Last updated:
Paid engineering first, retainer after the work proves itself. Run the free check, start with Citation Foundation, then graduate to Growth. Content is a component. Not the product.
AI Citation Engineering covers what the industry calls GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), delivered as engineering work, not content marketing.
A lead-magnet diagnostic, not a sales call. Run it, or skip straight to Citation Foundation below — either is a fine place to start.
Enter your domain. Get your scores across three indicators in 60 seconds. Top-of-funnel only — not required before Foundation.
Citation Foundation is the promoted engagement. Infrastructure Setup is the budget-minimum entry — and it's already included if you go straight to Foundation.
Infrastructure Setup scope + 3–4 citation-engineered articles targeting your comparison-query set + strategy brief. Delivered together in 2–4 weeks.
Technical pipeline only. Schema, llms.txt, entity disambiguation, crawler access, directory listings. No content included. Already included in Citation Foundation — buy standalone only if you don't want content yet.
Once Citation Foundation is live, Growth keeps citation monitoring, entity maintenance, and cluster article production running. Requires Citation Infrastructure Setup complete.
Monitoring, ongoing citation engineering, and a monthly share-of-answer-voice report.
$200 Foundation credit if started within 60 days of Foundation delivery. Clients #1–2: founding-client month-to-month terms. Client #3 onward: 3-month minimum. Requires Citation Infrastructure Setup. Citation arrival typically months 2–4.
Accelerate →The Foundation layer (Citation Infrastructure Setup or Citation Foundation, weeks 1–4) is concrete and real regardless of whether citations land yet: validated schema matching your on-page content, a live llms.txt file, a consolidated entity record (knowledge graph presence), confirmed crawler accessibility, and answer-shaped content structure. These are verified deliverables, not promises.
The retainer metric is share of answer voice — your presence/citation rate across a defined query set in named AI engines, reported monthly. This is contractually defined by the Monthly Citation Monitoring Report methodology (current version): a fixed query set, named engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot), a set run count per query, and the cited / partially cited / not cited standard defined in that methodology. Engagement terms reference this methodology rather than redefining it.
AI citation to revenue attribution is structurally weak. The click path from an AI-generated answer is largely invisible — most AI engines don't pass referral data, and users often act on cited brands without clicking through at all.
Every engagement is contracted on share of answer voice — not pipeline, not revenue — tracked via the Monthly Citation Monitoring Report methodology and reported monthly. Revenue impact is communicated as directional only. This is in your engagement terms at intake, not in a month-5 conversation.
Ideapreneur runs a four-item menu: a free AI Visibility Check (lead magnet, top-of-funnel only), Citation Infrastructure Setup ($397, the minimum entry and hard prerequisite for any retainer), Citation Foundation ($997, the promoted front door), and the Growth retainer ($1,699/mo) once Foundation is live.
Paid engineering comes first — the retainer starts after the work proves itself, not before. All engagements cover ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.
Citation Foundation ($997) is the promoted front-door one-time engagement. It includes the complete Citation Infrastructure Setup scope — schema markup, llms.txt, entity disambiguation, Wikidata entry, directory listings, crawler access configuration — plus 3–4 citation-engineered articles targeting your comparison-query set, built to Citation Architecture standards, and a strategy brief mapping the next content cluster. Both layers delivered together in 2–4 weeks.
The $600 delta over standalone Infrastructure Setup ($397) is the content layer. Infrastructure without content is inert — AI engines need both a working pipeline and citation-ready content to begin surfacing a brand in answers. Citation Foundation delivers both so the engagement produces visible results, not just a technical foundation waiting on a separate content step. Graduates naturally to the Growth retainer.
Ideapreneur's first two Growth clients get founding-client terms: month-to-month, no minimum commitment. Starting with client #3, Growth carries a 3-month minimum — stated in the engagement terms from day one, not introduced after the fact. Citation arrival is typically months 2–4 into the retainer, communicated upfront in every case.
If you complete Citation Foundation and start a Growth retainer within 60 days of Foundation delivery, a $200 credit applies to your first retainer month.
No — Citation Foundation has fixed scope caps, stated at intake: each article runs up to roughly 2,500 words, one revision round is included per article, and the strategy brief maps a fixed set of up to 10 target queries. This keeps the $997 engagement sustainable and the timeline (2–4 weeks) reliable. Work beyond these caps is scoped separately, not absorbed into the one-time price.
The Citation Architecture is Ideapreneur's proprietary four-layer, eight-signal framework for AI citation visibility. It increases the probability a brand is retrieved, trusted, and cited across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot — by building the underlying structural conditions all major AI retrieval systems require.
The four layers address entity infrastructure, content depth, citation signal distribution, and authority confirmation. The eight signals span schema markup, Wikidata presence, topical cluster depth, structured claim density, sameAs link coverage, author entity anchoring, FAQ extraction readiness, and earned mention velocity.