Buyers are skipping the SERP.
When ChatGPT or Perplexity gives someone a confident answer about who to hire, most people never click through to a results page. If your business isn't in the answer, the click never happens.
Based in Perth and want the local angle? AI SEO Perth
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO is the work of getting a business named and recommended inside AI-generated answers, across Google AI Overviews, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and other answer engines. It combines conventional SEO with entity clarity, content structured so a passage can be lifted whole, third-party citations and reputation signals. The aim is not to rank a page and hope for a click, but to become one of the few sources an AI names when a buyer asks it who to use.
AI SEO is the umbrella term Search Scope uses for improving a business's visibility across AI-assisted search and answer systems. You will also encounter Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO). The terms overlap heavily, but they describe slightly different parts of the search and answer environment. GEO here means Generative Engine Optimisation: being cited inside AI-generated answers. It is not geo-targeting, and it is not the geo-grid rank tracking we use for Google Maps.
Understand the AI search landscape
AI SEO is the service. These pages explain the systems behind it.
The terminology is used loosely across the industry, so we keep the definitions separate from the sales page.
What's actually happening
Your customers are already asking AI who to call.
Most business owners assume AI search is a 2027 problem. By the time it looks urgent, the businesses cited in their category have already been compounding citation for 12 months. The window where this is a competitive advantage, instead of a baseline, is open right now.
-
-
AI traffic converts at a different rate.
Microsoft Clarity's November 2025 study reported AI-referred visitors converting at roughly 3× the rate of other channels. The reason is structural: the user's question has already been answered. They're looking for a provider, not more information.
Source: Microsoft Clarity · Nov 2025 ↗ -
Established domains have a head start, not a guarantee.
Strong traditional SEO gives you the authority and content infrastructure AI platforms draw from. It does not automatically translate to citation. The structured-data and natural-language layer has to be deliberately built.
The free AI visibility check
We show you where you stand, before we talk about anything else.
Every engagement starts the same way. A 30-minute call where we run a live AI visibility check on your business. You leave with three things: a score, a competitor breakdown, and an honest view of the gap. If there's nothing worth fixing, we'll tell you that too.
- Step 01
Your AI visibility score
We open ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI and Gemini live on the call and run the buyer questions your customers actually type. Not a report. A real search. You see whether you're cited, mentioned, or invisible across each platform.
- Step 02
Who's showing up instead
When you're not in the answer, somebody is. We show you which competitors AI platforms are recommending in your place, and the specific signals driving that citation (review profile, schema depth, comparison content, authority links).
- Step 03
What it would take to change it
A clear, honest gap analysis. What's missing, how long it realistically takes to close, and what the gap is costing you right now. No vague roadmap. Actual numbers and a timeline before you decide whether you want our help.
How does Search Scope measure AI visibility?
We measure AI visibility rather than screenshot it. A fixed set of buyer prompts is tracked over time across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, recording which businesses get named and which websites get cited, alongside geo-grid rank tracking and Google Search Console. Between 22 May and 10 September 2026 that tracking logged 765 AI answers that cited their sources: ChatGPT answers cited 3.4 websites on average, Google AI Overviews 5.9 and Google AI Mode 6.3.
What we actually build for you
What does an AI SEO consultant actually do?
An AI SEO consultant works out why AI assistants recommend other businesses in your category, then fixes the causes: business facts that are unclear or inconsistent across the web, pages that cannot be quoted as a clean answer, and too few independent sources backing you up. At Search Scope that work runs in five steps, from resolving your business facts to measuring how often AI recommends you, and Dorian runs every engagement directly.
What that involves depends on the buyer. A local service business, a national brand and an ecommerce catalogue each need different things to get cited by AI, so here is each one.
The goal
When someone in your city asks an AI platform who to call for your service, your business comes up. Building that means a digital footprint AI platforms trust, clean, authoritative, consistent across the web.
Citation & NAP consistency
AI platforms cross-reference your business across dozens of sources. We audit, fix and monitor inconsistencies that erode citation likelihood.
Google Business Profile depth
Categories, service areas, posts and attributes, every element treated as a citation signal.
Review velocity and sentiment
Automated request systems, multi-platform acquisition, response optimisation. AI platforms weight volume, recency and tone heavily.
Content AI platforms actually cite
Service pages with clear factual descriptions, FAQ content targeting common AI queries, structured for LLM retrieval, not stuffed with keywords.
Local schema markup
LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, AggregateRating implemented correctly. Machine-readable data that tells AI exactly who you are and what you offer.
