For UK small businesses
AEO for small businesses means getting your business named when a customer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI who to use. I do it as part of Growth, £497 a month, and I test it on my own business first. In September the AI tools left me out of four of the five questions below.
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Ask an AI tool “who fixes boilers in Ealing” and it doesn’t hand you ten links. It searches, reads a few pages and writes one answer with two or three business names in it. AEO, short for answer engine optimisation, is the work of being one of those names.
The tools pick businesses they can read clearly on their own site and see described the same way on other sites. Most of that overlaps with ordinary local SEO, which my local SEO and AEO page covers.
On 12 September 2026 I asked twelve buyer questions in Google and Perplexity, logged out. These are five of them, with what each tool said about Vantage Growth Partners:
| Question asked | Google’s AI answer | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| best AI consultancy in London for SMEs | Not named | Not named |
| best AI growth agency UK | Not named | Not named |
| AI consultancy for UK SMEs with published pricing | Not named | Not named |
| who does database reactivation for UK businesses | Named first, under the wrong name | Named fourth |
| missed call text back UK provider | Not named | Linked as a source, not named |
Three things from that test changed how I do this for clients:
I don’t sell AEO on its own. It sits inside Growth, £497 a month at the founding rate, which also covers a new website, your Google Business Profile, local SEO and everything in Core. The full list is on the Core and Growth page.
The work is the six steps above, done properly and every month: your questions asked logged out, your site fixed so the tools can read it, your details matched everywhere, and your business described on the sites the tools trust. You get the answers side by side with last month’s.
If an agency quotes you for AEO on its own, ask to see the list of questions they will track. A score with no questions behind it can’t be checked. Comparing your options? My comparison of UK AI growth agencies is a fair place to start.
SEO gets your page into the list of results. AEO gets your business named inside the answer that ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI writes above that list. Most of the groundwork is shared, so you are not paying for two separate jobs.
Site changes get read within a few weeks. Being named depends on how many other sites describe you, and that takes months. If someone promises you a date for an AI answer, ask them how they would know.
Yes. The six steps on this page need no paid tool. The part people drop is the monthly check, which is the only way to tell if anything changed.
Not always. Check one thing first: right-click your homepage, choose View page source and search for a sentence from your page. If it is not there, the AI tools cannot read your site either, and that has to be fixed before anything else.
Keep reading
Buyer’s guide
Eight UK AEO agencies compared on the price each one publishes on its own site, who each suits and five questions to ask before you sign.
For roofers
How a roofing company gets found on Google search and Maps, with data on 197 West London roofing firms and a checklist you can use yourself.
Buyer's guide
Automation consultancies, strategy-led B2B partners, single-tool specialists, human answering, and done-for-you growth systems, an honest map of the UK market.
Original data
Original research on 671 West London trade businesses: median 10 Google reviews, one in seven with none, one in six with no website, plus the arithmetic for your own missed calls.
Owner's guide
The compliant six-step system: trigger from every job, same-day text with a direct link, ask everyone, never incentivise, reply to everything, and what Google and the CMA actually prohibit.
Looking for local SEO and AEO? It is part of Growth, from £497 a month, alongside the new website and the content and ads engine. I do not sell it on its own.
See what the local SEO and AEO layer coversBook a free 30-minute audit. I ask your customers’ questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, logged out, and show you who gets named.
Book my free audit