45%
How much of local-business discovery has shifted to AI platforms?
Of consumers now use AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) for local business recommendations — up from just 6% one year ago. Sterling Sky, 2026
— AEO · 2026 STATE OF THE PLAY
Why Answer Engine Optimization matters now
Most contractor sites get cited by AI zero times a year. The market just figured out that's a problem. Below are the numbers — sourced and citable — plus what we ship to fix it.
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ADD-ON
Free SEO + AEO Audit
Free
The no-cost entry point. We audit your site for AEO + SEO baseline coverage and deliver a written report with prioritized recommendations.
Start your free audit
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ADD-ON
AI Discovery Setup
from $500 flat
Modular pick-and-choose AI-discoverability add-on. Bundles onto any Voltage Build tier. You select the features you actually want — pricing scales with your pic
View AI Discovery Setup
More AEO services in development
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Basic AEO Audit
Paid in-depth audit with prioritized fix list. Available as custom scope today.
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IndexNow Integration
Real-time URL submission to Bing / Yandex / Seznam. Available as custom scope today.
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Quote Sourcing
DP sources verifiable quoted testimonials from your real customers for the +41% AEO citation lift. Available as custom scope today.
If you need any of these before they're productized, we scope them as custom work during discovery.
The market just moved.
900M
How many people use ChatGPT every week?
Weekly active users as of February 2026 — within striking distance of 1 billion. TechCrunch, Feb 2026
7.5×
How fast is AI replacing traditional local search?
Use of generative AI for local recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% in twelve months — a 7.5× increase in a single year. Sterling Sky, 2026
Your Google rankings don't translate to AI.
88% of ChatGPT citations live outside this box
Does ranking #1 on Google mean AI cites you?
Of ChatGPT citations come from URLs outside Google's top 10 — meaning even page-one Google rankings rarely translate to AI citations.
How much do AI platforms cite third-party sources vs. your own site?
On shopping-style queries, ChatGPT leans overwhelmingly on third-party sources (~92%) while Google AI Overviews still cite top-ranked organic pages about 54% of the time. AEO depends on earned media more than SEO ever did.
61%
How much of your existing Google traffic is AI Overviews already eating?
Drop in click-through rate for pages that appear beneath an AI Overview (Seer Interactive analysis of 25.1M impressions). 93% of Google AI Mode searches end without a single click.
The leads you're missing are better leads.
4.4×
higher conversion rate from AI-referred traffic
Do AI-referred visitors convert better than Google organic?
Higher conversion rate from AI-referred traffic — ChatGPT visitors close at 14.2%, Google organic at 2.8%. AI visitors arrive with purchase intent already shaped.
+200%
How fast is AI referral traffic growing?
ChatGPT referral traffic grew over 200% through 2025 and continues to grow ~1% of total web traffic per month. Still small in absolute terms — but the trajectory is clear.
Want a site that wins both Google rankings AND AI citations?
Start with the free audit — we'll show you exactly where your existing site fails the AI-citation test (or what to build into a new one) in 7 days. Schedule a call after if it makes sense.