SEO & answer engine optimisation
We build websites that get found, and fix the ones that don't.
AI Overviews really are taking your clicks — between 15% and 61% of them, depending on whose study you read. Almost nothing being sold as the fix has evidence behind it. So start with the number rather than the pitch: run the free check on your current site and find out whether you have a problem at all.
Free · no signup · no email required
Is your page shaped so an answer engine can quote it?
Eight measurable signals, scored out of 100. Every point traces to something in your HTML or robots.txt, so it cannot invent a finding.
Checks structured data, answer-first structure, heading order, extractable formats, evidence density, content placement, AI crawler access and metadata.
What the numbers actually say
The threat is real. The pitch you have been hearing is not.
Two things are true at once, and the industry only tells you the first. Yes, generative search is changing how people get answers. No, they are not leaving Google to do it.
Sources: TechnologyChecker · Ahrefs · Search Engine Land · PPC Land
“llms.txt files are not required for Google Search.”
Google, AI optimisation guidance, 15 June 2026 — three years into an industry selling them
Read that middle number carefully. The damage is happening inside Google, not outside it. Which means the answer is not a new channel — it is making your pages the thing Google quotes when it answers instead of you.
The evidence base
Eight claims the AEO industry makes, scored against the research
We keep a public verdict on every popular claim in this category. Four of the eight do not survive contact with the data — including one that is on most competitors' service pages.
| Claim | Verdict | What the data shows |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT is replacing Google as the way people find businesses. | Overstated | Every AI chatbot combined — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Perplexity — accounts for roughly 0.29% of search referrals. Google still sends about 87.6%. |
| AI Overviews are costing you clicks on Google itself. | Supported | Every serious study agrees on direction and argues about size. Amsive measured -15.5% across 700,000 keywords, Pew -46.7% across 68,000 queries, Seer -61% across 2.43 billion impressions. |
| Every business is equally exposed to AI Overviews. | False | Informational queries trigger an AI Overview as often as 89% of the time. E-commerce and transactional queries trigger one only 3-4% of the time. |
| You need an llms.txt file. | Theatre | Ahrefs analysed server logs from 137,000 domains and found 97% of llms.txt files received zero AI crawler requests in May 2026. GPTBot fetched 4.51% of them, ClaudeBot 0.80%. |
Two ways in
Fix what you have, or replace it
Which one you need is a question with an actual answer, and the free checker gives it to you before any money is discussed. Most sites are worth fixing. Some are not, and we will say so.
| Your situation | What you need | Starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Site scores above 80 | Nothing. Remaining gains are small | Keep the report, spend the money elsewhere |
| Site scores 50-80, structure is sound | Optimisation — schema, structure, copy shape | Audit or fix-it sprint |
| Site scores under 50, or renders client-side | A rebuild. Fixing costs more than replacing | Website build |
| No site yet | A build done right the first time | Website build |
Build
Static · scored before launch
Websites that serve finished HTML, so crawlers that never run JavaScript still see everything. Every build scores 90+ on the public checker, written into the contract.
Optimise
From $750
Diagnosis of what is structurally wrong with the site you already have, and the fixes made. Most sites do not need replacing.
Or nothing
Free · forever
Run the checker, take the fix list, do it yourself. Plenty of people get what they need here and leave, which is a fine outcome.
Frequently asked
Straight answers
What is answer engine optimisation?
AEO is structuring a page so AI systems quote it and credit it. SEO competes for a click on a results page; AEO competes for the sentence the model produces and the source it names. The technical foundation is the same — crawlable, fast, well-structured pages. What changes is that being ranked third is no longer the goal if the answer above you never mentions you.
Is AI search actually taking my traffic?
Probably not the way you have been told. AI chatbots send about 0.29% of search referrals. But if your traffic is informational content, AI Overviews trigger on up to 89% of those queries and take the click before it reaches you. If your traffic is transactional, they trigger on 3-4% and you are largely fine. Which of those you are is the first thing worth knowing.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
Almost certainly not. 97% of them received zero AI crawler requests in May 2026, and Google confirmed in June 2026 that it does not use them for anything. Publish one if you want — it is plausibly useful for autonomous agents. Do not pay anyone for it.
Why do you build static sites rather than WordPress?
Because AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript — analysis of over 500 million GPTBot fetches found zero evidence of it. A static site serves finished HTML, so every crawler gets the whole page. It is also faster, free to host, and has no plugin surface to be hacked through. If you need five people publishing daily, WordPress is genuinely better and we will tell you so.
Why would an agency publish evidence against its own services?
Because the category is saturated with fear-based pitches and nobody trusts them any more. Publishing the inconvenient findings is the fastest available route to being believed. It also means the work I do sell is work I can defend.
Start with the check. Decide about hiring afterwards.
It takes about eight seconds and asks for nothing but a URL. It will also tell you if the answer is that you need nothing at all.