LLM SEO is making a website retrievable and quotable by large language models. It covers bot access, readable pages, answer-first passages and consistent company details. We use it as an industry label, and industry sources treat it as a synonym for GEO and AEO.

How much does an LLM SEO agency cost?

BaaDigi starts at $297 a month plus a $700 setup. Hook Agency publishes $3,750 a month for Local SEO plus AEO, Digital Elevator $1,000 a month for an AI visibility add-on, and WebFX from $3,000 a month. Searchbloom lists SEO from $3,000 a month with no separate AI price.

Should I block GPTBot?

It is your call, and it is separate from search. OpenAI says you can allow OAI-SearchBot to appear in ChatGPT search while disallowing GPTBot for training. Sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers.

Do I need an llms.txt file?

No. Google says you do not need AI text files to appear in its AI features, and we found no OpenAI or Perplexity guidance that makes it a citation factor. We add one on request because it is cheap, but we do not sell it as a lever.

Does schema markup help LLMs?

Google says no special schema is needed, and an Ahrefs study of 1,885 pages found no major citation uplift from adding JSON-LD. It still helps machines read a page, so we add schema that matches visible text and rely on content for results.

Anthropic runs three bots: ClaudeBot for training, Claude-User for user-requested fetches and Claude-SearchBot for search indexing. Anthropic notes that disabling Claude-SearchBot may reduce your visibility in Claude answers.

How long until a model quotes us?

Timing varies by site. Vendor maxaeo studied 740 new pages from February to May 2026 and found a median of 13 days to first citation and 41 days to a stable one, meaning cited on five of seven days. A Profound post reported on LinkedIn found a median of about 7 days (6.81) for ChatGPT and Claude; we cite that secondary report and have not verified the original. Both are vendor-run and count only pages that got cited.

Services / LLM SEO

What does an LLM SEO agency do, and is LLM SEO worth paying for?

LLM SEO is the work of making your website retrievable and quotable by large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. An LLM SEO agency opens the right crawlers, states facts in passages a model can lift, and keeps your company details consistent. It suits any company. BaaDigi's LLM SEO starts at $297 a month plus a $700 setup. Citation timing varies by site, and vendor studies are summarized below. Ryan Goering, in search marketing since 2008, runs it.

$297/month to start + $700 setup, month to month

Get Started Get an AI Visibility Audit

Last updated: November 2026 · By Ryan Goering, CEO, BaaDigi, Huntington Beach, CA

What does LLM SEO include?

Bot access, set on purpose

OpenAI runs separate search and training bots (OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot), Anthropic runs three bots with different roles, and Perplexity documents a search bot (PerplexityBot) plus user-requested fetching. We allow the search bots that decide whether you can be cited and leave the training choice to you.

Clean, readable pages

Plain HTML that renders without scripts, one topic per page, and headings written as the questions buyers ask.

Quotable passages

Short, self-contained answers with the numbers, names and dates a model needs to reuse them correctly.

Entity clarity

The same company name, location, services and author details on your site, profiles and listings, so a model can tell who you are.

Schema that matches the page

Structured data that mirrors visible text. We use it for clarity, not as a citation trick.

Retrieval testing

We ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the buyer questions and record whether your passages come back, and what they say.

How does LLM SEO work, step by step?

Bot access audit
We read your robots.txt, firewall and CDN rules against the bots that matter. Cloudflare began blocking AI crawlers by default in July 2025, so we check whether your current rules block search bots.
Rendering check
We confirm the answer text is in the HTML a bot receives, not loaded later by script.
Entity pass
We standardize your name, address, services and author pages everywhere they appear.
Passage rewrite
We rewrite priority pages into answer-first passages and question headings.
Optional files
We add an llms.txt if you want one. Google says no AI text files are needed, so we treat it as optional.
Test and report
We re-run the retrieval questions monthly and report them with Search Console, GA4 and dashboard leads.

BaaDigi framework

What is the Citation Climb, and where does your company stand on it?

LLM SEO lives in the first two steps of the Citation Climb: can a model reach your page, and can it lift an answer from it? Steps three to five depend on both.

