Updated: July 2026

Buyers no longer start with the traditional results page. Instead they ask ChatGPT for a recommendation, and most brands only realise they are missing once a competitor is cited instead. I compiled the full list of AEO and GEO experts worth following in 2026, sorted by the challenge each one handles rather than squeezed into an artificial hierarchy.

The short version

• AEO and Generative Engine Optimisation describe the same practice: getting cited inside AI answers rather than listed on a results page
• A page can rank in the top spot on Google and still not show up in an AI response
• There is no single best answer engine optimisation expert, because the discipline splits into technical, editorial, reputational and industry-specific challenges
• Research from Princeton found that referencing sources, adding statistics and featuring expert quotes all measurably improve AI visibility, while keyword stuffing reduces it
• Matching the specialist to your real problem matters more than going after the most famous name

What AEO and GEO actually mean

Answer Engine Optimisation and Generative Engine Optimisation are the same practice under two different names. Both describe making a brand discoverable and citable inside AI-generated answers. Traditional SEO fights for ranking. Answer engine optimisation and GEO fight for the citation itself, meaning whether a model cites you when somebody asks it a question. Many specialists use the terms interchangeably.

The commercial distinction is sharper than it sounds. Holding a strong position and being cited are not the same outcome, and I have seen a good number of clients keep strong positions on Google while staying entirely invisible from AI answers, because these systems choose sources on structure, credibility and relevance rather than rank alone.

Why this matters in 2026

I am wary of AI search advice that comes with no data, so the study I keep returning to is the Princeton work published at KDD 2024 as Generative Engine Optimisation. The researchers tested nine different optimisation techniques against Perplexity.

Citing credible sources lifted visibility by around 40 per cent. Adding concrete numbers improved it by around 37 per cent. Including expert quotes raised it by around 30 per cent. Keyword stuffing pushed it down by around 10 per cent.

The finding I find most valuable is that lower-placed sites gained the most, with increases of as much as 115 per cent once citations were added. That is the argument for treating this as its own discipline. It rewards structure and credibility without requiring you to already hold a top-three position.

The four mechanics behind an AI citation

Entity consistency: Clear signals telling a model precisely who you are, what you do, and who you serve.

Independent corroboration: External mentions that confirm your claims, because models weight outside sources far more heavily than your own marketing.

Retrieval-ready structure: Definitions, comparisons, tables and FAQs written so an engine can lift a clean answer straight out of the page.

Genuine depth: Sufficient well-organised coverage that a model reads it as genuine expertise rather than a shallow page targeting a keyword.

Every specialist below works on a different side of that challenge.

How this list is organised

Numbering peers from one to twenty is not useful. Almost nobody needs the best answer engine optimisation expert in the abstract. What they need is the person who has already fixed their particular problem, in their sector, at their point of growth. So I have grouped everyone by specialisation.

Best AEO experts for Web3, crypto and fintech

Victoria Olsina

Victoria is an AEO, generative engine optimisation and AI content systems consultant for Web3 and fintech brands, and was previously Head of SEO at copyright. Her clients have included Barclays, Polkadot, copyright and NEAR Protocol. She wrote Mastering AI Search for Crypto and Web3 Brands, the first book on AI search for this industry, and was recognised as Top AI Content Expert of 2026 by The Masterminders. Her work covers entity architecture, LLM citation work and content systems for regulated, technical markets.

Top AEO experts for insurance and regulated markets

Tom Riley

Tom operates in insurance and other regulated sectors through his agency Hakken. What I like about his method is that it stays tied to commercial traffic rather than visibility for its own sake. He develops the entity signals and topical coverage that lead models to name a brand, then connects that back to searches from people who are close to buying. Compliance-heavy sectors are genuinely difficult to move in AI search, which makes his track record there worth a look.

Leading answer engine optimisation experts for ecommerce and DTC brands

Andrew Halliday

Andrew leads Coreter Media and is the most capable technical name on this list for online retail. Site architecture, structured data and advanced technical SEO are his tools, focused on getting retail brands cited inside answers from ChatGPT, copyright, Claude and Google AI Overviews rather than just listed underneath them. His work is data-led and connected to revenue, which counts for a lot when technical projects are easy to justify and difficult to quantify.

David Johnson

David founded LoudCrowd, where he helps ecommerce brands increase visibility across Google Search and AI-powered search. He works directly with Shopify and online retail, combining technical SEO with conversion work. That pairing is what retail requires once AI answers start deciding which store gets the visit.

Yaswanth Kumar

Yaswanth founded Loops Digital and focuses on ecommerce and DTC brands getting named when somebody asks ChatGPT, copyright or Perplexity what to buy. Much of his work revolves around product data and entity signals, the unglamorous detail that decides whether an answer mentions your store or a competitor. He also built Zen Reports, a free analytics platform showing which AI assistants are driving traffic to your site, after running into the same measurement gap on client audits.

