THE AEO AGENCY FOR CONTRACTORS
GET CITED BY AI. NOT JUST RANKED.
80% of searches end without a click. We own the 80%.
01 / WHAT IS AN AEO AGENCY
AN AGENCY THAT OPTIMIZES THE AI ANSWER, NOT JUST THE BLUE LINKS.
When a homeowner asks ChatGPT “who is the best roofer in Denver,” the AI does not show a list of ten links. It names three companies. If you are not one of those three, you lose the lead before the search even finishes loading.
An AEO agency engineers your website, entity data, and authority signals so that AI answer engines cite you by name inside the generated answer. This is a fundamentally different discipline from traditional SEO, which optimizes for ranked blue links that fewer and fewer people ever click.
Wildfire Media is the only AEO agency built exclusively for home service contractors. Not agencies, not SaaS, not e-commerce. Just contractors. That vertical focus is the moat.
02 / AEO VS. SEO
AEO AGENCY VS. TRADITIONAL SEO AGENCY. NOT THE SAME JOB.
Most SEO agencies are still selling the 2018 playbook in a 2026 search market. Here is the difference between the two disciplines.
03 / THE FIVE ENGINES
ONE METHODOLOGY. FIVE AI ENGINES TUNED IN PARALLEL.
Each answer engine weights signals differently. A generalist agency ships one playbook and hopes. We ship tuned content, schema, and authority work for each of the five engines that actually drive contractor lead flow.
Engine 01
Google AI Mode + AI Overviews
80% of US search traffic. The big one.
Top-10 organic foundation + dense schema + answer-first content blocks.
Engine 02
ChatGPT (search + browsing)
500M weekly users. Buyers asking 'who should I hire.'
Definition patterns, named-source content, high-authority brand mentions.
Engine 03
Perplexity
Power user research engine. Recency and fact-density win.
Freshness signals, citations in the copy, Wikipedia-style structure.
Engine 04
Gemini
Android default. Growing fast in mobile queries.
Google Knowledge Graph alignment + structured data + verified entity.
Engine 05
Bing Copilot
Microsoft enterprise + Edge default. Underserved.
IndexNow protocol + Bing Webmaster verification + clean canonical signals.
04 / WHAT AN AEO RETAINER SHIPS
EVERY MONTH. TIED TO BOOKED JOBS.
AI citation engineering
Schema, llms.txt, entity data, and answer-first passages built so every AI engine can extract and cite your content.
SEO foundation
AEO only works when the underlying site ranks. We ship on-page SEO, technical fixes, and authority building in parallel.
GEO + Local Pack
Generative Engine Optimization tuned for geographic queries. Map Pack rankings for every market you serve.
Monthly citation reports
We track citations across all 5 engines, report what moved, what is new, and tie it to calls and form fills.
05 / PROOF
WHAT AEO LOOKS LIKE WHEN IT WORKS.
4
Google AI categories owned in 90 days
+500%
Form submissions lift in 90 days
#1
Map Pack + Featured AI Source (30 days)
+137%
Google impressions in 90 days
RANKING IS TABLE STAKES. BEING THE CITED ANSWER WINS THE JOB.
TERRITORY EXCLUSIVITY
ONE CONTRACTOR PER TRADE. PER CITY.
We do not work with two roofers in the same city. Not two HVAC companies, not two plumbers, not two painters. When you sign, your trade plus your city is locked. Your competitors cannot hire us.
If you sign
Your trade and city locks. Every call we generate is yours. No split attention, no conflicts of interest, no working both sides.
If your competitor signs first
Your trade in your city is closed. We will tell you directly and we will not build a similar system for anyone else in your market.
FAQ · AEO AGENCY
WHAT CONTRACTORS ASK BEFORE HIRING AN AEO AGENCY.
Last updated April 14, 2026 · Reviewed by Nick Peist, Founder · Forbes 30 Under 30
Why do contractors need an AEO agency in 2026?
Over 80 percent of Google searches now end without a click, and AI Overviews have cut organic click-through rates by 61 percent. When a homeowner asks ChatGPT 'who is the best roofer in Tampa,' the AI names three companies. If you are not one of them, you lose the lead before the user ever sees a blue link. AEO is the only discipline that puts your business inside the AI answer itself.
How is an AEO agency different from an SEO agency?
SEO agencies optimize for the blue-link ranked list. AEO agencies optimize for the AI-generated answer that appears above those links. SEO weights backlinks, keywords, and title tags. AEO weights schema markup, llms.txt, entity data, and citation-worthy authority. Most SEO agencies have not updated their methodology for generative AI. Wildfire bundles both so you never have to choose.
What does an AEO agency cost?
Wildfire charges $2,500 per month for the AI Visibility Retainer which bundles AEO, SEO, GEO, and Local SEO. Standalone AEO agencies typically charge $3,500 to $5,000 per month for AEO alone, on top of a separate SEO retainer. Our bundled retainer is the arbitrage between tooling cost and standalone agency markup.
How long does AEO take to work?
AEO citations typically begin appearing 60 to 90 days after the foundation work ships. The Yaros Company reached 3 Google AI categories owned in 90 days. Anthony Pennacchi and Sons hit #1 Map Pack and Featured AI Source in 30 days. Anyone promising AEO results in 30 days is selling paid ads, not AEO.
Do you only work with contractors?
Yes. Wildfire Media is purpose-built for home service contractors and adjacent trades: roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, painting, pressure washing, gutters, solar, masonry, concrete, tree service, pest control, garage doors, auto repair, and restoration. Vertical focus is the moat. We do not take clients outside this niche.
READY TO BE THE CITED ANSWER?
BOOK 30 MINUTES. SEE YOUR AI CITATION GAPS LIVE.
On the call we audit your current citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode, and Bing Copilot. You walk away with the exact 90-day playbook whether you hire us or not.