THE FULL STORY
How it works
For 20 years, getting found online meant SEO— climbing Google's list of blue links. That game is ending. People ask AI a question and trust the answer they get. AEO is making sure the AI recommends you.
Grounded checks what AI can actually verify about your business, fixes what's missing, and keeps it verified — so when a customer asks, you're the answer. Here's the whole thing, in plain English.
Published 2026-07-03 · Grounded AEO · groundedaeo.com
The old game: someone types into Google, gets ten blue links, and scrolls. You fight for position. That's SEO, and an entire industry spent two decades playing it.
The new game: someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI “who's the best option near me?” and gets one answer, built from two or three sources. Nobody scrolls. The citation is the new ranking — and in most industries, nobody has claimed it yet.
Here's what makes the timing matter: trust compounds with tenure. The websites that grabbed the top of Google 15 years ago are still very hard to unseat — domain age itself became a trust signal. Verified records work the same way. The record you start today will have years of history by the time engines check these signals at scale. The identical record started a year from now won't.
When an AI engine decides who to recommend, it runs your business through three tests — whether you know it or not:
→Can I read you? Your facts have to exist in a form AI tools actually parse — structured data and a machine-readable guide, not just nice-looking pages.
→Can I verify you? Your name, address, and phone need to say the same thing everywhere they appear. Contradictions kill trust — the engine moves on to someone consistent.
→Can I trust you? Fresh, provably-maintained facts beat stale scraps. A verified record with a maintenance history is the strongest signal a business can send.
Fail all three — as most businesses do today — and AI answers questions about your space from whatever scraps it can find around the web: the internet's version of an old phone book. Nothing verified, and nothing from you.
An llms.txt file is a one-page guide to your business that lives on your website — written for AI tools instead of people. What you do, where you are, what matters, which pages count. It's the file AI crawlers fetch first, and most businesses don't have one. That single missing file is often the difference between being read and being skipped.
You can write one yourself in about 20 minutes — here's the complete guide. On every paid tier, we generate and maintain yours automatically.
- 01
We dig in
We crawl your domain the way an AI engine does, score your AI-citation readiness out of 10, and show you every gap in plain English — free, 30 seconds, no account.
- 02
We verify and plant
We build your fact record — what you do, where you are, how to reach you — generate the AI-readable files (llms.txt, structured facts), and issue your verified v=AEO1 record anchored in your own DNS.
- 03
We keep it alive
Scheduled refreshes re-check your facts on a set cadence so nothing goes stale, and the citation dashboard shows whether AI engines are actually naming you — the number you watch climb.
There are two kinds of records, and we're straight about the difference. A self-declared record is you saying who you are — real, useful, free, and you can make one yourself in five minutes. A verified record means someone independent checked your facts and stands behind them — on our top tiers, a human, against multiple sources, on a schedule.
That's also why the bigger plans don't buy a bigger score. They buy verification depth — a human in the loop, cross-checked sources, faster refresh. Verification is what AI trust is actually built on, and it's the one thing you can't self-declare.
How is this different from SEO?+
SEO gets you a spot in a list of links a person scrolls. AEO gets you named in the answer itself. When someone asks an AI "who should I use?", there is no list to scroll — there is one answer, built from two or three sources. AEO is the work of being one of them.
Do I still need SEO?+
Keep whatever is working. But every month, more of your customers ask an AI instead of scrolling links — and the AI answer is winner-take-most. AEO is where the new ground is being claimed, and almost nobody in most industries has claimed it yet.
Which AI engines does this cover?+
ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Grok — any tool that answers questions directly instead of returning links. The fixes are the same across all of them: readable, verifiable, trustworthy facts.
What does the free audit actually check?+
We crawl your site the way an AI engine does and score ten points across the things engines look for: a machine-readable guide to your business, structured facts (who you are, where you are, how to reach you), whether AI crawlers are even allowed in, and whether a verified record of your business exists. You see every gap in plain English.
What is an llms.txt file?+
A one-page guide to your business that lives on your website, written for AI tools instead of people. It says what you do, where you are, and what matters — in a form AI crawlers fetch first. Most businesses do not have one, which is why AI skips them.
What is a v=AEO1 record?+
A small entry in your domain's DNS — the same place email trust records like SPF live — that declares a verified fact record exists for your business and where to find it. It proves domain ownership, because only the domain's owner can add it. The open spec is at aeorecord.org.
Why does DNS matter here?+
Anyone can write anything on a website. But only the real owner of a domain can add a DNS record to it. That is why email security settled on DNS records to prove senders are real — and it is the same reason a DNS-level AEO record is the strongest ownership proof an AI engine can check.
Can I do this myself?+
A meaningful chunk of it, yes — and free. You can generate a self-declared record at groundedaeo.com/free-record in about five minutes, no account. Writing your own llms.txt and structured facts takes more effort but is absolutely doable. What you cannot do yourself is independent verification — a record that says "a third party checked these facts" has to come from a third party.
What does Listed ($99/yr) include?+
We build your catalog entry, generate your llms.txt and structured facts automatically, issue your verified record, and refresh it every month so it never goes stale. It is the "have it done properly and kept current" tier.
What do the bigger tiers add?+
A human. Verified ($499/yr) puts a real person in the loop who checks your facts against multiple sources before anything publishes. Grounded ($999/yr) adds multi-location support, full cross-source corroboration, daily refresh, and priority access for AI agents. The bigger plans don't buy a bigger score — they buy verification depth, which is what AI trust is actually built on.
Why annual billing only?+
It keeps the price low and matches how the value works — tenure. A record that has been verified and refreshed for a year is worth more than one created yesterday. Annual billing means your record never lapses by accident.
What happens when my information changes?+
That is the point of the scheduled refresh: we re-crawl on a set cadence, catch what changed, and update your record — with your review on the paid verification tiers. Stale facts are how businesses lose AI trust, so freshness is built into every tier.
Does any AI engine check v=AEO1 records today?+
Honestly: adoption is early — that is exactly why the timing matters. What works today: AI crawlers already read llms.txt and structured facts, and the audit measures real, current visibility. The DNS record is the early-mover bet: trust signals reward tenure, the way old domains outrank new ones in Google. The record you start today will have years of history by the time engines check these at scale.
What happens to my data if I cancel?+
Your catalog entry drops back to the free tier and stops being refreshed or verified. Your own DNS record and any files on your site are yours and stay put. We do not hold your facts hostage.
How fast until AI starts mentioning my business?+
No one can honestly promise you a timeline, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does. What we control is making your business fully readable, verifiable, and fresh — the preconditions for being cited. The citation dashboard then shows you exactly where you are appearing, so you watch the real number instead of taking anyone's word for it.
See where you stand.
Free 30-second audit — every gap explained in plain English, no account.
Or start free: generate a self-declared record · Compare plans at /pricing