Step	How you know you are there	What we do
1. Crawlable	OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot and Googlebot can fetch the page.	Fix robots.txt, firewall and CDN rules. Keep the training-bot choice separate.
2. Quotable	A model can lift one passage and get the facts right.	Answer-first passages with figures, dates and named sources; schema that matches the text.
3. Cited	Your URL appears among an answer's sources.	Add the pages that are missing and re-run retrieval tests.
4. Recommended	The model states your company name when asked who to choose.	Entity consistency across your site, profiles and listings.
5. Chosen	A logged lead or call credits an AI source.	Referral and form tracking in GA4 and the dashboard.

The Citation Climb is introduced on the AI SEO services page. This page applies it to LLM SEO.

Does AI name your company today?

Run the free checker. It asks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask.

Free AI Visibility & Citation Finder

Who does AI recommend, and which sources does it cite?

More people ask ChatGPT and AI search “who's the best contractor near me?” every day. See if AI names you — or sends the job to someone else. No email to run it.

What does LLM SEO cost?

LLM SEO is sold inside the same four levels. Foundation at $297 a month covers the access and page work. Few agencies publish an LLM SEO price, so these rows are the closest published comparisons.

Provider	Published price	Term	What it covers
BaaDigi Foundation Engine	$297/mo + $700 setup	Month to month	Your site rebuilt so AI crawlers can read and quote it, plus local SEO basics, Google Business Profile and CRM
BaaDigi Stability Engine	$497/mo + $995 setup	Month to month	Builds the pages and assets that get cited, with ongoing AI search optimization
BaaDigi Predictability Engine	$1,397/mo	Month to month	Adds Google Ads and lead nurture to fill the pipeline
BaaDigi Market Control Engine	$3,997/mo	Month to month	The top level, for companies that want to own their market
Hook Agency	$3,750/mo (Local SEO + AEO)	Retainer term not stated	Includes 25+ ChatGPT prompts tracked monthly
Digital Elevator	$1,000/mo AI Visibility add-on	4-month minimum on the $1,500/mo local SEO plan	Add-on includes 2 brand mentions a month
WebFX	From $3,000/mo (Bronze), up to $68,250/mo	6-month commitment	Bronze: 50 prompts monitored, 3 assets a month
Searchbloom	AI SEO price not published (SEO from $3,000/mo)	Not stated	GEO is not priced separately

Agency figures come from each agency's own public page, checked October 27, 2026. We checked 18 agencies and 5 publish an AI SEO or GEO price; we did not verify a published AI-specific price for the remaining agencies. Prices change, so confirm on their site.

What results can you expect?

Here is how often BaaDigi's own site is cited when we ask the three major AI engines our tracked questions. This measures our own site, not a promise for yours.

Engine	September 2026	October 1 to 26, 2026
ChatGPT	26.2% (817 of 3,119 runs)	23.4% (762 of 3,252 runs)
Perplexity	26.9% (840 of 3,119 runs)	32.6% (1,061 of 3,255 runs)
Google AI Overviews	7.5% (198 of 2,638 runs)	6.3% (157 of 2,487 runs)

Share of non-error, non-branded engine-runs in which baadigi.com appeared as a cited source. The prompts were written by BaaDigi to track BaaDigi, the set grew from 52 to 310 prompts between August and October, and each prompt is re-asked every run day, so this is not an industry benchmark and month-to-month changes partly reflect which prompts existed. Source: BaaDigi citation tracker, 13 run days in September and 11 in October.

Two limits on evidence. We use "LLM SEO" as an industry label, and Ahrefs treats LLMO as a synonym for GEO and AEO. Google also says you do not need new machine-readable files or special schema for its AI features. An Ahrefs study of 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD found no major citation uplift (AI Overviews down 4.6%, AI Mode up 2.4% and ChatGPT up 2.2%, both not significant), though those pages were already heavily cited. So we put the effort into access and content, not tricks.

+348%

Organic traffic

Newlin Painting, 6 months of our SEO system (Google Analytics, Sept 2025 to Mar 2026).

