answer engine optimization
I lead SEO and AI search programs. I help sites get found in search engines and cited in AI answers.
I'm Cy De la Vega, an Associate Discoverability Director at VML, a WPP agency, in Austin, Texas. I've spent 15+ years in search engine optimization (SEO), the work of getting a site found in search results. Most of that has been technical SEO and content strategy for sites with hundreds or thousands of pages. In the last few years I added Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), which gets content cited by the AI systems that now answer questions directly.
What I work on
cydelavega.com › expertise › aeo
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the work of structuring pages so AI systems such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity can retrieve, understand, and cite them. The work covers clear entities, structured data, plain technical access for crawlers, and answers placed where a system will find them. I measure the result in citations and AI referrals.
See the inventory pages case studycydelavega.com › expertise › technical-seo
Technical SEO is the work of making a site crawlable, indexable, and fast. It covers audits, Core Web Vitals, rendering, internal linking, and content planned around what people search for. AI search visibility is built on it.
Read the agent readiness guidecydelavega.com › expertise › ai-search-measurement
AI search measurement tracks whether AI systems cite a site and what that visibility is worth. I set up citation share, AI share of voice, referral traffic from AI platforms, and conversion from those visitors, then tie each one to the numbers a business already reports.
See the AI search practice case studycydelavega.com › expertise › content-strategy
Content strategy decides which topics deserve a page and how each page should be built. I research demand, narrow it to the pages worth making, and write briefs that settle the URL, the headings, and the question each section answers before anyone writes.
See the hospital program case studycydelavega.com › expertise › ai-workflows
AI workflows take the repeatable parts of search work off a team. I build agent and automation workflows that run the analysis and apply SEO, schema, and content standards consistently.
Read the AI agent guidecydelavega.com › expertise › local-seo
Local SEO is how a business shows up for searches tied to a place, including "near me" queries and map results. The work covers business listings, location pages, reviews, and structured data that tells search engines and AI assistants where a business is and what it does. I work in English and Spanish.
cydelavega.com › work
35 inventory pages rebuilt so AI platforms could cite them. AI referral traffic to the section grew 352% year over year, and 33 pages earned new AI citations.
cydelavega.com › work
A 21-month healthcare SEO program across 13 service lines grew unbranded Google traffic 206% and featured snippets 7,340%, with 23,617 attributed conversions.
cydelavega.com › work
An AI search practice built for 8+ enterprise accounts, with 30+ people trained. On one program, AI-referred traffic grew 174% year over year.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is structuring content so AI search systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can retrieve it, understand it, and cite it in a generated answer. It builds on SEO.
cydelavega.com › blog › answer-engine-optimization-guide › what-is-answer-engine-optimization-aeoguidesAnswer Engine Optimization (AEO): The Complete Guide
SEO gets a page crawled, indexed, and ranked in traditional search results. AEO starts from those fundamentals and checks whether an AI system can lift a clear answer from the page and attribute it. Pages that do well in AI answers tend to do both.
cydelavega.com › blog › answer-engine-optimization-guide › how-is-aeo-different-from-seoguidesHow is AEO different from SEO?
Yes. Traditional SEO is the foundation for crawlability, indexation, rankings, and most AI search visibility. I run search and AI search as one program.
cydelavega.com › expertise › technical-seoexpertiseTechnical SEO
It varies by platform. Systems that fetch pages live can reflect a change within days, while platforms that rely on a search index take longer. Building authority and sustained visibility takes months.
cydelavega.com › blog › answer-engine-optimization-guide › how-long-does-aeo-take-to-show-resultsguidesHow long does AEO take to show results?
Yes. Local SEO and AEO both depend on a clear business entity, location details, reviews, structured data, and useful service information. Those signals help a business show up for traditional local searches and for location-based questions asked through AI assistants.
cydelavega.com › expertise › local-seoexpertiseLocal and Spanish-language SEO
Yes. The case studies on the work page cover AEO for a national used car retailer's inventory pages, a 21-month SEO program for a New York hospital system, and the AI search practice I built for enterprise accounts at VML. Each one reports figures for the pages the work covered.
cydelavega.com › workworkCase studies
cydelavega.com › blog › seo-ai-search-news-10-30-2026
Reddit said AI Mode sends no traffic, Google said AI Mode monetizes lower, and a shared AI training control is coming to robots.txt.
cydelavega.com › blog › which-ai-bots-crawl-my-website
AI crawlers train models, feed AI search or fetch a page on request. See GPTBot, ClaudeBot and other bots by company, and which ones to block.
cydelavega.com › blog › seo-ai-search-news-10-23-2026
ChatGPT ads reached 89 countries, AI Overviews hit 88% of commercial keywords, and three studies sized AI traffic.