Authority link building
Top-10 listicle placements, local press, industry associations, guest posts on authoritative domains, the kind of references AI platforms use as citation signals.
The goal
When AI platforms answer category-level questions across Australia, your brand is one of the named sources. The win isn't a suburb, it's share-of-voice across every category query in your space.
Brand entity stack
Wikidata, Wikipedia, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, industry associations, the canonical sources LLMs reconcile against. We audit the entity and fix the gaps that stop AI confidently naming you.
Topical authority pillars
Pillar pages and cluster content that cover the category exhaustively. AI cites the source that most clearly owns the topic, not the one with the loudest brand.
Comparison & category content at scale
"Best X for Y" guides, vendor-comparison pages, decision frameworks. The structural content AI platforms reach for when users ask category-level questions.
Original research and data
Surveys, benchmark studies, methodology pages. Citation-grade primary research that other publishers reference, and that AI platforms treat as a source of truth.
Organization & WebSite schema
Organization, sameAs, knowsAbout, ContactPoint, WebSite with potentialAction, the structured-data layer that tells LLMs exactly which entity you are.
PR-grade authority links
Mentions in trade press, business media and category publications. The references AI platforms use to validate that you're a credible authority, not just a website.
The goal
Less about map-pack visibility, more about becoming the cited authority when users ask product and category questions at the moment they're ready to buy.
Review platform depth
Trustpilot, ProductReview.com.au and category platforms. We automate post-purchase requests and build the review base AI systems treat as a trust signal.
Comparison & "vs" content
AI platforms cite comparison content heavily when users ask "X vs Y". We build honest, structured comparison pages that attract citations rather than chase clicks.
"Best of" category pages
Buyer's guides and top-10 pages that AI platforms treat as authoritative references, kept current so recency signals stay live.
Product content optimisation
Benefit-led descriptions, structured specifications, FAQ sections answering real product questions. Built for both human readers and LLM retrieval.
Ecommerce schema
Product, AggregateRating, Offer and BreadcrumbList implemented across the catalogue so AI platforms understand what you sell, at what price, and how it's rated.
Authority content strategy
Buying guides, industry trend content, original research that builds topical authority over time, the kind that attracts citations organically, not just rankings.
How we work
Four phases. No mystery retainer.
AI citation is built, not bought. Most clients with established domains see measurable traction within 3 months. New domains take 6–9 months. Anyone promising you AI SEO results in 30 days is selling you something.
See the AI Entity Authority System, the methodology behind these phases- AuditWeeks 1–2
AI citation rate measured. Gaps mapped.
- Live citation check across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI, Gemini
- Digital footprint and schema audit
- Competitor citation breakdown
- Content gap analysis
- Strategy doc and quarter plan
- FoundationWeeks 3–8
The unglamorous work most agencies skip.
- Schema implementation (LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Product)
- Citation cleanup and NAP consistency
- GBP and review system setup
- Technical fixes that unlock retrieval
- AI-friendly content structure on existing pages
- Content & authorityWeeks 9–14
Built for Google and LLM retrieval from draft one.
- AI-optimised service / category pages
- FAQ content targeting real AI queries
- Comparison and "best of" pages where relevant
- Authority link building from cited domains
- GBP tuned for AI extraction
- Monitor & compoundMonth 4+
Citation frequency tracked alongside traditional SEO.
- Monthly reporting in plain language
- AI citation frequency tracked across platforms
- Schema validation and content refresh
- Quarterly strategy review
- No vanity dashboards
Honest timeline. LLMs prioritise authoritative, established
sources, and that authority takes time to build. 3 months is the earliest most established domains see
measurable citation movement. 6–9 months for new domains. The compounding work starts the day you sign.
Want to see the full measurement stack, from GA4 and GSC through to AI citation tracking?
How we track SEO ROI →
Understanding AI SEO
How AI SEO differs from the SEO you already know.
Traditional SEO vs AI SEO (GEO)
| Aspect | Traditional SEO | AI SEO (GEO) |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank on page 1 of Google | Get cited in AI-generated answers |
| Target | Google's ranking algorithm | Large Language Models (LLMs) |
| Content | Keywords, backlinks, technical SEO | Natural language, structured data, factual depth |
| Metric | Position 1–10 in SERPs | Citation frequency in AI responses |
| Competition | 10 spots on page 1 | About 3 to 6 cited sites per answer, varying by engine |
The smart play isn't choosing one over the other. Traditional SEO builds the authority AI platforms draw from. AI SEO structures that authority in a way LLMs can retrieve, cite, and recommend. Our guide to Generative Engine Optimisation carries the full definition, the evidence grades and the myths.
