The AEO Agency engineering citations inside ChatGPT + AI Overviews.
47% of commercial AU searches now return an AI answer above the organic results. As an AEO agency, we engineer the schema, content and entity authority that gets you cited inside those answers — not just linked underneath them. Also known as GEO.
Trusted by teams at
Above the organic results. The new top of SERP — and the new losing position for the brands not cited.
Across our 2025 retainer book. Citation, not ranking — the new currency.
Most agencies are still selling traditional SEO. We measure the surface that actually grew.
If your current agency feels like a cost centre,
it probably is.
- —Agencies that bill for hours, not outcomes
- —Juniors running your strategy
- —Vanity dashboards that don’t tie to revenue
- —Slow, quarterly reporting with no accountability
- ✓A senior pod across strategy and execution
- ✓Strategy from operators who’ve scaled ASX brands
- ✓Real-time revenue attribution, not impressions
- ✓Weekly ship cycles with a named Growth Lead
Every lever an AEO Agency should pull.
Six disciplines. One senior pod. Schema engineering, answer-format content, entity authority, citation-grade links and weekly AI-citation monitoring — measured in citations, not keywords.
AI-engine citation audit
We query ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews for your high-intent buyer prompts and map who gets cited, why, and where you fit in the answer.
Learn moreSchema engineering for AEO
FAQPage, HowTo, Article, Product, Organization, WebPage with @id self-reference, sameAs entity graph. The structured data AI engines preferentially extract from.
Learn moreAnswer-format content engineering
40–60 word definition paragraphs, listicle markup, comparison tables. The exact formats AI engines lift wholesale into answers.
Learn moreEntity authority building
Wikidata, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, knowsAbout schema. We build the entity graph that ties your brand to the topics you want to own in AI responses.
Citation-grade link acquisition
Editorial placements on the high-authority publications LLMs trained on and still re-crawl: AFR, SmartCompany, B&T, industry trades. Citations, not just links.
Weekly AI-citation monitoring
Custom dashboards tracking your share of voice across the 5 major answer engines, week-on-week. We report on citations, not impressions.
Discover. Strategise. Execute. Compound.
Discover
Deep audit of your business, funnel, ad accounts and competitors. 7–10 days.
Strategise
A bespoke 12-month growth roadmap with KPIs, milestones and budget guardrails.
Execute
A senior pod ships campaigns, pages and automation in weekly sprints.
Compound
Monthly executive reviews with forecasts, attribution and next-level plays.
Real SEO results from real Australian brands.
A snapshot of the SEO work we've shipped. Real numbers, signed off by the team that ran them.
Eden Hair Extensions
Salesforce
Tego Insurance
The Meat Store
Aston Homes
Awake Academy
Words from the people paying us.
“Whitehat Agency has done a remarkable job with the Wiise project. The quality of work is unmatched. The team there is highly creative and results focused. They helped us deliver the Wiise website in record time and worked really well with our internal team. Then once the website was live, they helped with the digital marketing launch campaign with exceptional results. Thank you.”
“Whitehat treats my business like it’s their own. They really valued our company’s values.”
“Whitehat didn’t just send more traffic — they sent qualified doctors ready to insure. 300+ fresh leads and an 18% jump in completed quotes.”
Recognised by
As featured in
Whitehat vs the alternatives.
Three ways to work with us.
Every engagement is scoped to your goal — not slotted into a fixed retainer ladder. Pick the shape that matches where you are; we’ll forecast the investment in your first call.
Project Sprint
A focused, time-boxed engagement with a single senior specialist. Fixed scope. Fixed outcome. One hand on one lever.
- ✓One senior strategist, one channel
- ✓Weekly working session
- ✓90-day roadmap on day 7
- ✓Direct Slack / Teams line
Growth Retainer
A senior pod plugged into your business. Strategist, specialists and creative working in weekly ship cycles, all tied to a revenue number your CFO signs off on.
- ✓Dedicated Growth Lead + senior pod
- ✓SEO, Paid, Web or AI — any mix
- ✓Weekly ship cycles, monthly QBRs
- ✓Revenue-tied attribution dashboard
Embedded Partner
Senior Whitehat strategists integrated alongside your in-house team. We sit your stand-ups, ship from your repos, and report to your exec. Effectively a fractional growth function.
