About upword.
We help local service businesses stay visible as search shifts to AI-generated answers.
The Search Landscape Has Changed
When someone searches for "best HVAC repair near me," they used to get a list of blue links. They'd click through, compare websites, read reviews, and eventually call someone. That was the game, and you knew how to play it.
Now they get a direct answer from ChatGPT, Claude, or Google's AI Overview. The AI tells them exactly who to call, often with specific reasoning about why. If your business isn't in that answer, you don't exist. The prospect never sees you. They don't click to your website. They don't compare options. They call whoever the AI recommended.
This isn't coming. It's already here. Over 40% of searches now return AI-generated answers instead of traditional link results. For service business queries like "emergency plumber Sunday morning" or "how much does roof replacement cost in Atlanta," that number is closer to 60%. The traffic you used to get from Google is being intercepted before it reaches you.
Traditional SEO optimized for links. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) optimizes for citations. It's a fundamentally different game, and most businesses don't even know they're losing it.
Our mission
upword exists so local businesses can be the default answer when customers ask AI for help. Search is evolving from links to direct answers. We build the system that keeps you visible.
The businesses that win in the next five years won't be the ones with the most backlinks or the highest domain authority. They'll be the ones that AI systems trust enough to cite as authoritative sources. We build that trust systematically, using content that matches exactly what answer engines are looking for.
What we do
We combine topic discovery, content generation, scheduling, and publishing in one workflow. But more importantly, we understand how AI systems decide what to cite and what to ignore.
Surface the questions your customers are already asking
We monitor AI answer engines to see what people are actually asking about your services in your market. Not what you think they're asking. Not what keyword research tools say they're asking. What they're literally typing into ChatGPT, Claude, and Google.
A homeowner asks "How much does it cost to install a heat pump in Atlanta?" We identify that question, see which businesses are currently being cited in the answer, and determine what content gaps exist that your business can fill.
Someone searches "emergency plumber Sunday morning" and gets an AI Overview. We track whether you're mentioned, how prominently, and what specific factors led to your inclusion or exclusion.
Generate authoritative, location-specific articles that answer those questions
Generic content doesn't get cited. Content that could apply to any business in any city gets filtered out by AI systems looking for specific, verifiable information.
We create articles that include your actual service area pricing, your specific response times, your real availability, your genuine expertise. When an AI needs to answer "How much does AC repair cost in Phoenix," we make sure you have content that says "At [Your Business], AC repair in Phoenix typically costs between $X and $Y depending on the issue, and we can usually have a technician to your home within 2 hours."
That specificity is what earns citations. AI systems are trained to prefer concrete, verifiable information over marketing fluff.
Publish on your schedule to your site
Every piece of content we generate goes directly to your website on a schedule you control. You stay in control of your brand and compliance. We handle the strategy and execution, but it's always your site, your voice, your business.
Track how you show up in answer engines
We monitor your visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overview, Perplexity, and other major answer engines. You see exactly which queries return your business as a citation, how the AI describes you, and how your visibility changes over time.
When you go from 0 citations to 23 citations over 60 days, you know the system is working. When you see the AI describing your business as "available 24/7 with typical response times under 90 minutes," you know your positioning is landing.
You stay in control of your brand and compliance. We handle the strategy and execution.
Who it's for
upword is built for local service businesses that want consistent visibility without spending hours on content.
If you're a plumber, electrician, HVAC contractor, roofer, med spa, or agency serving other local businesses, this is for you. You don't have time to become an expert in AI citation patterns. You don't want to hire a content team. You just want the phone to ring when people in your area need your services.
You might be experiencing some warning signs:
- Your Google rankings haven't changed, but phone calls are down
- You're getting fewer website visitors even though your SEO metrics look fine
- Competitors with worse websites seem to be getting more leads
- You're spending money on marketing that worked five years ago but feels less effective now
This happens because the traffic is being intercepted before it reaches any website. People are getting their answers from AI, and if you're not being cited, they're calling someone else.
Local businesses use upword to build topical authority and show up when AI answers questions in their market. You get the visibility that used to come from ranking on page one of Google, but now comes from being the business an AI recommends.
How It Works: The Technical Methodology
We don't just write blog posts and hope they work. We reverse-engineer how AI systems make citation decisions, then create content that matches those patterns.
Question Analysis
We analyze what questions AI systems are actually answering in your market. Not keyword volume or search trends, the literal questions that return AI-generated answers in your service area and industry. This tells us where the traffic is going and what content gaps exist.
Citation Pattern Mapping
We study which businesses get cited and why. What makes one plumber's content citation-worthy while another's gets ignored? It usually comes down to specificity, verifiability, and structure. AI systems prefer content that includes concrete details (pricing ranges, service areas, response times, qualifications) over generic marketing copy.
Content That Matches AI Requirements
We create articles structured specifically for AI parsing. This means proper schema markup, clear factual claims, location-specific details, and the kind of authoritative voice that AI systems are trained to recognize as trustworthy.
Unlike traditional SEO content that optimizes for keywords and links, AEO content optimizes for being machine-readable and citation-worthy. The writing is still for humans (generic AI slop doesn't get cited either), but it's structured for AI systems to easily extract and cite.