What we look for
Five things we check when assessing AI retrievability.
Not a universal weighting system, because nobody outside the vendors has one. These are the properties we build into every page and the ones most AI SEO audits flag as missing.
-
Clearly structured
Proper H2/H3 hierarchy, short paragraphs, logical flow. LLMs retrieve passages, not pages.
-
Factually dense
Specific, verifiable claims with sources. Vague generalisations get filtered.
-
Accurately described
Structured data that matches what is visible on the page and names the entity, business and service. We implement it where it is accurate, not as an AI-ranking shortcut.
-
Externally cited
Authoritative backlinks and mentions act as reference signals. AI platforms use them as a trust proxy.
-
Conversational tone
Direct answers in natural customer language. Marketing voice ("we are passionate about…") tends to get filtered.
How AI visibility actually works
Every answer engine cites sources differently. We optimise for each.
There is no single "AI algorithm". Each engine builds its answers from a different index and a different set of signals, so getting cited means a different job on each one. Here is where we focus, in plain terms, with the vendor documentation each claim rests on.
Google AI Overviews & Gemini
Where most of the ROI isFor most businesses this is the biggest prize, so it gets the most attention. Earning a citation here is a combination of 3 things: already ranking respectably in classic Google results, formatting content so a clean, self-contained passage can be lifted straight into the answer, and link building, either earning a mention in the sources Google is already pulling, or building a dedicated asset that targets the exact query. Gemini leans on a broadly similar signal set, so the work carries over.
ChatGPT
Crawl access firstOpenAI documents that ChatGPT search "sometimes partners with other search providers", and links the Microsoft and Shopify privacy policies for how those providers may handle your query. It does not say how much of an answer either one shapes, so an agency that tells you exactly which search engine ChatGPT runs on is telling you more than OpenAI has published. What OpenAI does name is the entry requirement: allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl the site, and allow its published searchbot IP ranges. Block either and the site cannot be cited at all. AI SEO here is that access check first, then topical authority, then fan-out coverage: the related sub-questions the model expands one prompt into before answering. OpenAI states there is no way to guarantee placement. Neither can we.
Source: OpenAI Help Center, Searching the web with ChatGPT. Read 16 September 2026.
Claude
Provider not disclosedAnthropic documents what Claude does: it decides when to search, runs the searches, and answers with citations. It names no underlying search provider. Brave says its Search API supplies "most of the top 10 AI LLMs" and is the only index behind some of their answers, but names none of them either. So nobody outside those 2 companies can say which index answers a Claude query, and we will not pretend otherwise. AI SEO for Claude is therefore the work that survives whichever provider it turns out to be: pages that crawl cleanly, unambiguous entity signals, and third-party corroboration. That is also what earns visibility inside Brave’s own index of more than 30 billion pages.
Source: Anthropic web search tool documentation, and Brave’s Search API blog. Read 8 September 2026.
Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and the rest each pull from their own retrieval layer too, and we track those. Copilot is the exception where the plumbing is not in doubt. Microsoft owns both halves: Copilot is grounded on Bing, and Bing Webmaster Tools now reports Copilot citations directly. The point is simple: one generic "AI SEO" tactic does not cover all of them, and where a vendor has not published how its retrieval works, the honest answer is to say so and do the work that holds up either way. Our explainer on how AI search works covers the underlying retrieval mechanics.
Common AI SEO myths
Six things business owners get wrong about AI SEO.
We hear these on almost every discovery call. Each one costs time, money, or both. Here is what's actually true.
-
Myth 01 "If our traditional SEO is strong, we're already AI-ready."
ActuallyStrong traditional SEO gives you a head start on domain authority and content infrastructure, but it does not automatically translate to AI citation. Being retrieved depends on entity clarity, passages that can be lifted whole, and third-party corroboration, which traditional SEO often underprioritises. The foundation is an advantage. It still needs the AI layer on top. Our own Perth AI Search Study 2026 measured how big the head start is: of businesses recommended across 3 or 4 AI systems, 52% ranked in the Google organic top 10 for the same question, against 1.5% of businesses never recommended. Organic presence was the strongest association we found, and it still explained a minority of who got named.
-
Myth 02 "Stuffing the page with keywords helps AI find us."
ActuallyThe opposite. LLMs retrieve passages, not keyword density. Conversational, fact-dense content cited by other sources gets pulled into answers. Keyword-stuffed pages tend to get filtered as marketing copy.
