GEO, and LLM visibility — measured where buyers actually ask.
ChatGPT
OpenAI. Largest AI-answer surface; cites ~5–8 sources per answer. Structured data + `llms.txt` + canonical authority determine citation share.
Perplexity
Citation-heavy by design. Ranks on recency, source authority, and clean HTML. Most forgiving of new sites that publish well-structured content.
Gemini
Google-integrated. Works off Google's Knowledge Graph + crawl. Schema.org coverage + local SEO ranking signals translate directly.
Claude
Anthropic. Used inside Claude.ai, Cursor, and enterprise deployments. Weights authoritative primary sources heavily; citations go to depth-of-content, not keyword density.
Google AI Overviews
Compresses organic result real estate. Triggered on informational and comparison queries. Overview citation = roughly 3× the CTR of a position-10 organic listing.
Bing Copilot
Integrates with Microsoft 365 and Edge. Smaller traffic share but disproportionate on B2B and enterprise-procurement queries.
The 10-Point AEO Architecture
Built into the site, not bolted on after.
Each of these ten elements is engineered into the architecture on day one of a Routiine build. They are not separable services. A site that lacks any three of them fails to get cited consistently across the major AI engines.
llms.txt + llms-full.txt
Standardized AI-crawler index files at the site root. Tell LLMs what content is canonical, how to cite, and which URLs represent the authoritative version of every topic.
Schema.org coverage
Organization, Product, Service, Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Offer, PriceSpecification, Review. Every page structured. AI models read schema before they parse prose.
Proprietary terminology
Coined and repeated terms — like Living Software, Quality Gate, Ownership Transfer — become search objects in their own right. LLMs index them as entities once repeated across authoritative sources.
Canonical definition pages
One page that *defines* each target concept. Not a listicle. Not a 500-word teaser. A 2,000+ word authoritative definition that becomes the primary citation when LLMs answer "what is X?"
Evidence density
Every claim tied to a shipped project, a named source, or a verifiable number. LLMs rank evidence-dense content higher than opinion-dense content.
Core Web Vitals 95+
LCP < 1.8s, CLS < 0.01, TBT < 200ms. Crawl health is a ranking input for AI engines too — slow sites get indexed less frequently and cited less often.
Internal graph architecture
Hub-and-spoke topic clusters. AI crawlers trust sites where topic authority is structurally obvious — not just keyword-present but linked coherently.
Citation-friendly content blocks
Question-as-heading, answer-in-opening-paragraph, quantified supporting evidence. The format AI models prefer to cite verbatim.
Fresh publish cadence
One new canonical piece per week minimum. AI models prefer sites with evidence of ongoing publication over static archives.
Proof ledger
Named, dated case studies with verifiable metrics. AI engines (and readers) trust specific proof over generic claims. Reused numbers across multiple city pages — an audited pattern — destroys citation credibility.
Why Not the AEO Specialists
We audited the AEO shops. Here is what they miss.
Fast Hippo Media
Their angle: Proprietary "Content Everywhere" platform. AI is the brand, not the architecture.
Our edge: Published technical methodology. AEO as engineering, not marketing theater.
Digital Rebel Marketing
Their angle: Strongest AEO thought leadership, zero case-study proof. Locked to CraftCMS + HubSpot.
Our edge: Same thought-leadership bar PLUS shipped software evidence. Built on Nuxt + Vercel, not a vendor stack.
SearchX
Their angle: Reuses identical case-study numbers (537% / $505K) across four city pages.
Our edge: One rigorously verifiable client outcome beats four programmatic duplicates.
Elatre
Their angle: "AI SEO" branding; WordPress + Rank Math delivery.
Our edge: Actual product engineering + AI-native architecture, not WordPress with an AI tagline.
See the full side-by-side comparison at /vs — six head-to-head competitor pages with honest positioning calls.
What You Get
One engagement. One methodology. All seven pillars.
A Routiine AEO engagement is not a standalone service retainer. It is one of seven capability pillars inside a single FORGE engagement — Search & Discoverability runs alongside Software & Product, Brand, Paid Media, Content, Growth Operations, and Data. One team. One contract. One Ship-or-Pay guarantee that covers the architecture and the visibility together.
Every AEO-specialist agency we audited in the Dallas and US market leaves the software someone else's problem. Every software agency leaves the AEO someone else's problem. Routiine is the integrated path — the architecture of the software and the architecture of how AI engines find that software are designed together, shipped together, and measured together.
See the full methodology at /forge. Read the Living Software doctrine at /living-software. Apply to the Founding Client Program at /work to lock the 20% founding-rate discount.
Book the Audit
One hour. Written assessment. No obligation.
Bring the site you want measured against the 10-point AEO architecture. We audit it live on Zoom and send you a one-page written report with the three highest-leverage fixes.
Book the FORGE AEO Audit