of runs showed an AI Overview: 2,563 of 2,600 across our 130 buying questions. For a commercial question in Google, the answer is now the first thing a buyer reads.
130 questions, daily, 4–23 September 2026
Answer engine optimization · Toronto · USA & Canada
AEO Agency for Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT Answers
Verticality is an AEO agency in Toronto for B2B SaaS, DTC and regulated brands in the USA and Canada. We make your pages the answer that Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT pull for your buyers' questions, and we correct what AI gets wrong about you.
- Best for
- B2B SaaS, DTC and regulated brands whose buyers get the answer from Google or ChatGPT before they click, and brands that AI describes inaccurately.
- What you get
- A question map, answer-first rewrites of the pages engines should quote, an answer-accuracy audit with corrections, and placements on the sources AI Overviews cite: YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and roundups.
- Surfaces
- Tracked daily: Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Checked by hand each month: AI Mode, featured snippets and People Also Ask, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.
- Price
- From $2,500/month, month-to-month, no minimum term. The proposal sets the AEO scope within our published $2,500–$7,500 programme range.
- How we work
- By Google's 2026 guidance: no content-chunking or llms.txt tricks aimed at Google Search, no invented mentions, and disclosed participation wherever we answer in public.
- Timeline
- Question map and baseline in weeks 1–2, first answer-first pages and corrections live in month 1, and a re-test against the baseline in month 3.
The definition, and where it stops
What answer engine optimization covers
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of making your page the answer an engine extracts for a specific buyer question, and making sure that answer is correct. The answer can appear in five places:
- Google AI Overviews, at the top of the results for most buying questions.
- Google AI Mode, Google's conversational search.
- Featured snippets and People Also Ask boxes in classic results.
- ChatGPT and Perplexity, when a buyer asks a direct question.
- Voice assistants, which read a single answer aloud.
Two neighbouring jobs have their own pages. Generative engine optimization is about being cited across AI-generated shortlists, mostly through off-site sources: see our GEO agency. LLM SEO is about how each large language model finds and represents your brand: see our LLM SEO agency. AEO sits closest to your own pages and to Google.
Our own measurement · 4–23 September 2026
What our tracker shows about answer engines
We ask the same buying questions every day to Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity and store every answer and every source. Four findings shape how we do AEO. They are measured on the questions in our own category, marketing services, so read them as how the engines behave rather than as numbers for your market.
of Google's AI Overviews cited a YouTube video; ChatGPT and Perplexity cited none. Overviews also cited LinkedIn in 41.7% and Reddit in 35.0% of answers. Being the answer in Google means being on the sources Google reads.
1,104 AI Overviews on 56 AI-search questions
of the URLs an AI Overview cited were also cited by ChatGPT for the same question on the same day. Winning the answer in Google says little about ChatGPT, so we track and fix each engine separately.
981 question-days, same question and date
of an AI Overview's sources were cited again the next day, against 26.4% for ChatGPT and 70.1% for Perplexity. One screenshot is not a result; a trend across daily runs is.
56 AI-search questions, next-day comparison
Method: Verticality AI Visibility Tracker, 20 daily runs per engine; URLs compared after removing tracking parameters. The engine-level patterns generalise; the domain shares belong to our category.
Google publishes the rules, so we start there
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode optimisation
Google's AI optimization guide for Search, updated in July 2026, is unusually direct about what works and what does not. Our Google work follows it.
What Google requires
The page is indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and the site is included in Search's generative AI features in Search Console. Google says no special markup and no AI-specific file are required.
What we do
Pages with first-hand facts and data nobody else has; the answer to each buyer question in the first sentence under a question-shaped heading; accurate business details; a clean technical structure; and coverage of the follow-up questions Google fans out to, without near-duplicate pages for every variation.
What we skip
llms.txt files and content chunking for Google Search, which Google says it ignores or does not need; manufactured mentions; and tools that promise ranking success. Google treats pages made mainly to game fan-out variations as scaled content abuse.
How we measure it
Search Console's Generative AI performance report, available for every site since 31 August 2026, for your impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode; and our daily tracker runs for which sources the Overview cites and whether it names you.
38%
Ranking still matters, less than it did — and the answer takes the click.
