FAQ
Questions and answers
The questions I get asked most, answered as plainly as I can manage. If yours is not here, ask me.
The basics
What is Agent SEO?
Agent SEO is the work of making a website easy for AI assistants and agents to find, understand and recommend. It covers crawler access, structured data, clear content, consistent business facts and third-party mentions. The same idea is also called AI SEO, generative engine optimisation (GEO) and answer engine optimisation (AEO).
How is it different from normal SEO?
Normal SEO aims for a high position in a list of links. Agent SEO aims to be named and cited in an answer. The two overlap heavily, because assistants lean on search indexes, but Agent SEO adds work that rankings do not cover: letting AI crawlers in, stating your facts so a machine can read them, writing content that can be quoted, and checking what assistants actually say.
Which AI assistants does this cover?
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, plus the AI answers inside Google and Bing search. Most of the groundwork helps with all of them at once, because they depend on the same things: being able to reach your pages and make sense of them.
Do people really use AI assistants to choose businesses?
Yes, and I have the email to prove it: one of my own customers found my app by asking ChatGPT, then bought it. How much of your market does this is harder to say and varies by industry. Part of the free check is seeing whether assistants answer questions about your kind of business at all.
What we do
What is included in the free Agent SEO check?
I look at your site by hand: whether the main AI crawlers can reach it, whether your key facts are machine-readable, and what a few assistants say when asked the questions your customers would ask. You get an email with what I found and the fixes I would do first. It is free and there is no obligation.
Can you guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No. Nobody outside OpenAI controls what ChatGPT says, and the same is true of every other assistant. Their answers also vary from one request to the next. I improve the things that are in your control, then measure whether you appear more often. Anyone offering a guarantee is guessing or fibbing.
Do I need llms.txt?
It will not hurt and it takes minutes, so I add one. But be realistic: Google says its search does not use llms.txt, and a 2026 study by Ahrefs found that 97% of these files received no requests at all in a month. It is the least important item on the list. The full picture is in this article.
Will you write content for my site?
Where a question your customers ask has no page, I will draft one using your facts, and you approve it before it goes live. I will not fill your site with generic articles. Thin content written for machines helps nobody, and both search engines and assistants are getting better at ignoring it.
Do you need access to my website?
Not for the free check or the audit. They only look at what is public. For implementation, I need either enough access to make the agreed changes or a developer on your side who can apply them from my instructions.
What platforms do you work with?
Most of them, including WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, custom-built sites and static sites. Some hosted site builders restrict things like robots.txt or files at the root of the domain. If your platform blocks a fix, I will tell you before quoting.
Money and time
How much does it cost?
There are no public prices. The first check is free. After it, if paid work would help, you get a fixed quote in writing, and that quote is the price. You can take all of it, part of it, or none.
How long before I see results?
The fixes themselves usually take days. The effect takes longer, because assistants and search engines have to crawl your site again. On my own sites I allowed two to three weeks before re-measuring. Earning mentions on other websites, which matters a lot, is slower still.
Is there a contract or a minimum term?
No minimum term. Audits and fixes are one-off jobs at a fixed price. Monitoring runs month to month unless we agree otherwise in writing, and you can stop it.
Where are you based, and do you work with businesses outside the UK?
I am in Milton Keynes, England. The work is done remotely, so I can help businesses anywhere, in English. Quotes are in pounds sterling unless we agree otherwise.
Trust
Who actually does the work?
I do, with a team of AI agents doing the legwork: crawling, checking and drafting. I review everything and I am the person who replies to you. Agent SEO HQ is a trading name of Flavr Web Dev Ltd, my company, registered in England and Wales under number 14994358.
Is trying to influence AI answers a bit dodgy?
It can be, done badly. Stuffing pages with hidden text or buying fake reviews is manipulation, and I will not do it. Making sure a machine can reach your website, read true facts about your business and find real answers to real questions is just good housekeeping. Google's own guidance says much the same.
What do you do with my details?
I use them to do the check and reply to you. They are not sold or shared for marketing, and you are not added to a mailing list. Enquiries are deleted after 12 months. The privacy policy has the detail.
Find out what the assistants say about you
Send me your address. I check it by hand and reply with what I found, usually within two working days. It costs nothing, and any paid work comes with a fixed quote first.