Zenith

What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)—also called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—is the practice of optimizing your content to get cited by AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. Unlike traditional SEO where you compete for rankings, AEO is about getting mentioned in the AI-generated answers that users see when they ask conversational questions. When someone asks ChatGPT "What's the best real-time analytics platform for Kubernetes?" you want to be one of the sources it cites. This matters because there's only a 35% overlap between what Google shows and

Why should I care if my company shows up in ChatGPT?

This is happening now, not in the future. January 2025 was the inflection point—ChatGPT started driving more traffic than Twitter for some companies. Webflow publicly shared that 8% of their signups now come from LLMs, and that traffic converts at 6x the rate of Google search traffic. Think about your buyer journey. When a technical founder is evaluating solutions, they're increasingly asking ChatGPT or Perplexity for recommendations instead of Googling. If your competitor shows up in those answers and you don't, you're losing mindshare and pipeline. The good news: unlike traditional SEO which

How is AEO different from traditional SEO?

While there's overlap in tactics, the mental models are fundamentally different: Traditional SEO: • Focus on ranking #1 for specific keywords • Requires domain authority built over years • Short queries (6 words average) • Win the blue link or you're invisible AEO: • Focus on getting cited across multiple sources (share of voice) • Early-stage companies can win immediately via citations • Long conversational queries (25 words average) • Multi-channel presence compounds (landing pages + YouTube + Reddit + help center) The biggest difference: AEO optimizes for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation

How is Zenith different from AEO monitoring tools like Athena, Profound or Scrunch?

We execute, not just monitor. Monitoring tools give you data. We deliver results. For example, we helped MotherDuck achieve an 18.9% lift in AI citations and 3x content velocity in 90 days. Zenith is a tech-enabled service, not just a dashboard. We provide both strategic direction and, for teams that need it, full content execution. We cover all your channels, from your website and docs to Reddit and YouTube. Our team has deep experience from Google's Search ranking team, Confluent's GTM engineering, and Dropbox's growth platform. We know how to get technical products found.

How long does it take to see results?

Much faster than traditional SEO. With AEO, you can start seeing results in 30-90 days instead of 12-18 months. Here's why: You're not waiting to build domain authority or accumulate backlinks. If you publish great content that answers a hyper-specific question, ChatGPT can cite it within days. Our typical timeline: • Week 1-2: Baseline tracking, identify target questions, audit current content • Week 3-6: Create optimized landing pages, launch YouTube videos, authentic Reddit engagement • Week 7-12: Controlled experiments, measure share of voice lift, iterate on what works The MotherDuck case

Do I need a big marketing team or domain authority to get started?

No—that's one of the biggest advantages of AEO for early-stage companies. Traditional SEO advice says "Wait until Series A/B when you have resources and domain authority." But with AEO, you don't need domain authority. You just need to get cited. And citations come from: ✓ Information gain: Did you say something nobody else said? Domain expertise, original research, and unique insights matter more than your DR score. ✓ Multi-channel presence: A great landing page + a 5-minute YouTube video + 5 authentic Reddit comments can be enough to start showing up. ✓ Long-tail whitespace: Answer hyper-spe

What's the difference between your "Work with me" and "Work for me" offerings?

"Work with me" ($7,500/month): • What we do: Provide strategic direction for both owned media (website, help center, docs) and off-site channels (Reddit, YouTube, community content) • What you do: Execute the strategy with your internal team • Best for: Companies with an existing content or marketing person who want expert guidance on what to build and how to prioritize • Deliverables: Strategy roadmap, target questions dashboard, experiment frameworks, weekly guidance "Work for me" ($12,000/month): • What we do: Strategy AND full execution across all channels • What you do: Provide product ex

Should I do this in-house or work with an agency?

It depends on your velocity and domain expertise. Do it in-house if: • You have a strong content marketing person and can dedicate engineering resources for landing page optimization • Your team uses your own product and has deep customer empathy (you know exactly what questions your ICP asks) • You can commit to running rigorous experiments (control groups, tracking share of voice, iterating weekly) Work with an agency (like Zenith) if: • You want speed and pattern recognition from teams running experiments across multiple clients • You don't have bandwidth to learn this new category while ex