AEO Partnership With Underscore
Your brand deserves to be the one AI recommends.
We help brands become visible, citable, and recommended by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and beyond. We offer one thing: a structured, signal-based path to AI visibility.
AI is changing how buyers find businesses
If AI doesn't recommend you, you're invisible to a growing segment of your market. Most businesses respond by chasing tactics. More blog posts, added schema markup, tracking random prompts. That's optimising without a strategy.
"What's the best accounting firm for startups in Singapore?"
"Which fintech payment provider is most trusted for cross-border transactions?"
"What SaaS tools do law firms use for client management?"
Underscore takes a different approach. We start with your brand identity, map your audience's actual behaviour, and engineer 7 distinct signals that collectively determine whether AI recommends you or your competitor.
As a dedicated AEO agency, AI optimisation is our core focus. Every engagement is built around it.
The 7 Signals Framework
Every AEO Partnership is built on the 7 Signals Framework, a systematic methodology for making your brand AI-visible across every dimension that matters.
Signal | What It Covers | Why It Matters |
Brand Signal | Positioning, audience definition, defensible difference | AI cannot recommend what it cannot understand |
Experience Signal | Landing experience, conversion flow, UX | AI referral traffic is wasted if your site doesn't convert |
Content Signal | AI-citable content, structure, formatting | Content must be extractable and attributable to earn citations |
Search Signal | SEO-to-AEO translation, prompt mapping | Your existing keyword data is a foundation for AEO |
Social Signal | LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, newsletters | Social platforms are primary AI training and retrieval sources |
Authority Signal | PR, backlinks, directories, guest publications | Third-party validation is what makes AI confident in recommending you |
Agent Signal | Structured data, crawl access, llms.txt, schema | AI agents need to be able to read your site, not just visit it |
These signals are a system, not a checklist. We engineer all 7 as part of every partnership.
Start with a complimentary 7-day AI Visibility Snapshot
At no cost, we run a focused assessment of how AI systems currently see your brand. This is the same diagnostic we use to evaluate fit and prioritise what matters.
- Visibility snapshot across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
- Brand representation review
- Competitive context across your industry
- Infrastructure gap analysis mapped to the 7 Signals
- A walkthrough call to discuss findings and fit
The Snapshot gives you a clear picture of where you stand today. The full engagement goes deeper, tracking changes over time and engineering improvements across all 7 signals.
One industry. One client. Full commitment.
We do the opposite of volume-based agencies. We take on only one active client per industry. That means no competing mandates, no split incentives, and no diluted focus.
Foundation (Weeks 1 to 3)
Every partnership starts with Brand Signal, the foundation everything else builds on. This is a focused sprint to establish clarity.
In 2 to 3 weeks, we:
- Define your core positioning in AI-parseable language
- Map your audience personas from CRM data, client interviews, and inquiry patterns
- Build a validated prompt list from 4 data sources (CRM, user research, SEO data, social listening)
- Recalibrate your baselines and targets using validated audience data (replacing the Snapshot's initial numbers)
By the end of Foundation, we know exactly who you are, who you serve, and what prompts your audience is asking AI. Everything from here builds on this.
Signal Engineering (Remaining months)
With Brand Signal locked in, we engineer the remaining 6 signals, prioritised by what moves the needle fastest for your specific gaps.
This is not linear. Multiple signals run in parallel:
- ✍️ Content Signal, topic direction, AEO-optimised briefs, page restructuring for citation
- 🤖 Agent Signal, structured data, schema markup, crawl access, llms.txt
- 🔍 Search Signal, keyword-to-prompt translation, content gap analysis
- 💬 Social Signal, platform advisory to reinforce brand positioning for AI
- 🏛️ Authority Signal, citation-building via directories, aggregators, editorial placements
- 🧭 Experience Signal, landing page optimisation for AI referral traffic
The exact priority depends on your signal gaps. We adjust monthly based on what the data shows.
Measurement (Ongoing throughout)
Throughout the partnership, we track on 30-day rolling averages:
- AI visibility percentage and share of voice
- Citation rate and top-cited URLs
- Bot crawl frequency
- AI referral traffic
- Inquiry source attribution ("How did you hear about us?")
Reported monthly. Reviewed bi-weekly on calls.
If we work together, your category is yours for the duration of the engagement. That is how we protect the quality of the work and the value of the opportunity.
One industry. One client. Full commitment.
We do the opposite of volume-based agencies. We take on only one active client per industry. That means no competing mandates, no split incentives, and no diluted focus.
| 7-Day Snapshot | AEO Partnership |
What | Builds an internal "knowledge card" for your brand | Full 6-month signal engineering engagement |
Includes | Visibility score, share of voice, citation rate, competitor comparison + 7 Signals walkthrough | Brand Signal foundation (Weeks 1 to 3) + hands-on engineering across all 7 signals + monthly reporting |
Duration | 7 days | Min 3 months |
Best for | Established SMEs evaluating their AI visibility | Brands ready to build AI visibility systematically |
Outcome | You see the data and understand what's possible | Your brand is visible, citable, and recommended by AI |
Cost | Complimentary | From $1,500 per month |
|
What you can expect from us
AEO is an awareness and consideration play. It compounds over time and protects what's already working. Realistic expectations:
| Outcome |
Weeks 1 to 3 | Brand Signal defined. Validated prompt list built. Baselines recalibrated with real audience data. |
Month 2 to 3 | Quick wins across multiple signals live (structured data, crawl access, content restructuring). Early citation appearances in Perplexity and Google AI Overview. |
Month 3 to 4 | Measurable citation improvements. Bot crawl activity increase. Authority Signal and Social Signal campaigns in motion. |
Month 6 | Consistent AI visibility across major platforms. Brand entity established in AI knowledge. Pipeline attribution from AI-discovered leads. |
FAQ
SEO gets you ranked in search results. AEO gets you recommended by AI. They're complementary. Your SEO data feeds into our prompt mapping, and pages that rank well are more likely to be sourced by AI. AEO goes beyond rankings to engineer how AI understands, trusts, and recommends your brand.
We decline. For the duration of your engagement, your industry slot is exclusively yours. We will not take on a direct competitor. This is fundamental to how we operate.
You can, but it's one signal out of seven. Content-only AEO is like optimising one page of your website and hoping the rest takes care of itself. AI cross-references multiple signals, including brand consistency, third-party validation, and technical accessibility, before deciding to recommend you.
Start with the 7-Day Snapshot. It's the fastest way to see where you stand. If the data makes sense and you're ready to act on it, the Partnership is a structured 6-month engagement. We work with established SMEs and structure engagements accordingly.
They're the same thing. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) both refer to optimising your brand for AI-powered search. The industry uses different terms, but the goal is identical: making your brand visible, citable, and recommended by AI systems. At Underscore, we use the term AEO and structure our work around the 7 Signals Framework.
Yes. Our AEO Partnership covers visibility across all major AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview. We don't optimise for a single platform in isolation. AI systems cross-reference multiple signals, so effective ChatGPT visibility requires the same 7 Signals approach that works across all AI answer engines.
One slot per industry. See if yours is open.
We'll assess how AI systems currently see your brand, identify the infrastructure gaps that matter, and show you what's possible.