In Ahrefs' March 2026 study of 863,000 keywords, 38% of AI Overview citations came from pages in the top 10 results, down from 76% in July 2025. In Pew Research Center's March 2025 browsing study, 18% of searches showed an AI summary; users clicked a traditional result on 8% of those visits against 15% without a summary, and clicked a link inside the summary on 1%.
Google's AI optimization guide, updated 10 July 2026 · Ahrefs, 2 March 2026 · Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025 (900 US adults, 68,879 searches)
Where the questions come from
Question research: the questions your buyers actually ask
We build the question map from five sources: your Search Console queries, which now include long, conversational questions; the People Also Ask boxes in your category; your sales and support calls; the community threads where buyers compare options; and the questions our tracker already runs for your market. Each question gets one destination page and one answer sentence we want the engine to extract.
A real example from our own Search Console, September 2026
“what digital agencies specialize in answer engine optimization for b2b companies?”
The sentence we want extracted: “Verticality is an AEO agency in Toronto for B2B SaaS, DTC and regulated brands in the USA and Canada.” It is the first sentence of this page, and Google showed this page at position 7 for that question.
Accuracy is part of the answer
When AI gets your facts wrong
Wrong prices, a product you retired, a competitor's feature attributed to you. Nobody can edit an AI answer, but you can change what the engine reads. This is the workflow:
- Capture the wrong answer: the question, the answer, the cited sources, the date and the engine.
- Trace each wrong claim to the source it came from.
- Publish a dated canonical facts page — what you do, for whom, what it costs, what changed and when — in plain sentences an engine can quote.
- Correct or replace the outdated sources: update requests to publishers, disclosed replies in the Reddit threads, current third-party pages that state the right facts.
- Report the answer through the platform's feedback channel where one exists.
- Re-run the same questions every week until the answer changes, and log it.
You get the canonical facts page, the source list, a correction log and the re-test schedule.
Timing differs by engine. In our tracking, Perplexity re-used 70.1% of its sources from one day to the next, so a corrected source can take weeks to replace an old one; ChatGPT re-used 26.4%, so a correction can show sooner and less predictably (56 AI-search questions, 4–23 September 2026).
Five outputs, each with something you can check
Answer engine optimization services: what you get
Question map
The 50–200 questions your buyers ask, drawn from your Search Console, People Also Ask, sales and support calls and community threads. Each has a destination page and the answer sentence we want the engine to extract.
DeliverableA prioritised question map and the tracked question set.
Answer-first pages
Your product, pricing, comparison and help pages rewritten so each question's answer sits in the first sentence under a question-shaped heading, with the facts — who, what, price, where, since when — written as text.
DeliverableRewritten pages with an editorial change log.
Answer-accuracy audit
How each engine describes you today: which facts are right, which are wrong or outdated, and which source each claim came from. A positive mention can still carry the wrong price.
DeliverableAn accuracy report and the correction workflow, run until the answers change.
Placements on the sources answer engines quote
The YouTube videos, LinkedIn posts, Reddit threads, roundups and review sites the engines cite for your questions, and a plan to earn a place in them. Human, disclosed, nothing bought.
DeliverableA source map and a log of published placements.
Answer tracking per engine
Daily runs on Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity; monthly checks of AI Mode, featured snippets, Gemini, Claude and Copilot; and Search Console's Generative AI report.
DeliverableA monthly report with the raw answer behind every number.
Published, with its term
What AEO costs
AEO programmes start at $2,500 a month, month-to-month with no minimum term, and sit inside our published programme range of $2,500–$7,500 a month. The proposal sets the scope; the free audit sets the number. The full programme tiers are on our GEO agency page.
Published AEO retainers we checked on 24 September 2026 run from about $1,600 to more than $15,000 a month.
Discuss your AEO scopeWhat we can show today
Proof: answer engines already quote our facts
We do not publish invented client results; client numbers appear here when a client approves them. What we can show is the method working on our own site. Since 20 September 2026 ChatGPT has named Verticality in answers to 8 of the 56 AI-search buying questions we track, 5 of them on any given day, almost always citing our GEO page and lifting the facts it states in plain sentences: who it is for, what it includes and what it costs.
“Starts at $2.5k/mo and explicitly targets B2B brands, including off-site citations and AI-answer tracking.” — ChatGPT, 21 September 2026
Who AEO is for
B2B SaaS
Your buyers ask Google and ChatGPT which tool fits their stack, team size and budget. The answer should state your integrations, security and price correctly.
