Top Click Rolls Out AEO as SEO Upgrade or Solo AI Audit
Ask an AI assistant to name the best supplier in a category and you get a short list of brands, usually without ever touching a page of search results. More buyers now behave exactly that way, and Top Click, the South African search agency, is using October to spell out how businesses can keep up. It offers two entry points to its answer engine optimisation service: an add-on for brands that already run SEO with the agency, and a standalone AI Visibility Audit for brands arriving fresh.
Both routes rest on a conviction the agency states plainly. Answer engine optimisation, shortened to AEO and also called AI search optimisation or GEO, is not a way to skip SEO. It is layered on top of it. If a brand's search foundation is weak, AI tools are unlikely to recommend it regardless of how much AI-specific effort goes in, which is why a brand's starting point depends on what already exists.
Why the question is on the table now
In South Africa, the final quarter is when plenty of buyers investigate bigger purchases, and spring lifts activity in a wide range of categories. A growing amount of that research is now carried out inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. Someone asks for the top supplier in a category, receives a brief reply listing a few brands, and moves on. Any business left out of that reply is out of contention for that buyer.
Top Click's AEO page frames it plainly: buyers ask, receive a recommendation and act. The job of AEO is to make a brand difficult for those tools to skip over.
Route one: AEO on top of an existing SEO retainer
Clients already on an SEO retainer with Top Click can take AEO as an add-on. Since the agency has already addressed the site's technical health, content and authority, AEO builds directly on that groundwork. The add-on is scoped following an audit and priced as an uplift to the client's current retainer rather than as a separate programme.
This is the route the agency's own evidence backs up. Its AEO page details work for SunNinja, an international beach tent brand, where thorough on-site SEO across pages, collections, products and blog content, paired with genuine backlinks and digital PR, carried the brand to the leading organic spot on Google for "beach tents" and to the top of Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok for the same category. The agency presents that outcome as the result of traditional SEO done properly, not any gimmick.
Route two: the standalone AI Visibility Audit
Brands new to Top Click begin with a standalone AI Visibility Audit. The audit reveals where a brand currently shows up, or does not, across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews, and measures that standing against competitors. Should the audit confirm the brand's search foundation is solid, it can roll into a full retainer. If the foundation needs attention first, the brand learns that before taking on anything bigger.
For a business considering AI SEO services for the first time, the audit offers a fact-based starting point in place of a sales promise.
What AEO covers
Top Click frames AEO as targeting three things. First is what people say about a brand, taking in mentions on Reddit, forums, review sites and industry press, which AI tools read even without a link back to the brand's own site. Second is how clearly AI grasps who the brand is: its name, what it does and why it is credible, expressed consistently everywhere. Third is whether the brand's content delivers a direct answer that an AI tool can pull straight off the page.
In practice, eight parts make up the service. An AI visibility audit sets the baseline. Prompt and share-of-voice tracking monitors the precise questions buyers put to AI tools and how often the brand is named versus competitors. Entity optimisation handles schema, knowledge panel signals and consistent brand data. Answer-first content reworks priority pages so the answer does not sit buried in the fourth paragraph. FAQ sections and structured data make it easier for AI tools to read and extract information. Technical AI access ensures AI crawlers can reach the site, including an llms.txt file. Citation and digital PR work secures mentions on the platforms AI tools trust most. Monthly reporting keeps track of the results.
How progress is measured
The agency reports against four measures: citation frequency, meaning how often AI tools name the brand when relevant questions come up; share of voice versus competitors in AI answers; AI referral traffic, tracked in GA4 apart from organic search; and sentiment, meaning how AI tools characterise the brand and whether that is accurate. Top Click points out that these measurement tools are newer and still maturing next to the established tools for traditional rankings and traffic, and it says it is upfront with clients about anything that cannot yet be measured.
What the agency will not promise
Top Click states outright that no one can dictate what an AI engine chooses to cite, and it offers no guarantee that a brand will turn up in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. What it does commit to is the proven work that shifts the odds, backed by monthly reporting on what was done. It puts early signals at 60 to 120 days, with competitive categories running longer, and it treats AEO as continuous work rather than a one-off project, since AI search moves fast.
Built on 18 years of search work
The agency's claim to being the AEO agency South African brands trust with this work comes down to its track record. Top Click has done nothing but SEO and Google Ads for 18 years and is an established Google Premier Partner. Senior specialists handle its accounts with no juniors involved, and clients work month to month with no long-term contract. Its stance is that a brand needs both SEO and AEO, and that anyone claiming otherwise warrants caution.
Brands wanting to work out which of the two routes fits them can read the full service details at https://topclick.co.za/aeo/.
About Top Click
Top Click is a specialist South African digital marketing agency working only in search, spanning SEO, Google Ads and answer engine optimisation. The agency has been running for 18 years and is an established Google Premier Partner. Its AEO service helps brands get recommended on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. A small team of senior specialists does the work, and clients are engaged on month-to-month terms with no lock-in.
Media Contact
Top Click
Email: info@topclick.co.za
Phone: +27 11 440 6268
Website: https://topclick.co.za/