# AEO Engine — A free, no-signup GEO audit tool backed by a managed AEO content-and-citation service starting at $1,597/month.

> Source: CitedIndex — https://citedindex.com/aeoengine (structured, researched, re-verified)
> Facts last verified: 2026-07-23

AEO Engine is an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) service run by AEO Engine LLC (Manvel, TX), founded and led by Vijay Jacob (Founder & CEO) and Dan Ashburn (Co-Founder & CMO), formalized under the AEO Engine name in January 2026. Its standalone free tool, the GEO Audit at aeoengine.ai/geo-audit, takes a single URL, checks it with no sign-up required, and returns a numeric visibility score plus a per-bot AI-crawler-access report in under a minute. Behind that free tool sits a managed, done-for-you service: dedicated staff producing AEO-optimized content, backlinks, Reddit/Quora mentions and PR campaigns on 90-day contracts starting at $1,597/month, closer in shape to an agency retainer than to self-serve monitoring software.

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Website | https://aeoengine.ai |
| API | No |
| Best for | a fast, free technical read on whether AI crawlers can access and parse a site |
| Not for | buyers who want a self-serve, ongoing AI-citation monitoring dashboard, or teams not ready for a four-figure monthly managed-service contract |

## Verdict

AEO Engine's free GEO Audit Tool is a genuine, no-signup, technically specific first read, the AI-crawler-access table in particular is a sharper, more checkable finding than most "AI visibility score" tools give away for free. The paid product behind it, though, is a four-figure-a-month managed content/backlink/PR retainer with no independent review coverage yet and a legal entity formalized only in January 2026, so it is a much bigger commitment than the free tool alone suggests.

## How it works

1. Enter a single URL at aeoengine.ai/geo-audit and run the free audit — no sign-up or email required, results in under 60 seconds.
2. Review the Composite GEO Score and its six sub-scores (Citability, Crawlers, Brand, E-E-A-T, Schema, Platform), plus a table showing whether each of 19 named AI crawlers can access the site.
3. Work through the prioritized list of specific issues the audit flags, such as a citation block that isn't self-contained enough for an AI engine to quote directly.
4. For ongoing work beyond the free audit, a paid Growth or Scale contract adds a dedicated team producing 30-60 AEO-optimized articles/month, backlinks from 35+ Domain Rating sites, and monthly press-release distribution under a 90-day rolling contract.

## Who it's for

- Teams that want a fast, free, no-signup technical read on whether AI crawlers can access and parse their site before buying anything.
- Companies without an in-house content/SEO team that want content, backlinks and PR fully outsourced under a managed retainer.
- Marketers diagnosing one specific citation gap (e.g. a flagged "weak citation block") who want a concrete, checkable finding rather than a vague score.

## Strengths and weaknesses

- ✓ A genuinely free, no-signup GEO audit returns real, specific results (composite score, 6 sub-scores, a 19-bot crawler table) in under a minute, verified by running it live against citedindex.com.
- ✓ Operator identity independently corroborated: Vijay Jacob is named as AEO Engine's founder on RocketReach (a third-party contact database) and in Digital Reference's 2026 "#1 AEO & GEO Consultant in NYC" coverage, not only on the vendor's own site.
- ✓ A registered US address and phone number are published, unlike several unnamed-operator rivals surfaced for the same "geo audit tool" search.
- ✗ No independent review-platform coverage (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot) could be found for this product at review time, so its self-reported marketing claims (e.g. brand count, traffic-growth percentages on its site) are vendor-stated and unverified by any third party.
- ✗ The paid service starts at $1,597/month (Growth), far above the self-serve AI-visibility monitors elsewhere in this index (e.g. $29-$189/month tools), because it is structured as a managed content/backlink/PR retainer, not software.
- ✗ The company's own about page states it was only "formalized as AEO Engine in January 2026", despite marketing copy elsewhere implying continuity back to 2018, the current legal entity and product brand has a short operating history under this name.
- ⚠ No public API or MCP integration was found, access is via the web audit tool or the managed service, not programmatic.
- ⚠ The free audit checks technical/structural AI-readiness signals; it does not track ongoing brand citations or mentions over time the way a dedicated AI-visibility monitor does.

## Key features

- **Free GEO Audit Tool** — No-signup, ~60-second audit at aeoengine.ai/geo-audit — a Composite GEO Score plus 6 sub-scores, a 19-bot AI-crawler-access table, and prioritized fixes.
- **AEO-optimized content production** — 30 articles/month on Growth, 60/month on Scale, written toward AI-citation readiness rather than classic SEO alone.
- **Backlink building** — 3–5 links/month (Growth) or 6–10/month (Scale) from sites with 35+ Domain Rating.
- **Reddit/Quora mention building** — Several placements per month aimed at building the kind of community-source citations AI engines pull from.
- **Monthly press-release distribution** — 596+ placement instances across a 400+ outlet footprint and up to 1,788 high-value backlinks per release, included on both Growth and Scale.
- **30% traffic-growth guarantee** — Stated on the pricing page, tied to the 90-day rolling contract term.

## Use cases

- **First, free look at AI-crawler access before buying anything** — A team runs the no-signup audit to see whether AI crawlers can even reach and parse its site before evaluating any paid AEO/GEO tool.
- **Fully managed AEO instead of an in-house hire** — A company without a content/SEO team pays for the Growth or Scale plan to get content, backlinks, and PR handled by a dedicated outside team.
- **Diagnosing a specific citation gap** — A marketer uses the audit's per-issue breakdown (e.g. a flagged "weak citation block") to rewrite one section rather than commissioning a full audit elsewhere.

## Sources

- https://aeoengine.ai/geo-audit
- https://aeoengine.ai/about
- https://aeoengine.ai/pricing
- https://rocketreach.co/vijay-jacob-email_865257404
- https://aeoengine.ai/blog/aeo-engine-founder-ranked-top-aeo-geo-consultant-nyc-2026