Frequently asked questions
what founders ask before they hire jackson and branson
About answer engine optimization
How does an AI assistant decide which brands to recommend?
When a shopper asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity what to buy, the assistant answers by naming a small number of brands. Your direct-to-consumer brand is either one of them or it isn't. The shopper usually never sees a page of results to scroll through. I get your brand into the sources those systems read and trust, so that when someone describes the piece she's looking for, your brand is one of the answers she gets back.
How is AEO different from SEO?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization or GEO - Generative Engine Optimization) aims to get your brand named in an answer, where there might be nothing to even click on. There is overlap, since the technical foundations that help Google read your site also help AI assistants. The main difference is that AIs name a selection of brands rather than listing all of the possibilities, which means that either you get named or you don't - there's no "pretty good".
Do I need to show up in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity or just one of them?
You don't have to choose. The pieces jackson and branson builds for a direct-to-consumer brand are public records rather than anything owned by one company, so all four can read them. I check all four before we start and again later, so if one of them matters more for your customers you'll be able to see it.
How i work
What do I get when I hire jackson and branson?
Two things go live and are clickable the day the build is finished on your direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand. The first is a Wikidata entry for your brand, which is the public structured record that assistants and search engines read to confirm a brand exists and what it's known for. The second is your claimed Google Knowledge Panel, which is the box about your brand that appears beside a Google result. Your site also gets the structured data that makes your products and your story readable by machines. On top of that you get a written record of where your brand stands today across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.
How long will it take for my brand to show up in AI answers?
The jackson and branson build takes up to 4 weeks and the pieces are live the day it's finished. After that it depends on when each AI company next updates what it knows. None of them announce that in advance. I take a reading of where your brand stands before we start, so you can see the change when it comes rather than take my word for it.
Do my product descriptions matter for getting my DTC brand found in AI answers?
Yes, they matter. If an AI assistant can't tell what a product is made from or who it's for, it won't name your brand when a shopper asks. The build makes what's already on your site readable by machines. If the descriptions themselves are thin I'll tell you early rather than after you've paid.
What does jackson and branson need from me to get started?
To get started I need a kickoff conversation, access to your systems and access to a team member who can approve writing before it goes out.
Before you book
Can anyone guarantee my brand will appear in AI answers?
No - the LLMs get changed and updated regularly and without warning, so no one can make this kind of guarantee. I do guarantee the integrity of my work and my own brand however; I'm focused on solving this problem for brands, and it is all I'm focused on - this is my full time job and I'm committed to your success.
My DTC brand is small. Is it too early for AI visibility work?
I only work with brands small enough to be founder-led. A brand looking to be named narrowly has a higher likelihood than a brand asking to be named broadly.
still have a question, email dan@jacksonandbranson.ai