DTC and e-commerce
AI answers extract product facts — ingredients, sizes, price, shipping — so those facts have to be on your pages as text and match the review sites.
Fintech and regulated brands
Every answer about you is a compliance question. We work from approved statements and put every change through your review.
Who it is not for
- Teams that need leads this month. Answers change over weeks and quarters.
- Categories where the engines answer with generic advice and name no vendors. The audit will say so.
- Anyone who wants fake reviews, undisclosed accounts or pages written to manipulate an engine.
What we can't do
- Guarantee a place in an AI Overview or a ChatGPT answer. Google says indexing and serving are never guaranteed, and answers change between runs.
- Edit an AI answer directly. We change what the engine reads; the engine decides what it says.
- Make Google read an llms.txt file or reward schema on its own. Google says it does neither.
Your questions
AEO agency FAQ
What does an AEO agency do?
An AEO agency makes your pages the answer engines extract for your buyers' questions — in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, featured snippets and ChatGPT — and corrects answers that get your facts wrong. At Verticality that means a question map, answer-first page rewrites, an answer-accuracy audit, placements on the sources answer engines quote, and daily tracking per engine.
Is Verticality a US AEO agency?
Verticality is based in Toronto and works with B2B SaaS, DTC and regulated brands across the USA and Canada. AEO programmes start at $2,500 a month, month-to-month, and the same team runs every engagement.
Can you get us mentioned in Google AI Overviews?
No one can guarantee an AI Overview mention, but we can make the pages Google should quote eligible and easy to extract, and show you every appearance. Google requires a page to be indexed and snippet-eligible, and since 31 August 2026 Search Console reports generative AI impressions for every site, so the result is measurable.
How do you optimize for Google AI Overviews and AI Mode?
We follow Google's July 2026 guide: indexable, snippet-eligible pages, content with first-hand facts and data, a clear technical structure and accurate business details. We skip what Google says to ignore for Search, such as llms.txt files, content chunking and manufactured mentions, and we measure with Search Console's Generative AI report and our own daily runs.
Can you fix what ChatGPT gets wrong about our company?
Not by editing the answer — nobody can — but by fixing what it reads. We capture the wrong answers, trace each claim to its cited source, publish a dated canonical facts page, correct or replace the outdated third-party sources, report the answer to the platform and re-test every week until it changes.
What is the difference between AEO, GEO and LLM SEO?
AEO is about being the answer an engine extracts for a specific question — in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, featured snippets or ChatGPT — and making sure that answer is correct. GEO is about being cited across generated shortlists, mostly through off-site sources. LLM SEO is about how each large language model finds and represents your brand.
How much does AEO cost for a B2B SaaS company?
Our AEO programmes start at $2,500 a month, month-to-month with no minimum term, and are scoped by proposal within our published $2,500–$7,500 range; the free audit sets the number. Published AEO retainers we checked on 24 September 2026 run from about $1,600 to more than $15,000 a month.
Can AEO work for a new or low-authority B2B brand?
Yes, if the work starts where answer engines already look: plain, quotable facts on your own pages, then the third-party sources the engines cite for your questions. Our own example: ChatGPT began naming Verticality five days after our GEO page went live, because the page states who it is for, what it includes and what it costs.
Which engines do you track, and can we see the raw answers?
Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity are tracked every day on your fixed question set; AI Mode, featured snippets, Gemini, Claude and Copilot are checked by hand each month. Every number in a report links to the answer and the sources behind it.
Do you guarantee a place in AI Overviews or ChatGPT?
No. Google says crawling, indexing and serving are never guaranteed, and in our tracking an AI Overview cited only about half of the same sources again the next day. We commit to the work and to showing you every answer, right or wrong.
Keep exploring
Connect AEO to the rest of your search strategy
Changes to this page: 24 September 2026 — rewritten around answer surfaces and answer accuracy; tracker data for 4–23 September 2026 and Google's July 2026 guidance added. 15 September 2026 — published.
Make your next step specific
Find out what the answers say about your brand.
Start with a free AI visibility audit. We run your buyers' questions through Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity, show you which answers name you, which get your facts wrong, and which sources decide them.
Get a free AI visibility audit