Key point. Elementera's managed AEO services do the AI search work for you. We measure how ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI answers find, describe and recommend your company, fix the reasons you are missing, and report each change against a baseline. Every engagement starts with a call, and every scope is set on that call.
Your buyers now ask an AI assistant before they ask a salesperson: which tools fit their problem, which firms to shortlist, whether your company is credible. If the engine cannot read your site, describes the company you were two years ago, or names three competitors instead, that happens before you ever hear from the buyer. Our managed AEO service, also called AI SEO, answer engine optimization or generative engine optimization services, works on exactly that, for small and mid-sized businesses and funded startups, including SaaS, fintech and technology companies.
What do managed AEO services actually do?
A managed AEO service finds where your company drops out of AI answers and does the work to fix it. "Managed" means our team does the work with you, instead of handing you a dashboard to act on alone.
The work follows the path an answer takes, which we describe in the AI search visibility funnel:
- Can the engines read you? We check that each engine's crawler can fetch your pages, from robots.txt and firewall settings to the pages that only render with JavaScript.
- Are you retrieved for your buyers' questions? Ranking well is not enough on its own: "Across the non-branded searches we measured, more than half of the sites AI Overviews cited weren't in Google's top 10. Good rankings don't guarantee your page is the one being read."
- Do the engines trust and describe you correctly? We compare what each engine says about you with what you sell today, and fix the sources behind any gap.
- Are you recommended? We work on the comparison and "best X for Y" questions where competitors are named first.
How does an engagement start?
Every engagement starts with a call. You tell us about your company, your buyers and your goals; we answer your questions about how engines such as ChatGPT and Gemini choose which companies to name, and suggest where to start.
If you would like to see where you stand before you talk to anyone, run a free Lenz report first. Lenz asks ChatGPT and Gemini the questions a buyer in your category would ask, without using your name, and shows how often each engine names you and who it names instead. Bring the report to the call.
What do you get from each part of the service?
You get written, dated deliverables you keep, whether you stay with us or not. The service has three parts, and most clients start with the first.
| Part | What it is | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| AI Visibility Baseline | Where you stand today, before anything changes | A Lenz report on ChatGPT and Gemini; a technical review of how crawlers reach your site; an audit of third-party scripts that inject markup or text into your pages; a ranked, dated action list |
| AEO Foundation | One-time setup that every later change depends on | Technical fixes; AI crawler access and llms.txt; structured data and trust signals; page speed; analytics with internal traffic excluded; old positioning cleaned up across the site; redirects and broken links; booking, contact and trust pages; accessibility fixes; a change log and your own action list |
| Managed AEO | The monthly work and its measurement | Research behind every new page; content releases and refreshes; corrections where engines describe you wrongly; consistent profiles and reviews on the sites engines cite; LinkedIn distribution for each release; free tools where they help buyers; Lenz included; a dated record of every change |
Each part ends with something you can check yourself. The change log lists every edit with its date and the state before it, so you can connect any movement to a cause.
How does the process work, step by step?
The process runs in five steps.
- Call
We learn your company, buyers and goals, and agree what to measure first.
- Baseline
We measure where you stand on the engines that matter to you, with a fixed list of buyer questions in your buyers' words, before we change anything.
- Plan
We pick the first stage to fix, write down what should move and how we will tell, and send you the plan.
- Work
We make each change and log it with its date and the state before it.
- Report
We measure the same questions the same way and report per engine, so you see what moved, what did not, and what comes next.
The playbook behind these steps is the one we built and ran on our own website first: crawler access, structured data, analytics, content releases and corrections.
Who are managed AEO services for?
They are for marketing leads, founders and heads of growth at small and mid-sized businesses and funded startups whose buyers use AI assistants to research and shortlist. SaaS, fintech and technology companies are common clients, along with other growing businesses that sell to informed buyers.
The situations we see most often:
- A rebrand or new product that AI engines have not caught up with.
- A move upmarket, where enterprise buyers do their research through AI.
- Comparison and "best X for Y" questions where competitors are named and you are not.
- Buyer or investor diligence done partly through an AI assistant before a call or a round.
- No one in-house with the time to cover technical, content and off-site work together.
How are managed AEO services priced?
We scope every engagement on a call, so there is no public price list. The scope depends on how many engines and buyer questions you need covered, how much of the foundation work your site already has, and how much content and off-site work the plan calls for. You leave the call knowing what we would do first and why.