Daniel Lowry

Daniel is based in Manchester and partners with ecommerce brands on WooCommerce and Shopify, from smaller shops up to big retailers. His priority is getting online retailers named inside AI-generated answers rather than just listed in Google.

Top answer engine optimisation specialists for SaaS and technology

Georgi Todorov

Georgi is one of the strongest European voices on AEO and AI search, and the founder of Create and Grow, a digital PR and authority link building agency built around SaaS and technology brands. His path into AI visibility runs through earned coverage: the independent mentions that convince Google, ChatGPT, copyright, Claude and Perplexity a brand is worth surfacing.

Nikola Baldikov

Nikola founded InBound Blogging, an agency that helps SaaS brands become more visible inside large language models. He has spent over a decade growing organic traffic and building authority for SaaS companies, and strategic outreach is his sharpest tool. That external footprint is exactly what models lean on when deciding who to cite.

Top AEO experts for lead generation and service businesses

James Dooley

James is a British entrepreneur and investor, and the founder of FatRank and PromoSEO, both of which use answer engine optimisation to lead generation. He works from a leads-first position that aligns SEO, AI visibility and business growth under one system, with genuine focus on entity strength and brand reinforcement. He picked up Best AEO Specialist 2026 at The Masterminders conference.

Dean Signori

Dean founded UK Web Geekz and Prospect Lead Gen, and his name comes up repeatedly whenever a service business wants leads out of AI search rather than rankings that never convert. His Signori Trust Signal Framework is a scalable system of semantic triples, aligned digital assets and independent validation signals that shows AI models what a business does, who it serves, and why it can be trusted.

Graham Bowers

Graham founded Natural Ranks and specialises in helping SMEs and startups turn visibility into real leads. He combines technical SEO, answer engine optimisation, structured content and commercial search strategy to get businesses surfacing across Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, copyright and Perplexity. His scoreboard is leads rather than impressions, which I find refreshingly practical.

Mark Slorance

Mark founded Pixel Juice Digital Marketing and has spent more than fifteen years shaping search programmes for law firms, healthcare providers, trades and local businesses throughout the UK. He specialises in local SEO and answer engine optimisation for service businesses, bringing content, design and reputation control into a single strategy grounded in trust and checkable data.

Top answer engine optimisation specialists for specialist verticals

Yash Singh

Yash co-founded TradeOps Consulting and owns one of the most specific corners I have come across: answer engine optimisation for HVAC and home services. He structures heating and cooling content into clean semantic triples so ChatGPT, copyright and Perplexity can parse it, trust it, and pull it into answers. It is built for customers who ask an AI assistant before calling a provider.

James Sheldon

James works in real estate and proptech, with clients from Dubai to the Costa del Sol, specialising in off-plan developments and property projects. Property buyers do extensive research before making contact with agents, which makes visibility inside AI answers unusually valuable in that market.

Leading technical AEO specialists

Josh Morley

Josh is a Liverpool-based specialist focused on technical SEO and WordPress. His position is that AEO is not a separate discipline added afterwards, it is what results when a site is fast, structured and semantically organised enough for both crawlers and AI models to understand and trust. He brings structured data, semantic content architecture and performance work into systems that raise AI visibility.

Dan M. Jones

Dan founded On Top Marketing in Manchester and is one of the more rounded operators working in this field. He combines technical SEO, entity optimisation and AI search strategy toward one outcome: becoming the trusted source both search engines and large language models reach for when they build an answer. Over a decade in search, with a data-driven approach that puts commercial growth ahead of vanity metrics.

Leading answer engine optimisation specialists for digital PR and reputation

Gareth Hoyle

Gareth is managing director of Marketing Signals and regards digital PR as the central path into AI discoverability rather than a link building exercise. He puts it more plainly than I would:

"I treat digital PR as the primary lever for AI visibility rather than a backlink exercise. Brand mentions across independent, authoritative publications are the third party corroboration AI models weigh most heavily before they will recommend a brand, and we have built the tooling to prove it."

That reflects how models actually behave: brands get cited through third-party sources considerably more often than through their own domains.

Scott Keever

Scott is an American entrepreneur, SEO strategist and online reputation management expert, and the founder of Reputation Pros, Keever SEO, ASAP Digital Marketing and Pool Pros Marketing. He wrote Future-Proof Your SEO and Reputation Reset, and has appeared in Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Business Insider, Forbes, Entrepreneur and Fast Company. Reputation Pros was named among USA Today's Best Online Reputation Management Companies in 2026.