-
Myth 03 "We can get cited within 30 days."
ActuallyNo. LLMs prioritise authoritative, established sources. The schema and content infrastructure can be shipped in weeks, but citation frequency only moves once those signals are validated by external references. 3 months on established domains, 6–9 on new ones. Anyone promising faster is selling you something.
-
Myth 04 "Schema is a nice-to-have."
ActuallyStructured data can make important entities and relationships more explicit: what your business is, what it offers, where it operates. We implement it where it accurately describes the page and the business. We do not treat schema as an AI-ranking shortcut, because the controlled tests we have seen do not support that, and Google states it is not required for its AI features.
-
Myth 05 "AI SEO is just a rebrand of SEO."
ActuallyHalf-right. The foundations are the same, authority, trust, content quality, schema, references. The optimisation surface is different. You're no longer optimising a snippet that a user clicks; you're optimising for a retrieval system that selects a handful of sources to synthesise into an answer. Different optimisation target, different metric, same underlying signals.
-
Myth 06 "Our brand is already mentioned, so we're cited."
ActuallyMention and citation are not the same. A brand can be mentioned in an answer without being recommended, while citation means the AI is actively pointing users at you as the answer. And it goes further: AI Overview answers are generated fresh on every search, so they shift constantly. Being cited for one query on one day is not visibility. Durable presence means getting cited consistently, across the whole cluster of questions your buyers actually ask. We separate all of this in the visibility check and show you exactly where you stand.
The figures in myth 01 are observed associations from the Perth AI Search Study 2026, 2,400 AI answers to 200 Perth questions collected by Search Scope over 3 days in September 2026 and published with its method and dataset on our research site. An association at one point in time, not a cause.
Why Search Scope
AI search didn't change our work. It validated it.
Most agencies talk about AI SEO in theory. We've been building the foundations AI platforms actually rely on, domain authority, structured data, citation networks, content that gets cited, for over a decade.
- 01
We were already doing the work.
The foundations AI platforms rely on, domain authority, structured data, clean citation networks, content that earns references, are the foundations Dorian has been building since 2013. When GEO became a term, we didn't pivot. We renamed what we were already doing.
- 02
We show you the evidence first.
The free visibility check isn't a funnel tactic, it's how we start every engagement. You see your current AI presence before we discuss strategy or pricing. If there's nothing to fix, we'll tell you that too.
- 03
No handoffs. No lock-in.
Every campaign is run by Dorian directly, not delegated to a junior account manager who's been in the industry for 18 months. Month-to-month. You stay because the work is delivering, not because you signed something.
SEO since
The founder
The consultant who runs your AI SEO: Dorian Menard
Founder. SEO only, since 2013.
Specialising in SEO since 2013. Founder of Search Scope. I work directly with every client on strategy and execution. No account managers, no offshore teams, no templated retainers.
My work covers multi-location and franchise SEO, organic and national SEO, local SEO, Google Maps, GBP and GMC reinstatement, technical audits, and AI search visibility. I work with established businesses and multi-location networks that want a senior specialist, not a service package.
2013
In SEO since
200+
Engagements
98%
Reinstatement
1
Specialist on your account
AI SEO clients
What clients say.
5.0 stars across 38 verified Google reviews. Read on Google Full client review archive
Is this right for you?
AI SEO earns its retainer, if you're the right fit.
Honest answer upfront: we are not for everyone. AI citation is a partnership that compounds, not a plug-in. The strategy call is 30 minutes, if we are not a fit, we will tell you and point you somewhere that is.
- ✓ You already have customers and revenue.AI SEO compounds existing authority. Established domains see 3-month traction; brand-new sites without a content base will struggle to justify the spend in the first 6 months.
- ✓ Your average customer is worth real money.A few hundred dollars per job for local services, healthy margin for ecommerce. AI citation drives qualified, intent-heavy traffic, but it's a long compound, not a tap.
- ✓ You measure success by leads and revenue.Calls, enquiries, booked jobs, attributable sales. Not impressions, keyword positions, or "AI mentions" without conversion.
- ✓ You can let the work compound.LLMs prioritise authoritative, established sources. Citation frequency moves quarter over quarter, not week over week. Businesses that win treat GEO as infrastructure.
- ✓ You'll let us touch the website.Schema, content structure and authority links happen on the site itself. If your dev team blocks every change for six weeks, the work doesn't ship.
30 minutes. No pitch deck. No proposal at the end unless you ask.
