Service · AEO Agency UK
Answer Engine Optimisation for a SERP That No Longer Sends the Click
Peak Digital is a UK AEO agency running answer-engine-optimisation retainers for brands losing click-through to Google AI Overviews. Google AI Overviews now sit above the classic ten blue links on more than half of UK commercial queries. Featured Snippets, People Also Ask and voice assistants eat the rest. AEO is the discipline of getting into those answer surfaces before your competitors realise they exist. Free audit first.
What we do
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Schema That Actually Validates
FAQPage, HowTo, Product, Review, BreadcrumbList, LocalBusiness: implemented cleanly, validated in Rich Results Test, kept aligned with the copy on the live page. Most sites we audit emit three overlapping schema stacks that conflict and confuse Google. We consolidate to a single validated source and keep it in sync.
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Question-Based Content
Answer surfaces pull answers to questions, not answers to keywords. Every brief starts from Search Console query data, People Also Ask harvests, and the questions customers ask your sales team. Each piece is written to be extractable as a Featured Snippet, an ordered list, and a comparison table.
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AI Overview Tracking
Google AI Overviews now render on the majority of commercial UK queries but Search Console does not directly flag them. We use rising-impression cohorts (queries where impressions climb but clicks stay flat) as the primary signal that an AI Overview has appeared and is siphoning the click. Weekly attention, not quarterly.
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Featured Snippets & PAA
Featured Snippets and People Also Ask remain high-CTR positions that still send clicks. We identify queries where you rank in the top 5 but a shallower competitor owns the snippet, then structure your answer paragraph to be extractable. We also build content that seeds new PAA slots on adjacent intent.
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Voice Search & Assistants
Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa answer product and local queries by picking a single source. Voice rewards pages with strong LocalBusiness schema, concise answer paragraphs (25 to 40 words), and clean FAQ structures. Compounds fast into direct footfall for multi-branch UK businesses.
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Reporting Tied to Revenue
Monthly reports cover impression growth on answer-surface queries, click-through recovery on queries where AI Overviews were siphoning the click, and attributable organic revenue on the pages that own the surfaces. What worked, what did not, and what is next. Real strategy, not a Looker Studio screenshot.
How an AEO retainer with us actually runs
AEO is not a schema plugin install. It is editorial and technical work run continuously against a moving SERP. Here is the actual rhythm of an AEO retainer with Peak Digital.
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Answer surface audit (week 0)
Full audit of where you currently appear in Google AI Overviews, Featured Snippets and People Also Ask across your commercial and informational queries. Schema stack validated. Voice-assistant coverage sampled on the queries mapping to your product and location set. Gap map of surfaces siphoning your click-through today versus open opportunities. No commitment past the audit call.
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Schema + question content launch (weeks 1 to 12)
Schema rebuilt to a single validated source. FAQPage, HowTo, Product and Review markup deployed to the pages that map to answer-surface queries. First tranche of question-based content published (typically 4 to 6 pieces per month), each structured for extraction across at least two answer surfaces. Existing top-3 commercial queries refactored to make the answer paragraph extractable where it currently is not.
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Continuous coverage (month 4 onwards)
Steady cadence of new question-based content briefed against fresh Search Console intent data and expanded People Also Ask harvests. Existing content refreshed as answer surfaces shift (Google reshuffles AI Overview citations frequently). Weekly GSC review to catch impression drops and answer-surface losses before they show in analytics.
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Quarterly answer-surface review (every 90 days)
Every 90 days we step back: which surfaces are paying back, where new opportunity is opening up, where next quarter's content and schema investment should sit. Real strategy, not 'continue current programme'. If a surface has cooled we say so and shift budget.
Why your traffic can fall while your impressions climb
The single question we hear most often from UK ecommerce brands right now: "Search Console says impressions are up 40 percent year on year but clicks are flat, what is going on?" The answer is almost always AI Overviews. Google's AI Overview now renders above the first blue link on a rising share of commercial and informational queries. When it does, your listing still receives an impression, but the click goes to the AI Overview citation (if you are cited) or nowhere at all (if the searcher accepts the summary and moves on). Traditional SEO reporting was built for a SERP where impressions and clicks moved together. That correlation is now broken.
The fix is not to double down on the old SEO playbook. Content that ranks in position 3 on a query with an AI Overview above it will keep earning impressions and losing clicks until either you appear in the AI Overview citation, or the AI Overview is removed. AEO is the discipline of getting into that citation set. Schema that validates, content structured for extraction, question-based coverage of the queries that matter, and continuous tracking of which surfaces are eating which of your queries. Most UK agencies are still selling SEO retainers as if the SERP has not changed. It has changed. The retainer needs to change too.
The other failure mode is treating AEO as a schema plugin install. Adding FAQPage schema to a page whose copy is not written to be extractable does nothing. The plugin renders the markup, Google reads it, and still picks a cleaner answer from a competitor. AEO works when the copy, the schema, and the internal linking are aligned. That takes editorial work, not just a plugin. It also takes weekly attention to Search Console; the answer surfaces reshuffle constantly, and a page that wins the Featured Snippet in June can lose it in July if a competitor publishes a tighter answer.