Revenue

Stevens Homebuilding, with site rebuild, SEO and AI follow-up (BaaDigi client reporting, 2024 to 2025).

3 to 5

Leads per day

B&M Electrical, each lead visible in their dashboard.

These three are contractor results from our SEO program, not from this service alone.

Who is LLM SEO for?

Start now if

You publish expertise a model could quote, such as guides, pricing, comparisons or case studies.
Your site is built on scripts and you are unsure what a bot sees.
You use Cloudflare or another firewall and have never checked AI bot rules.
You want to be named when someone asks Claude or ChatGPT who to hire.

Not yet if

You have almost no content. Build pages first.
You want llms.txt to do the work. Google says AI text files are not needed, and we found no OpenAI or Perplexity guidance calling it a citation lever.
You want a guaranteed mention. Models answer differently on every run.
You block all AI bots on purpose to protect content. That is a valid choice and the opposite of this service.

How is LLM SEO different from SEO and from the other AI search terms?

There is no official definition of LLM SEO. We use it for the technical and editorial work that lets a language model find, understand and quote you. It overlaps with generative engine optimization, which focuses on winning citations once you are readable.

Term	What it aims at	How you measure it
AI SEO	Being chosen by AI assistants and Google together	Citations, mentions and leads
Generative engine optimization	Being cited inside generated answers across every engine	Citation rate per engine
LLM SEO (this page)	Being retrievable and quotable by language models	Crawler access, entity clarity, quotes
AI search optimization	Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and Bing Copilot	Presence in AI Overviews and AI Mode
Classic SEO	Ranking in the ten blue links	Rankings, clicks, calls

Questions buyers ask about LLM SEO

What is LLM SEO?: LLM SEO is making a website retrievable and quotable by large language models. It covers bot access, readable pages, answer-first passages and consistent company details. We use it as an industry label, and industry sources treat it as a synonym for GEO and AEO.
How much does an LLM SEO agency cost?: BaaDigi starts at $297 a month plus a $700 setup. Hook Agency publishes $3,750 a month for Local SEO plus AEO, Digital Elevator $1,000 a month for an AI visibility add-on, and WebFX from $3,000 a month. Searchbloom lists SEO from $3,000 a month with no separate AI price.
Should I block GPTBot?: It is your call, and it is separate from search. OpenAI says you can allow OAI-SearchBot to appear in ChatGPT search while disallowing GPTBot for training. Sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers.
Do I need an llms.txt file?: No. Google says you do not need AI text files to appear in its AI features, and we found no OpenAI or Perplexity guidance that makes it a citation factor. We add one on request because it is cheap, but we do not sell it as a lever.
Does schema markup help LLMs?: Google says no special schema is needed, and an Ahrefs study of 1,885 pages found no major citation uplift from adding JSON-LD. It still helps machines read a page, so we add schema that matches visible text and rely on content for results.
What about Claude?: Anthropic runs three bots: ClaudeBot for training, Claude-User for user-requested fetches and Claude-SearchBot for search indexing. Anthropic notes that disabling Claude-SearchBot may reduce your visibility in Claude answers.
How long until a model quotes us?: Timing varies by site. Vendor maxaeo studied 740 new pages from February to May 2026 and found a median of 13 days to first citation and 41 days to a stable one, meaning cited on five of seven days. A Profound post reported on LinkedIn found a median of about 7 days (6.81) for ChatGPT and Claude; we cite that secondary report and have not verified the original. Both are vendor-run and count only pages that got cited.
How is LLM SEO different from SEO?: SEO targets rankings in a results list. LLM SEO targets whether a model can reach your page and reuse a passage from it. The foundation is shared, which is why BaaDigi runs them together.

Sources

OpenAI: crawlers and bots: OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User roles.
Perplexity: bots guide: PerplexityBot indexes for search, not training.
Anthropic: how site owners can manage its crawlers: ClaudeBot, Claude-User and Claude-SearchBot.
Cloudflare: content independence day: default blocking of AI crawlers from July 2025.
Google: AI features and your website: no AI text files or special schema needed.
Ahrefs: schema and AI citations study: no major citation uplift from adding JSON-LD.

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