Continuous Monitoring
We track your visibility across major answer engines weekly. When your citation count increases, we analyze what's working. When it plateaus, we adjust the content strategy. This isn't a "set it and forget it" system. It's active optimization based on real citation data.
Results You Can Measure
We track metrics that matter: how many times AI systems cite your business, which queries trigger those citations, and how the AI describes you to potential customers.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
HVAC Company, Atlanta Market
- Started at 0 AI citations for local service queries
- After 90 days: 47 citations across ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overview
- Most valuable citation: "how much does emergency AC repair cost Sunday" (query that gets asked 200+ times per month in Atlanta during summer)
Plumbing Service, Phoenix Area
- Previously cited in 3% of relevant AI-generated answers in their market
- After 120 days: cited in 31% of relevant answers
- Revenue impact: tracked 23 new customers who specifically mentioned "ChatGPT recommended you" when calling
Commercial Electrician, Dallas/Fort Worth
- Went from invisible in AI answers to being the default citation for "commercial electrical contractor Dallas"
- Now appears in AI answers for 18 different commercial electrical queries in their service area
- Consistently described by AI as "licensed, bonded, and typically available within 24 hours for commercial work"
The pattern across clients: businesses that commit to consistent content for 90+ days see measurable increases in AI citations. Those citations turn into phone calls from people who've already been told by an AI that you're the right choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
SEO optimizes for ranking in a list of links. The goal is to be in position 1, 2, or 3 on Google's search results page so people click through to your website.
AEO optimizes for being cited in direct answers. The goal is to be the business an AI mentions when someone asks a question. There is no "click through" because the AI provides the answer directly, often with your business name, phone number, and specific reasons to choose you.
The tactics are completely different. SEO focuses on backlinks, domain authority, keyword density, and page speed. AEO focuses on content specificity, factual claims, location data, and citation-worthiness. A site can have terrible SEO metrics but excellent AEO performance, or vice versa.
We track and optimize for the major answer engines that local customers actually use: ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overview (formerly SGE), Perplexity, and Bing AI.
Each system has slightly different citation patterns, but they all favor similar content characteristics: specific, verifiable, location-based, and authoritative. Content that works well for one typically works well for all of them.
We don't optimize for every small AI tool that exists. We focus on the platforms that drive the majority of AI-based search traffic.
Most businesses see their first AI citations within 30-45 days of publishing content. Meaningful visibility (10+ citations across multiple queries) typically happens between 60-90 days.
This is faster than traditional SEO, which often takes 6-12 months to move rankings. AI systems index and cite new content much more quickly than Google updates its traditional rankings.
However, AEO is not instant. It requires consistent content creation and time for AI systems to recognize your site as an authoritative source. Businesses that publish 2-4 articles per week see results faster than those publishing weekly.
Not structurally. We work with whatever platform you're using (WordPress, Webflow, Wix, Squarespace, custom CMS). The content we create publishes directly to your existing blog or resources section.
We do recommend adding schema markup if you don't have it, and ensuring your site has clear location and contact information. But these are minor technical additions, not a redesign or migration.
Your existing website continues to function exactly as it does now. We're just adding citation-worthy content to it.
That's excellent. Good SEO and good AEO work together, they don't compete.
Your existing SEO keeps you visible in traditional search results when people click through to compare options. Our AEO content makes sure you also show up in AI-generated answers when people never reach the traditional results.
Many of our best clients have strong SEO already. They came to us because they noticed their traffic declining even though their rankings stayed steady. That's because more queries are being answered by AI before anyone sees the rankings.
You don't need to choose between SEO and AEO. You need both.
You stay in control. Every piece of content is published to your site under your name. You can review and approve content before it goes live if you want that level of control, or you can trust our process and let us publish on schedule.
For regulated industries (medical, legal, financial), we build compliance requirements directly into the content generation process. The content is factual and informative, never making claims you can't legally make.
Brand voice is part of our onboarding. We analyze your existing content and match that tone. If you want formal and professional, you get that. If you want conversational and approachable, we match that instead.
Minimal. This is designed for busy business owners who don't have time to be content creators.
Initial onboarding takes about 60 minutes. We need to understand your services, pricing structure, service area, and competitive positioning. After that, most clients spend zero time on the system week to week.
If you want to review content before publication, that adds 10-15 minutes per week. But it's optional. Many clients prefer to let us handle everything and just monitor the citation reports we send monthly.
Yes. During onboarding, we create sample articles for your review before anything goes live. You'll see exactly what the content looks like, how it positions your business, and how it's structured for AI citation.
We're also happy to share examples from current clients (with their permission) so you can see what citation-worthy content looks like across different industries.
The content is substantive (typically 800-1500 words per article), specific to your business and location, and written to be genuinely useful to someone researching your services. It's not thin AI-generated fluff. It's the kind of article that makes an AI system think "this is the authoritative source I should cite."
What's next
See how it works for the full workflow, or pricing for plans. Questions? Get in touch.
The shift to AI-generated answers is happening now. The businesses that adapt first will own their markets for the next decade. The ones that wait will spend years trying to catch up.
You can start with a free trial and see your first AI citations within 30 days, or we can schedule a call to discuss your specific market and competition.
Ready to become the answer?
You already know what makes your business credible. upword helps AI systems recognize it.
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