Answer Engine Optimization for small businesswithout an enterprise contract.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews already answer questions about businesses in your category every day. Whether your name shows up in those answers is a different problem from Google search rankings, and it has its own fix. Webflow shipped an AEO product 2026-04-13 — Enterprise-only, USD 15–40k per year. This page is for the rest of us.
Or run a free AI Visibility check first — zero cost, 60 seconds, no follow-up unless you want it.
AEO in 80 words.
Answer Engine Optimization is the work of getting your business cited inside AI-generated answers. When a customer asks ChatGPT "who's the best dentist near me?", the engine reads dozens of sources and composes a recommendation. The pages it pulls from are the pages with FAQPage schema, LocalBusiness JSON-LD, clean entity-graph linkage across Yelp and Wikidata, and topic-cluster content the engine can quote. Reviews and Google rankings help less than you think — different layer.
Same idea as SEO (show up when your customer asks), different layer of the stack, different fixes.
The enterprise tools have priced you out — on purpose.
Webflow announced its AEO product on 2026-04-13 as an Enterprise-only release — custom contracts, USD 15–40k per year, sold to in-house marketing teams at brands with 50+ employees. Bluefish, LLMrefs, and Enrich Labs run USD 299–999 per month with 6-month minimums. The category was designed for buyers who think in annual budgets and procurement cycles.
That leaves a 12-month first-mover window in the SMB lane. Whichever Brooklyn restaurant, Queens contractor, or Manhattan dental practice gets cited in "best [vertical] near me" in 2026 will own that query for years — because AI engines lock in citations the way Google search locks in backlinks.
Webflow AEO
Enterprise-only. USD 15–40k per year. Custom contract. Sold to marketing departments.
Bluefish / LLMrefs / Enrich
USD 299–999 per month. 6-month minimum. Tooling-first, service-light.
Velox
USD 97 Playbook (DIY) or USD 499 Sprint (done in 30 days). One-time options. Built for the SMB.
Five concrete deliverables, one fixed price.
The USD 499 AEO Sprint is the same methodology Velox uses internally, productized so it ships in 30 days without a procurement call.
AEO baseline audit
25-query scan across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Claude. PDF report. Day-1 score.
FAQ schema deployment
15 paste-ready FAQ pairs + FAQPage JSON-LD added to your site. Tested in Google Rich Results.
Entity graph audit + citations
10 priority citation targets ranked by impact. 5 Tier-1 adds executed (Yelp, GBP, vertical directories).
Topic-cluster content
3 articles live on your site with LocalBusiness, Service, and Article schema markup. Briefs reviewed before drafting.
T+30 re-measurement
Same 25 queries re-run at Day 30. Real before/after report — which queries now cite you, which do not, and why.
You are not the wrong customer. They picked the wrong customer.
Webflow's AEO product is a strong technical layer. It is also Enterprise-tier sales-led — annual contracts, in-house marketing teams, deal sizes that justify a custom rollout. That works for a regional chain. It does not work for a Brooklyn restaurant or a Queens contractor with a 4-person back office and a marketing line item that lives below USD 1,000 per month.
Velox runs the same fundamentals — schema markup, entity graph, topic clusters, citation tracking — at SMB pricing: USD 97 to do it yourself, USD 499 for done-for-you in 30 days. If you are reading this because Webflow quoted you USD 18,000 a year, the alternative is below.
Common questions on AEO for small business.
What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
AEO is the practice of getting your business cited in AI-generated answers — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Claude. The fixes are different from Google search SEO: FAQPage schema, LocalBusiness JSON-LD, entity-graph cleanup across Yelp / Wikidata / Google Business Profile, and topic-cluster content that AI engines can pull from.
Is AEO for small business actually different from enterprise AEO?
The methodology overlaps. The pricing does not. Webflow AEO launched 2026-04-13 as Enterprise-only at USD 15–40k per year. Bluefish, LLMrefs, and Enrich Labs price at USD 299–999 per month with a 6-month minimum. None of those work for a Queens dentist or a Brooklyn restaurant. Velox priced AEO for the SMB lane the larger players abandoned.
What does the USD 499 AEO Sprint actually deliver?
A 30-day fixed-price engagement: AEO baseline scan (25 queries × 4 engines), FAQ schema deployment (15 paste-ready FAQ pairs + FAQPage JSON-LD), entity-graph audit + 5 Tier-1 citation adds, 3 topic-cluster articles live on your site with full schema markup, T+30 re-measurement report. One-time, not a subscription.
Can I do AEO myself?
Yes. The USD 97 AEO Playbook is the same methodology in a 60-page PDF — paste-ready FAQ schema, entity-graph checklist, 5 cornerstone outlines, schema templates, and a 30-day measurement plan. If you can edit your site head and write 3 short articles, the Playbook is the cheaper path.
Are AEO results guaranteed?
No. Anyone selling guaranteed AI-search rankings is lying — AI engines drift their citation behavior 40–60% month-to-month on the same query. Velox sells the work done (schema deployed, citations added, content shipped) and tracks improvement velocity over 30 days. If your AI Visibility score does not improve, the Sprint refund clause covers USD 200 of the USD 499.
How does this fit with my existing SEO?
AEO is additive. Most SEO work helps AEO indirectly (clean URLs, fast pages, good content), but AEO has its own explicit fixes that SEO agencies do not prioritize: FAQPage schema, entity-graph linkage, topical authority on the questions AI engines actually answer. Both should run together.
The USD 97 AEO Playbook
60-page PDF. Paste-ready FAQ schema, entity-graph checklist, 5 cornerstone outlines, schema templates, 30-day measurement plan. Buy once, own it. Quarterly updates included.
Read Chapter 1 freeThe USD 499 AEO Sprint
30-day done-for-you engagement. Audit, FAQ schema, entity graph, 3 articles, T+30 report. USD 200 partial refund if your AI Visibility score does not improve. Optional bolt-on to USD 299 / mo Monthly DFY for ongoing refinement.
Book the Sprint — USD 499Not ready for either? Run the free AI Visibility check.