What clients say
Recent case studies
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Case study | SEO compounding into AI Mode visibility
How 18 months of law-firm SEO compounded into being the top-cited legal source in Google's AI Mode
298 answers Google AI Mode citations
The same content library built during 18 months of an SEO retainer is now the single most-cited source in Google's AI Mode answers for the client's target legal queries. It…
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Case study | SEO + Answer Engine Optimisation
How we launched a public services information site and grew organic clicks from zero to over 34,000 a month in three months
34,612 (Month 3) Monthly organic clicks
A new public-services information site launched from a bare domain. Three months in, the site was pulling 34,612 organic clicks a month and had been picked up by Google's AI…
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Case study · Google Ads for ecommerce
How we compounded a deals ecommerce brand's Google Ads revenue 68x in seven years while holding blended ROAS above 13x
£3.7m (Year 7) Annual Google Ads revenue
Seven years of a Google Ads programme for a deals-and-discounts ecommerce brand. Annual attributed revenue grew from £55k in Year 1 to £3.7m in Year 7 (68x). Blended seven-year ROAS…
Frequently asked questions
What is answer engine optimisation and how is it different from SEO?
Traditional SEO optimises to appear as a blue link in the ten organic results. Answer engine optimisation optimises to appear inside the answer surfaces that now sit above and around those blue links: Google AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, People Also Ask and voice-assistant answers. The disciplines overlap (both need clean technical foundations and useful content) but the tactics differ. AEO is heavier on schema, question-structured content, and extraction formatting. It is the layer most UK SEO retainers currently under-serve because the surfaces are new.
How much does AEO cost in the UK?
Our AEO retainer is All-inclusive. That covers schema audit and rebuild, question-based content (4+ new pieces per month), extraction formatting on existing content, AI Overview and answer-surface tracking, monthly reporting and quarterly strategic review. No setup fee, no schema audit upsell, no bolt-on charges. Same headline price as our SEO retainer because it is the same class of work: continuous, editorial, tied to Search Console. If you want both SEO and AEO together we bundle at a discount.
Do I need AEO if my classic SEO retainer is already running?
If your existing SEO retainer is actively working on schema validation, question-based content and answer-surface tracking, then no, you already have AEO. Most retainers we audit are not. They are still built around rankings and content volume, both of which are increasingly disconnected from actual clicks. In that case AEO can run as an add-on to your existing SEO, or replace it. We will tell you honestly in the audit which structure fits. Never a sales pitch.
How long until I see AEO results?
Schema validation and Featured Snippet wins land inside the first 60 days for pages already ranking in the top 5 on their target queries. AI Overview citations take longer (typically month 3 to 6) because Google re-evaluates AI Overview citations on a slower cadence than the classic SERP. Voice-assistant answer wins vary by category. Overall, meaningful impression-quality improvement lands in months 2 to 4, meaningful click-through recovery in months 4 to 9. Faster than the traditional SEO curve because you are optimising for surfaces most sites are ignoring.
Are Google AI Overviews live in the UK?
Yes. Google AI Overviews rolled out to the UK in 2024 and now render on the majority of commercial and informational queries. If a UK customer searches for anything in your category, they are almost certainly seeing an AI Overview above the classic ten blue links. Where you appear inside that Overview (or whether you appear at all) is decided by a mix of schema, extraction-friendly copy, and topical authority. That is what AEO is optimising for.
How is AEO different from GEO?
AEO targets the answer surfaces on traditional search engines: Google AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, People Also Ask, voice assistants. It is tracked via Search Console. GEO (generative engine optimisation) targets the standalone generative AI products: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini as a chat product, and agentic checkout. It is tracked via LLM mention data. Foundations overlap (both need clean content and verifiable structure) but the reporting and tactics diverge. Most UK brands need both; we run separate retainers so the reporting stays honest.
What does an AEO monthly report actually cover?
Impression growth on answer-surface queries, click-through recovery on queries where AI Overviews were siphoning the click and are now citing you, new Featured Snippets, People Also Ask coverage expansions and schema deployments this month, and attributable organic revenue on the pages that own answer surfaces. Plus a one-page written commentary explaining what changed, why, and what is next. Quarterly we layer in a strategic review covering which surfaces are paying back and where next quarter's investment sits.
Can you take over an existing SEO or content setup?
Yes. Most engagements inherit a site with years of existing content, mixed-quality schema, and a Search Console history worth reading. We audit what is there, decide what to refactor for extraction, what to leave, and where to add. Existing content is rarely thrown out; it gets restructured so answer paragraphs are extractable and schema is validated. If you have an existing SEO agency we can run alongside them (we handle AEO, they handle classic SEO) or absorb both.
Is there a contract lock-in?
No. 30-day notice and we part ways. Everything we've built (schema, content, internal-link structure, tracking dashboards) stays on your site. No clawbacks, no migration fees, no 'agency-owned' assets. Retention through results, not contracts.