What do managed AEO services work with?
We plan the work around the engines your buyers use: usually ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Copilot or Perplexity where they matter for your market. Lenz, which is included in the monthly service, measures ChatGPT and Gemini.
In the first week we ask for read-only access: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster Tools, and a viewer seat or read-only token for your CMS. Write access comes later, through a separate CMS token you can revoke.
Should you hire an AEO agency or do it in-house?
Do it in-house when you have SEO skills and time each week; bring in a managed service when you do not, or when you want each change measured. The table shows how the options compare.
| Option | What you get | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Managed AEO service | A team that diagnoses, does the site, content and off-site work, and measures the result | No one in-house has the time, or you want it done to a research standard |
| AI visibility platform on its own | Software that asks engines your questions and reports what they say | You have a team that can act on the findings |
| In-house with an SEO lead | Your own team, using Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and a question list | You have SEO capacity and only a few engines to cover |
Many teams combine them. Our guide to prompt research and what an AI visibility audit covers show what the in-house route involves.
Why work with Elementera?
We are a research team that measures before it claims. Our founders have published peer-reviewed machine learning research since 2015, at venues including ICML, ICLR and EACL, and that discipline is how we run every engagement. The papers are listed on our company page.
Four rules apply to every engagement:
- We ask each question more than once. In our research measurements every question is asked at least three times, and repeated on another day before we believe a change.
- We never pool engines. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini read different parts of the web, so a result on one engine is reported for that engine only.
- We publish a finding only with its scope. Every finding we quote names the engine, the kind of question and the sample it was measured on.
- We record which model answered. Every measurement records the model we asked for and the model that actually answered.
Frequently asked questions
How much do managed AEO services cost per month?
We scope every engagement on a call, so there is no public price list. The scope depends on how many engines and buyer questions you need covered, how much of the foundation work your site already has, and how much content and off-site work the plan calls for. You leave the call knowing what we would do first and why.
Should we hire an AEO agency or do it in-house?
Do it in-house if you have someone with SEO skills and time each week, and use a free Lenz report to see where you stand. Bring in a managed AEO service when nobody has that time, when the work spans technical, content and off-site tasks, or when you want each change measured against a baseline. Many teams do both: we set up the foundation and the measurement, and their team takes over the routine work.
How long does AEO take to show results?
Plan on about three months before you judge the first stage of work. Some fixes reach engines quickly: OpenAI says a robots.txt change reaches its search results in about 24 hours. Changes that depend on other websites updating what they say about you take longer. Nobody can guarantee what an AI engine will write, and we do not.
Is managed AEO worth it for a seed-stage startup?
It can be, when buyers or investors already ask AI assistants about your category and you are missing or described wrongly. If you are pre-launch, start with the free Lenz report and the foundation work: crawlable pages, a clear description of what you do, and consistent facts across your profiles. That is small, one-time work that keeps paying off as you grow.
What is the difference between AEO, GEO and AI SEO services?
They are names for the same kind of work: getting your company read, cited, described correctly and recommended in the answers AI engines write. Answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) are the most common labels. Judge a provider on which engines and questions it measures, not on the label.
Which AI engines do you work on?
We plan the work around the engines your buyers use: usually ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Copilot or Perplexity where they matter for your market. Lenz, which is included in the monthly service, measures ChatGPT and Gemini.
Do you guarantee results?
No. No one controls what an AI engine writes. We commit to the work, to measuring it the same way before and after, and to telling you plainly what moved and what did not.
What to do next
- Write down five questions a buyer asks before choosing a company like yours.
- Run a free Lenz report to see how ChatGPT and Gemini answer questions like them.
- Book a call and bring the report.
Work with us
If you want the AEO work done for you, our managed AEO services cover it from baseline to monthly report: Book a call. If you would rather see where you stand first, Lenz gives you a free analysis of how ChatGPT and Gemini answer your buyers' questions: Get your free AI visibility report.
Sources
- OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers" (robots.txt changes reach search results in about 24 hours): developers.openai.com
- Google Search Central, "Google Search's guidance on using third-party SEO tools, services, and advice": developers.google.com
- Elementera, measurements of Google AI Overviews on non-branded US searches, July 2026 (cleared wording).