Resources
What we are learning about how AI search answers buyers, industry by industry: benchmarks, guides, and our method.
Guide · October 1, 2026 · AI visibility & AEO
How much does AEO cost? Prices for tools, audits, and agencies
Answer engine optimization costs from nothing to about $500 a month for self-serve tracking tools, and $1,500 to $5,000 a month for most small-business agency retainers. BusinessPulse snapshots are free; Saxon AEO retainers are $1,500 a month.
Guide · October 1, 2026 · AI visibility & AEO
AI search visibility audits for Tinton Falls and Monmouth County businesses
Saxon AEO, based in Tinton Falls, NJ, checks whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini cite your business when local buyers ask about your work, and writes the pages that change the answer. Start with a free snapshot or call 732-673-4260.
Guide · October 1, 2026 · AI visibility & AEO
How to hire an AEO agency: what to look for, what to ask, and the red flags
Hire an AEO agency that measures your AI search visibility before it starts, tracks real buyer questions across several assistants, shows who is cited instead of you, and leaves the pages with you. Be wary of guarantees, cheap link packages, and reports with no baseline.
Guide · October 1, 2026 · AI visibility & AEO
AI visibility tools for small businesses: free and paid options compared
Start with a free check: a BusinessPulse snapshot or HubSpot’s AI Search Grader. If you want ongoing tracking, Otterly.AI ($29 a month) and Peec AI (about $95) are the small-business-sized options; Semrush, Ahrefs, and Profound make sense for larger teams or existing customers.
Guide · October 1, 2026 · AI visibility & AEO
BusinessPulse vs. Otterly.AI, Peec AI, and Profound
BusinessPulse is a free one-time snapshot that chooses the buyer questions for your industry and shows who AI search cites instead of you. Otterly.AI, Peec AI, and Profound are paid trackers for questions you choose, checked on a schedule across several assistants.
Industry benchmark · September 22, 2026 · Residential roofing
How AI search answers residential roofing buyers
Combined results from 11 businesses: how often their own sites are cited, by type of question, and what gets cited instead.
Method · September 21, 2026
How the BusinessPulse snapshot measures AI visibility
We ask Perplexity, with live web search, 20 questions that buyers in your industry and area actually ask, then check which websites each answer cites. Your score is the number of questions where your own site was one of them.
Explainer · September 21, 2026
Why AI search cites Angi and Yelp instead of your website
When buyers ask an AI assistant who to hire nearby, it usually answers from directories. Across 27 industries, directories were cited on 106 of 135 "near me" answers, and the businesses’ own sites on 35.
Explainer · September 21, 2026
When buyers ask AI what a job costs, it cites cost guides, not the businesses that do the work
Ask an AI assistant what a job costs and it quotes cost guides such as HomeGuide and Angi. Across 27 industries, the businesses’ own sites were cited on none of 86 cost answers. That gap is an opening.
Guide · September 21, 2026
How to check whether ChatGPT recommends your business
Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude the questions your buyers ask, in a fresh chat, naming your town, then read the sources under each answer, not just the text. Repeat on a schedule, because answers change.
Short answer · September 20, 2026
What is AEO (answer engine optimization)?
AEO is the work of getting your business cited when people ask AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude for recommendations. Where SEO aims for a ranking on a results page, AEO aims to be one of the few sources an assistant quotes in its answer.
Guide · September 20, 2026
How to get your business cited by AI search
Answer the exact questions your buyers ask, on pages AI assistants can read, and make your business easy to verify across the web. Most of it is plain, specific writing and a few technical settings.
Industry benchmarks publish once 10 businesses in that industry have been measured. In progress: AI visibility & AEO, Basement waterproofing, Bathroom remodeling, Collision & body shops, Commercial cleaning & janitorial, Commercial roofing, Dentists, Directional drilling & trenchless utilities, Electrical contracting, Excavation & site work, Financial advisors, Fire protection, General contracting, Home healthcare, HVAC & plumbing, IT companies & MSPs, Kitchen remodeling, Landscaping & lawn care, Marinas & marine repair, Moving companies, Municipal advisors, Pest control, Pools & hot tubs, Religious art & gifts, Siding, Solar installation, Tree services & arborists, Web design & development, Windows & doors.