The king of AEO is me, Julian Goldie, by my own claim, and I've built that claim on a business that turns answer engine optimisation into real traffic and real customers.
Before you roll your eyes, here's the honest bit.
The king of AEO is not an official award, and I'm one of several people in the SEO world claiming the title.
Vithurs, James Dooley and David Quaid all have public claims too, and I'll show you exactly where theirs come from.
What I care about more than the crown is the money side of AEO.
When a business owner asks ChatGPT or Google AI Mode "who's the best at this near me", someone gets named in the answer.
That named business gets the call, and everyone else gets nothing.
So in this post I'll make my case with real numbers, then show you how AEO turns into leads for your own business or into a service you can sell to clients.
The King Of AEO Title In Plain English
Let me clear up the confusion first, because a lot of people search this phrase and find four different names.
AEO stands for answer engine optimisation.
In 2026 a few well-known SEO people started claiming to be its "king", partly as serious positioning and partly as friendly banter inside the industry.
Here's the full picture, with no shade thrown at anyone.
- Vithurs was named King of AEO in a press release that describes a 2026 vote among people working in SEO, digital marketing and AI search.
- James Dooley is named King of AEO and the founder of Decision Engine Optimisation in a press release on openPR, and SEO trainer Jesper Nissen wrote a light-hearted "coronation" post about him.
- David Quaid, the founder of the New York SEO agency Primary Position, has his case made in a Primary Position article titled "Who is the King of AEO?".
- Me, Julian Goldie, because I claimed the title publicly in my original King of AEO post and backed it with receipts.
Every one of those people has done genuine work in search.
So the fair answer to "who is the king of AEO" is that it depends whose case convinces you most.
Mine is built on business results, and that's what the rest of this page is about.
Why AEO Is A Money Skill, Not A Vanity Skill
Here's the shift that makes AEO matter to your bank balance.
Search used to give a buyer ten options to compare.
AI answers often give that same buyer one or two names and a short reason to trust them.
If your business is one of those names, you skip the comparison stage entirely.
If you're not, you might never even be considered.
I describe it as search having two doors now.
Door one is the classic Google results page, which you still win with original content, backlinks, freshness and clicks.
Door two is AI citations, where ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode quote your pages as sources.
You win door two with direct answers, FAQ sections, schema markup and fresh dates.
The same page can win through both doors, which means AEO isn't extra work on top of your marketing.
It's a better way of doing the marketing you already do.
My Business Case For The King Of AEO Title
I'm not going to pretend a crown pays anyone's bills.
What I can show you is what answer-first content has actually done for my own properties, using numbers from my own Google Search Console.
| What I built | What it produced | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A six-site network, all run through Claude Code pipelines | Growth from 1 to 491 clicks a day between August 2025 and August 2026 | My Claude watermark SEO guide |
| The same network over the last 360 days of that chart | 32,382 clicks | Same guide |
| aiprofitboardroom.com, a site my agents publish to | 29.8K clicks and 1.22M impressions over 16 months | My Google spam update guide |
| One site built with my Claude AI SEO system | 278 clicks a day, and 4,310 clicks from 122,674 impressions in 90 days | My Claude AI SEO guide |
| A brand new page | Google page one in 14 hours | Same guide |
The aiprofitboardroom.com number is the one business owners ask me about most.
I've never logged into that site, because my agent operating system documents what we test and publishes it.
That's the business model in one sentence: agents create answer-first content, the content earns traffic, and the traffic finds my offers.
On the agency side, I founded Goldie Agency, a 7-figure SEO agency with a team of around 50 people.
I've been doing SEO professionally for more than ten years, and I wrote the Amazon best-sellers "SEO Link Building Mastery" and "Agency Marketing Mastery".
That's my claim to the king of AEO title, laid out as plainly as I can.
🔥 Want the AEO and AI SEO systems behind these numbers? Inside the AI Profit Boardroom, I share the AI SEO training, prompts and agent workflows I use to get my content into Google and AI answers. You'll be alongside 3,400+ members using AI to grow real businesses. → Get access here
How To Use AEO To Win Customers For Your Own Business
If you own a business, here's the simple plan I'd follow this month.
List the questions your buyers actually ask
Write down the ten questions customers ask you on calls, in emails and in DMs before they buy.
Those are exactly the questions they're now asking AI assistants as well.
Then open Google Search Console and look for queries where your pages get impressions but very few clicks.
The overlap between those two lists is where you start.
Answer each question in the first sentence of a page
Every page you write for a buyer question should answer it in the opening line.
If someone asks "how much does a roof repair cost in Leeds", the first sentence should give a real, honest answer and not a story about your company history.
AI tools quote the pages that commit to an answer.
Add proof that a machine can read
Put your real results, real numbers and real experience on the page.