We're probably not the right fit if…
- ✕ You're shopping for guaranteed AI citations in 30 days. They don't exist.
- ✕ You want a hands-off retainer with no input on content, reviews, or schema decisions.
- ✕ You're hoping AI SEO replaces a non-existent marketing foundation. It compounds an existing one, it doesn't create one.
- ✕ Your average customer is worth under $100 and you need 50 of them next week. Paid is a better channel.
- ✕ You can't absorb more enquiries, intake or fulfilment isn't ready.
We'll say so on the call. We optimise for your revenue, not our retainer count.
Pricing
How much does AI SEO cost in Australia?
Search Scope publishes its AI SEO prices. An AI Visibility Audit is $1,500 one-off, or $3,000 for ecommerce and multi-location. The Entity Foundation starts from $1,950 one-off. Ongoing programs start from $1,499 a month for local service businesses and $3,999 a month for high-competition and ecommerce brands. Prices are ex-GST, month-to-month, with no lock-in.
Diagnose, fix the foundations, then keep the work going. Most AI SEO gets sold as a monthly retainer from day one. That is the wrong order for most businesses, because the thing holding them back is usually a digital footprint that no machine can read cleanly. Fix that once, then pay monthly to keep the ground you take.
Already running SEO with us? A fair chunk of the
Entity Foundation is work your campaign already covers, so you are not charged for it twice.
The audit and Foundation are scoped down accordingly and quoted on the call. AI visibility work
is built into every SEO and Local SEO campaign we run, not a separate line item. The prices
below are for adding AI SEO onto a campaign you run elsewhere, or having us handle AI
visibility on its own. If the foundation is the only part you need, that is sold on its own as
entity SEO.
Need more of one thing?
Most businesses pick a program and leave it there. If yours needs more coverage in one area, add it rather than moving up a tier.
- 10 extra tracked buyer questions
- $150 / month
- Each additional buyer profile
- $250 / month
- Weekly tracking instead of fortnightly
- $400 / month
- Each placement beyond the included allowance
- $250 plus media at cost
What a managed placement is
When an AI answers a question in your category it does not search the whole web. It pulls from a small set of sites it already trusts, and the same handful come up again and again.
So the first job is working out which ones those are for your questions. Then we get your business onto them, either added to the exact page the AI is already quoting or onto a new page on the same site. You are not building new authority from scratch, you are borrowing authority that already exists, which is why this is usually the fastest thing that moves.
Placement costs are paid to the publisher, not to us. They are invoiced at cost with the supplier invoice attached, and we charge a flat fee for finding and managing each one.
Not every platform costs the same to win
ChatGPT and Perplexity are the more reachable surfaces, because they lean on indexes with weaker filtering and less personalisation than Google's. Claude and Copilot sit in the middle, pull fewer sources per answer so each one carries more weight, and matter most if you sell to other businesses.
Google AI Overviews is the hardest by a distance, and your organic footing feeds it. That is not an absolute. Overviews do cite pages sitting nowhere near page one. But the pattern is consistent enough to plan around: the stronger you rank on a topic, the more often you get summarised. Run AI SEO on a thin foundation and you are working against the odds rather than with them.
That is the one place a specialist AI-only agency has to send you elsewhere and we do not. If the honest answer is that your organic foundation has to come first, we can build that too, and we will tell you on the call rather than sell you a program that cannot land.
Estimate the return: SEO campaign ROI calculator Multi-location and enterprise, scoped on the call.
The Trust Stack
Getting cited is the top of the stack.
AI engines cite sources they can identify and trust. That verdict is assembled from everything below it: your technical health, your content, who links to you, your platform signals and your reputation. There is no shortcut that skips the five layers underneath.
See the whole Trust Stack- Technical Foundation
- Content Authority
- External Validation
- Platform Signals
- Reputation & Reviews
- AI & Entity Trust This page
FAQ
AI SEO questions.
The 30-minute visibility check answers the rest. Real data on the call. No pitch deck.
Book a free check 30 minutes · Live AI visibility check · No pitch
Ready to get cited by ChatGPT, not skipped?
A 30-minute AI visibility check with the specialist who'll do the work, not a salesperson. We run your buyer questions live across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI, so you leave knowing exactly where you're invisible and what it takes to get cited.
No lock-in contracts Specialising in SEO since 2013 Founder-led from first call
Pick a time · 30 minutes
Pick a time for the visibility check.
30 minutes on the calendar. Bring the questions your best customers ask before they buy, and we will run them live across the AI platforms your buyers actually use.