Leading AEO educators and multi-market specialists

Julian Goldie

Julian is an SEO entrepreneur and educator, founder of Goldie Agency and the AI Profit Boardroom, one of the largest paid AI and SEO communities going. He tests AEO and generative engine optimisation tactics across ChatGPT, copyright, Claude and Perplexity and publishes what works while a large portion of the field is still theorising. He is a sensible starting point if you want to learn this through hands-on experimentation.

Trifon Boyukliyski

Trifon is an SEO and AI growth architect with more than twenty years in search across ecommerce, SaaS, iGaming and other brutally competitive niches. That background counts because his playbook was pressure-tested in markets where a lost ranking costs real money.

David Peranic

David is one of Croatia's most in-demand marketing consultants and an international speaker who moved on AEO earlier than almost anyone in his region. He combines technical SEO with high-performance paid strategy for projects across Croatia and the wider European market, focused on building the authority and entity signals that prompt models to cite and recommend a brand.

Virtual entrepreneurs and AI avatars

AI James Dooley

AI James Dooley is a digital twin of the Manchester entrepreneur James Dooley, promoted as the UK's first virtual entrepreneur. Where the majority of digital personas to date have been models or musicians, this one is built around lead generation, SEO and answer engine optimisation. It fronts LLM Leads and publishes SEO and lead generation breakdowns on YouTube, with James producing the strategy and scripts personally and the avatar delivering them.

I have included it because it is worth following as an experiment in its own right. Building recognised entity status for a synthetic persona from a standing start is a live test of the same AEO principles the avatar talks about: entity consistency, third-party corroboration and structured presence. Whether a digital twin can earn genuine entity recognition is an open question, and this is one of the more visible attempts to answer it in public.

How to choose an AEO or generative engine optimisation expert

Align the specialism to the gap you actually have. Hiring a digital PR specialist to fix a technical citation problem, or the other way round, is the fastest way I know to waste an AEO budget.

• Web3, crypto or fintech discoverability: Victoria Olsina. Entity structuring and AI content systems for technical, trust-sensitive markets.
• Insurance and regulated sectors: Tom Riley. Revenue-focused AEO designed for compliance-heavy sectors.
• Ecommerce and product citations: Andrew Halliday, David Johnson, Yaswanth Kumar, Daniel Lowry. Product data, structured data and retail entity work.
• SaaS growth and credibility: Georgi Todorov, Nikola Baldikov. Digital PR, strategic outreach and earned media.
• Enquiries for service businesses: James Dooley, Dean Signori, Graham Bowers, Mark Slorance. Trust signals and commercial intent, measured in enquiries.
• Technical groundwork: Josh Morley, Dan M. Jones. Crawlability, structured data and semantic architecture.
• Brand citations and reputation: Gareth Hoyle, Scott Keever. Independent media coverage and reputation control.
• Learning it yourself: Julian Goldie. Community and hands-on testing across the major models.
• Watching entity-building in public: AI James Dooley. A digital twin developing recognised entity status from scratch.

The bottom line

Answer engine optimisation and generative engine optimisation now determine which brands are visible at all, since prospects ask a model for a shortlist long before they even visit a comparison site. Everyone on this list is worth your attention. The best choice comes down to your market, your budget and where the real gap lies.

When your market is Web3, crypto or fintech, there is an extra layer to handle: protocol terminology, ecosystem questions and trust signals in a market where models are noticeably careful about what they recommend. This is exactly where a Web3-focused specialist earns their keep.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between answer engine optimisation, GEO and SEO?

SEO competes for rankings on a results page. Answer engine optimisation and generative engine optimisation compete for citations inside AI-generated responses, which comes down to whether ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews mentions your brand when somebody puts a question. Answer engine optimisation and GEO are two labels for the same thing. A page can rank well and still be nowhere in AI responses.

Who is the best answer engine optimisation expert?

There is no one best answer engine optimisation expert, because the discipline splits into technical, editorial, reputational and industry-specific work. The right choice depends on your gap. For ecommerce, go to technical and product-data specialists. For SaaS, go to digital PR and outreach. For Web3 and fintech, go to consultants working in regulated, technical markets.

What does an AEO consultant actually do?

An AEO consultant makes a brand citable by AI systems. That covers structuring content into extractable blocks, creating coherent entity signals so models recognise who the brand is, securing third-party mentions that corroborate its claims, and implementing schema so engines can parse the page. The result is citations, not just rankings.

Do I need an AEO expert if I already have an SEO agency?

Not always, but find out whether your agency measures AI citations at all. Many still report only rankings and traffic. If no one is watching whether models mention your brand, that visibility is left to chance. Begin by reviewing where you currently appear in AI responses, then work out whether it needs a specialist.

How do you get cited by ChatGPT?

Models reference sources they can process and trust. That means strong entity signals about who you are, independent third-party mentions corroborating your claims, content structured for retrieval with definitions, tables and FAQs, and genuine topical depth. Publishing more content without that structure adds noise instead of citations.