- ✓Fractional CMO / Head of Growth
- ✓Multi-pod execution capacity
- ✓Priority ship queue
- ✓Executive board reporting
Why no public pricing? Because a real growth program is scoped to your goal, your stack and your stage — not a price tag a competitor can screenshot. Book a free call; we’ll give you a forecasted investment and an expected return inside 30 minutes.
AEO Agency questions, answered straight.
Still got questions? Our team replies to every enquiry inside 24 hours.
What is an AEO Agency?
An AEO Agency (Answer Engine Optimisation Agency) helps brands rank inside the answers generated by AI engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Whitehat is an AEO Agency engineering schema, answer-format content, entity authority and citation-grade links so AI engines preferentially cite our clients in commercial answers. Also known as GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation).
What's the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO targets the 10 blue links Google has shown for 25 years. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) are different names for the same new surface: ranking inside the AI-generated answers that now sit above those blue links. The mechanics differ — AEO favours structured answer formats, entity authority and citation-grade sources over traditional ranking factors like raw backlinks and keyword density.
Do I still need SEO if I do AEO?
Yes — they compound. The same content, schema and authority signals power both surfaces. Most of our clients run SEO and AEO as a single integrated programme: an essay ranks in Google's 10 blue links, gets quoted in Google's AI Overview at the top of the same page, and gets cited by ChatGPT when asked the equivalent question.
How do you measure AEO results?
Weekly citation tracking across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. We query the 30–60 high-intent prompts your buyers actually ask, log which sources get cited, and track your share of voice over time. The metric is citations per prompt — not keyword position.
How long until I see AEO results?
Most clients see their first AI-engine citations within 30–60 days of an AEO programme starting — faster than traditional SEO because the same content gets indexed across multiple engines in parallel. Compounding citation share builds over 90–180 days.
Does AEO cover voice search and assistants like Siri and Alexa?
Yes. Voice assistants — Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant — answer from the same structured data, entity authority and answer-format content AEO engineers. A voice assistant reads out one source, so the goal is identical to text engines: be the single cited answer, not one of ten links. We optimise both surfaces in one programme.
Which industries benefit most from AEO?
Any business whose buyers ask questions before they buy. We see the strongest returns in healthcare, finance, legal, real estate, eCommerce and professional services — categories where customers research with AI engines before choosing. With around 47% of commercial AU queries now showing an AI answer, if your buyers ask questions, AEO is how you become the source those answers cite.
Which AI engines do you optimise for?
The five surfaces that carry buyer intent in Australia: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google Gemini and Google AI Overviews — plus Microsoft Copilot, which draws on the same signals. We track citations across all of them weekly, because a brand cited in one engine is rarely cited in every engine without deliberate work.
Will AI engines hurt my organic traffic?
They already are — AI Overviews now show on roughly 47% of commercial AU queries and reduce click-through to the organic results below them by 35–60% in our measured cohort. The defensive move is to be the source cited inside the AI answer, not the source linked underneath it. AEO is no longer optional for brands serious about organic.
What's the difference between AEO and traditional SEO content?
Traditional SEO content was written for humans skimming a 10-blue-links SERP. AEO content is written for AI engines that extract a single 40–60 word answer paragraph and cite the source. The structures differ: definitive opening sentences, listicle markup, comparison tables, schema-marked Q&A blocks. Same writers — different output format.
Do you offer AEO and GEO services across Australia?
Yes. We deliver answer engine optimisation and generative engine optimisation (GEO) for clients Australia-wide, including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, remotely — AI search optimisation doesn't depend on a local office. Across our 2025 retainer book, 8 of 10 clients were cited in ChatGPT for their target queries inside 90 days. Your free AEO audit runs your buyer prompts through five engines live, wherever you're based.
Everything else we run in-house.
Your competitors
are compounding.
Catch up in 30 min.
A free strategy session with a senior strategist — no juniors, no sales pitch. Walk away with a 90-day roadmap, a revenue forecast, and a live teardown of your ad accounts.