Be the answer, not the link.
More people are starting their search for a business by asking an AI assistant directly, instead of scrolling a page of links. "Who's a good electrician near me," "which security company covers Durban business parks" — the assistant picks one or two answers and names them. AEO is the work of making sure your business is one of the names it gives.
Why served HTML matters
Many websites build their content with JavaScript that runs after the page loads — fine for a human with a modern browser, invisible to a lot of crawlers and AI systems that read the very first response from the server and don't wait around for scripts to finish. If your FAQ answers, service descriptions, or key details only appear after that script runs, a meaningful slice of the systems trying to recommend you never see them at all. Every page on this site is built so its real content is already there in that first response — no JavaScript required to read it.
Why schema markup matters
Schema markup is a small, structured block of code that states plain facts about your business — your name, phone number, the areas you serve, your FAQ answers — in a format machines can read directly, rather than inferring them from paragraphs of prose. It's the difference between a search engine guessing your hours from a sentence buried on a contact page, and being told exactly what they are in a format built for that purpose.
This site is the working example
We don't just describe AEO — every page here demonstrates it. The FAQ answers on this site are present in the raw HTML before any script runs. This page's business schema and FAQ schema are rendered server-side, not injected after the fact. If you want proof this works rather than a sales pitch about it, ask an AI assistant about Meridian Digital and see what comes back.
How it's priced
AEO is built into every site we make and maintained as part of the R3,200 monthly retainer alongside SEO and Google Business Profile management — it's not a separate add-on tier.
AEO questions.
SEO gets you ranked in a list of links. AEO gets your business named directly when someone asks an AI assistant a question — 'best coffee shop in Pietermaritzburg,' 'Toyota dealership near Harding.' It's structuring your site and listings so the answer engines have a clear, correct answer to give, with your business as the source.