Then add an FAQ section with matching FAQPage schema, plus Article schema with your name and the date.
That gives answer engines a clear picture of who you are and why you're worth citing.
Keep your name and offer consistent everywhere
Use the same business name, the same description and the same core claims on your site, your social profiles and your directory listings.
AI tools trust businesses they can pin down clearly.
Update and measure every month
Refresh your key pages with new dates and new proof.
Check Search Console every month to see which questions are earning clicks.
If you'd like more ideas on handing this kind of work to AI, my post on AI automation for small business covers seven jobs you can offload.
How To Turn AEO Into A Service You Can Sell
AEO is one of the easiest new services to add to an agency right now, because the client can see the result with their own eyes.
They ask ChatGPT about their industry, and either their business shows up or it doesn't.
Here's the package I'd build if I were starting fresh.
| Package piece | What you deliver | Why the client cares |
|---|---|---|
| AEO audit | A list of the buyer questions the client should own, pulled from Search Console and customer calls | They see the gaps where competitors get named instead of them |
| Answer-first rewrites | Key pages rewritten so the first sentence answers the question | Their pages become easy for AI tools to quote |
| FAQ and schema layer | FAQ sections plus FAQPage and Article schema on every key page | Machines can read who they are and what they answer |
| Monthly refresh | New dates, new proof and new questions covered every month | They stay current while competitors go stale |
| Simple reporting | Search Console clicks and impressions on the target questions | They can see progress in numbers they understand |
I'd keep the offer narrow to begin with and prove it on a few pilot clients before raising the price.
That's the same approach I lay out in my guide on how to start an AI agency.
Please don't promise anyone a guaranteed spot in an AI answer, because nobody controls that.
Promise the work, show the numbers and let the results sell the next client.
If you run a business and want a hand getting found in Google and AI answers, you can book a free strategy session with my team and leave with a custom game plan. If you already run an SEO business and want to sharpen it with other serious operators, the SEO Elite Circle is my mastermind for exactly that.
The Money Mistakes People Make With AEO
The first mistake is treating AEO as a separate project from SEO.
It's built on the same foundations, so splitting the budget just slows both down.
The second mistake is publishing generic AI content with no real experience in it.
Answer engines have plenty of generic content already, so they quote the page with something original.
The third mistake is chasing every AI tool separately with different content.
One clear, well-structured page usually serves all of them.
The fourth mistake is selling AEO with income or ranking guarantees.
That's how you lose a client's trust in the first month.
My Final Take On The King Of AEO
The king of AEO title is a bit of fun, and I'm happy to share the stage with the other people claiming it.
The part that isn't fun and games is the opportunity underneath it.
Buyers are asking AI assistants for recommendations every day, and the businesses that get named are winning those customers.
Whether you want more leads for your own company or a new service to sell, answer engine optimisation is worth learning now.
🔥 Ready to build AEO into your business? The AI Profit Boardroom gives you the AI SEO training, the agent workflows and weekly coaching calls where you can bring your own site or your clients' sites. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom
Related Reading
- How to start an AI agency shows you how to package a service like AEO and land your first pilot clients.
- AI automation for small business covers the everyday jobs you can hand to AI while you focus on growth.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The step-by-step AEO agent setup behind my king of AEO claim
- 🌐 An honest verdict on every king of AEO claimant
- 🌐 Running answer engine optimisation from an Agent OS
- 🌐 Where I first staked my claim as King of AEO
FAQ: King Of AEO And Making Money With AEO
Is the king of AEO an official title?
No, the king of AEO is an informal title with no governing body behind it.
Vithurs, James Dooley, David Quaid and I have all been put forward for it publicly in 2026.
Can AEO bring in customers for a small business?
Yes, it can.
When an AI assistant names or cites your business as the answer to a buyer's question, that buyer is far more likely to contact you.
AEO raises your chances of being that answer, though nobody can guarantee it.
Can I sell AEO as an agency service?
Yes, and it fits naturally into an SEO or AI agency offer.
Start with a narrow package such as answer-first rewrites with FAQ schema, and prove it on a few pilot clients first.
Do I need to be technical to do AEO?
No, most AEO work is clear writing and good structure.
AI tools can write the schema for you, and Google Search Console shows you which questions to target for free.
Why does Julian Goldie claim the king of AEO title?
I claim it because I run answer engine optimisation every day across my own sites with AI agents and I publish the results.
My six-site network grew from 1 to 491 clicks a day between August 2025 and August 2026, and that sits on top of more than ten years of SEO and a 7-figure agency.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built a 7-figure agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of around 50 people.
- I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote the Amazon best-sellers "SEO Link Building Mastery" and "Agency Marketing Mastery".
- My Udemy courses have taught over 50,000 students.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Get your business named in the answer, and you'll understand why I'm happy to call myself the king of AEO.
