Decision engine optimization (DEO) is the work of becoming the business AI recommends when a buyer asks it which supplier to choose. It comes from our co‑founder James Dooley, who founded decision engine optimization (DEO).
SEO gets your pages found. AEO and GEO get your name into AI answers. DEO works on the last question a buyer asks, which supplier to choose, and aims to make you the answer, with reasons the assistant can check.
Most GEO and AI SEO work publishes content and builds links, so AI can find a business and mention it. DEO starts with the proof an assistant checks before it recommends anyone, then gets the rest of the web to say the same thing.
Assistants that search the web, such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot, read what you say about yourself, compare it with what other sites say about you, and repeat the claims that hold up.
Without that proof, an assistant falls back on the businesses it can check, which usually means your competitors.
From proof to recommendation, in the order the work happens. We do the first two; the last three are what the assistants do once your proof holds up.
Every claim on your website links to a page that proves it: one brand facts page, then a page for each kind of proof you really have.
Our own brand facts page: Facts about Be The Brand AI Recommends.
The same proof turns up wherever AI looks: your own pages, other websites, review sites, trusted links, video and podcasts, and the forums where buyers talk.
Assistants work out who you are, compare your claims with other sources and trust what agrees. Facts that match everywhere give them confidence.
Asked who the best company is for the job, an assistant that trusts the evidence can name you and say why, citing your reviews, case studies, awards and the sites that mention you.
Every buyer who asks can get that answer, at any hour, and arrive already told why to choose you.
Every claim on the site links to the page that proves it, and other sites say the same. Here is the example business from our home page with its proof in place.
Example: the proof stack of a fictional HVAC company in Phoenix
Each claim has a page that proves it and a second source that agrees: evidence an assistant can check before it recommends anyone.
Month one builds your DEO proof stack, on every plan. Every month after, your plan spreads that proof across the web and checks what AI says about you. No contract. Cancel any time.
Brand facts page
One page that states who you are, how you work, who you work for, when you started and where you are, so every other page and profile can agree with it.
Proof pages
A page for each kind of proof you really have: awards, accreditations, testimonials, case studies and reviews.
Proof threading
Every claim on your key pages linked to the page that proves it, naming the exact award, body or result.
Proof-gap list
The proof you do not have yet and how to earn it, so your site never claims more than it can show.
$995 a month
One location or one core service, a handful of competitors.
$1,995 a month
Several services or areas, competitors already showing up in AI answers.
$3,995 a month
A crowded market where you want to be the name AI gives first.
Every plan is covered by the 90‑day guarantee. Onboarding starts within 48 hours of your order.
James Dooley
King of AEO
James Dooley, who founded decision engine optimization (DEO), wrote the book that defines it (Omnipressent, 2026): Decision Engine Optimisation: SEO Gets You Found. DEO Gets You Chosen. He has built and ranked over 1,000 sites generating more than 2 million inquiries, and co‑authored 12 books on SEO and AI search.
He co-founded Be The Brand AI Recommends with Paul Truscott and Peter Jones, and the three of them run the work. More in James Dooley’s profile.
Decision Engine Optimisation. Kindle edition, published . The cover opens its page on Amazon.
Paul TruscottKing of Google Maps, in search since 2015
Peter JonesKing of Local Lead Gen, in search since 2008
Books the three founders co‑wrote on search and AI: LLM Mastery, Link Building in the Era of AI Search Engines and KGMID SEO.
Contact us with anything this page does not answer.
Decision engine optimization. A decision engine here is an AI assistant a buyer asks for a recommendation, such as ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews, and DEO is the work of becoming the business it recommends. It has no link to the decision-engine software banks and retailers use to automate their own choices.
James Dooley, one of our three co‑founders. He named the method, wrote the book on it (Decision Engine Optimisation, Omnipressent, 2026) and leads the work here.
No. AEO and GEO work on getting your business mentioned in AI answers. DEO works on the answer a buyer gets when they ask which supplier to choose, which rests on proof the assistant can check. Our plans do both.
No. AI assistants read the same web that Google ranks, so the pages, links and technical work that help you rank also carry the proof AI checks. DEO builds on SEO.
Then your proof‑gap list says so, and shows how to earn them. Your DEO proof stack starts with the proof you can show today, such as your facts, your licenses and real customer reviews, and nothing on your site claims more than you can prove.
Any assistant that reads the web to answer, including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot. Every month we put your buyer questions to four of them, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity, and report how each one answers.
Your proof stack is built in month one. Assistants pick up new pages and mentions at their own pace, so nobody can give you a date for a recommendation. We track your buyer questions every month and report what changed.
No one controls what an AI assistant says. What we guarantee is progress: If your AI visibility has not measurably improved within 90 days, we keep working for free until it has. Read the 90‑day guarantee’s conditions.