SEO & AEO Visibility Transformation
SEO & AEO Visibility Transformation
Overview
The client came to The City of Code with a clear and pressing concern: their website was not performing in search, and it had no presence across AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude.
Despite having a strong product and genuine industry expertise, their digital presence was not reflecting any of it. Every day of invisibility meant lost traffic, eroding trust, and missed revenue opportunities. The City of Code stepped in with a full-stack SEO and AEO strategy built to fix the root problems and create lasting, measurable visibility.
Client Objective
The client’s goal was direct: rank consistently on traditional search engines and become a cited, trusted source within AI search platforms. They needed their website to work as a genuine business asset, not a liability.
Their primary concerns were:
- Low or zero visibility in Google search results
- Complete absence from AI-generated answers and citations
- Poor user experience driving visitors away before engaging
- A content and technical foundation that was not supporting growth
Background and Challenges
Before the project began, a full diagnostic of the site revealed issues across three core areas.
Technical Infrastructure Gaps
Slow page load speeds and failing Core Web Vitals were creating friction before a visitor even had a chance to read a word. Crawl errors, broken site architecture, and wasted crawl budgets meant search engines were struggling to index the site properly. These technical faults were suppressing rankability at every level.
Content and On-Page Strategy Weaknesses
The content across the site was thin, outdated, and misaligned with how users were actually searching. Keyword cannibalization had pages competing against each other internally, while weak internal linking left strong content isolated and undiscoverable. There was no clear search intent matching across key pages.
Zero AI Search Presence
The most urgent gap was the site’s complete invisibility across AI-powered search. There was no structured data, no entity definitions, and no signals for AI models to understand or trust the brand. As more users turn to conversational AI for answers, this absence represented a serious and growing competitive risk.
Approach: What We Did
The City of Code implemented a connected, three-layer strategy addressing technical, content, and AI visibility simultaneously.
Layer 1: Technical Infrastructure Overhaul
The team cleaned the underlying code, restructured the site taxonomy, and resolved crawl architecture issues that had been limiting proper indexation. Core Web Vitals were optimized across the site to ensure fast, stable performance on all devices. This foundation made everything else possible.
Layer 2: Content Architecture and Topical Authority
Rather than targeting isolated keywords, The City of Code built entity-focused content clusters designed to establish clear topical authority. Existing content was rearchitected to match genuine search intent, and semantic relationships between pages were tightened to create a coherent, crawlable content ecosystem. Every page was given a clear purpose and audience.
Layer 3: AEO and JSON-LD Schema Engineering
Comprehensive schema markup and nested entity definitions were implemented across the site, giving AI platforms the structured signals they need to understand, trust, and cite the brand. Content was reformatted to deliver direct, extractable answers, making it straightforward for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude to surface the brand as a credible source.
Impact
Organic Search Performance
AI Engine Citations
The brand went from complete invisibility across all major AI platforms to becoming a regularly cited source within ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. This shift positioned the client at the forefront of a search behavior trend that continues to grow.
User Experience and Engagement
The technical improvements delivered immediate results for visitors. High bounce rates and slow load times gave way to a fast, smooth browsing experience that kept users engaged and supported stronger conversion outcomes.
Case Detail
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What We Provide
- Technical SEO Audit and Infrastructure Overhaul
- Topical Authority and Content Cluster Architecture
- On-Page Optimization and Search Intent Alignment
- AEO Strategy and JSON-LD Schema Engineering
- AI Engine Visibility and Citation Optimization
- Core Web Vitals and Site Performance Optimization
Ready to Build Visibility That Actually Works?
Most agencies are still optimizing for a search landscape that has already changed. AI platforms are now a primary front door for how people find information, and the brands winning online are the ones showing up in both places.