Most businesses in Leicestershire are aware of SEO and the importance of it, but not so the importance of AEO (answer engine optimisation) to get recognised and listed on AI searches by tools like ChatGPT, Claude, GoogleAI, Perplexity and Gemini. So lets take a closer look at the difference between SEO and AEO and how Leicester businesses can get their company found and recommended by AI searches.
Brookstone Creative is a Leicestershire AEO and SEO agency based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, serving businesses across the East Midlands, West Midlands and the wider Midlands region. Founded by Richard Stinson, Brookstone Creative helps businesses in Leicestershire and the Midlands appear in AI search tools.
By Richard Stinson, Founder, Brookstone Creative Ltd, Hinckley, Leicestershire | 9 minute read
Key statistics
(6sense, Buyer Experience Report 2025)
(British Chambers of Commerce, 2026)
(Magenta Associates, Search Forward 2025)
How search has changed for midlands businesses
Think about how you found a supplier, a service, or a piece of information last week. Did you open Google and type a search term? Possibly. Did you open ChatGPT or ask Google’s AI Overview a direct question and read the answer without clicking a single link? Increasingly, yes.
This is not a future shift. It is happening now, across every sector and every business size. The British Chambers of Commerce found that 54 per cent of UK firms were actively using AI in their operations as of early 2026. That is up from just 25 per cent two years earlier. The pace of change is significant.
For businesses in Leicester, Hinckley, Coventry, Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby and across the broader Midlands region, the implication is straightforward. If your business does not appear when a buyer types a question into ChatGPT or asks Google’s AI tool for a recommendation, you are invisible to that buyer. They may never visit your website. They may never find your Google listing. The conversation about whether to buy from you never starts.
The good news is that the businesses building AI search visibility right now are gaining ground that will be very difficult for later entrants to recover. Most Midlands businesses have not started. The window is open.
Examples of real search queries now being asked to AI tools:
"Which AEO agency in Leicestershire can help my business appear in ChatGPT?"
"Who is the best SEO and AEO specialist in the East Midlands?
"Recommend an AEO and SEO agency near me in the Midlands UK"
The UK is approximately 18 months behind the United States in both agency capability and business understanding of AEO. That gap is an opportunity for Midlands businesses that move now, and a growing risk for those that wait.
What are SEO and AEO and why do both matter?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) helps businesses appear in Google’s traditional search results. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) helps businesses appear in the answers generated by AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. In 2026, buyers use both environments. A business optimised for only one is invisible to a significant and growing proportion of the people looking for what it offers.
What is the difference between SEO and AEO for a business in the Midlands?
SEO is not new. Most business owners in Leicestershire and across the Midlands have heard of it, many have invested in it, and a good number have been disappointed by it at some point. The principle is straightforward: make your website appear higher in Google’s search results when someone searches for what you do.
AEO is newer, and the name is less familiar. But the concept is equally simple once you strip away the jargon. When someone opens ChatGPT and asks a question instead of typing a search term into Google, the AI tool generates an answer. That answer draws on sources it has indexed and trusts. AEO is the practice of making your business one of those sources.
The reason both matter in 2026 is that buyers use both environments. A business owner researching a new accountant might search on Google for local firms. They might also ask ChatGPT which accounting practices in Leicester specialise in manufacturing businesses. A homeowner looking for a builder in Hinckley might use Google. They might also ask Perplexity for recommended builders in Hinckley with good reviews. A procurement manager sourcing a new supplier might use Google AI Overviews. They might ask Claude for suppliers in the East Midlands who match their requirements. The search landscape has split into two parallel tracks, and your business needs to be visible on both.
SEO, Search Engine Optimisation
Making your website and its content appear in Google’s search results when potential customers search for what you offer. It involves the technical health of your website, the quality and relevance of your content, and the credibility signals that tell Google your business is a trustworthy source. Strong SEO is also the foundation that makes AEO more effective, because the majority of AI Overview citations come from pages already ranking well in Google.
AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation
Structuring your website content so that AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews cite it when answering questions relevant to your business. AEO requires content written around the specific questions buyers ask, opening each section with a direct and self-contained answer, and building the external authority signals that tell AI tools your business is credible enough to recommend.
GEO, Generative Engine Optimisation
An extension of AEO that optimises your content for citation across all generative AI platforms simultaneously. Where AEO might focus on a single platform, GEO ensures your business appears consistently across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and emerging AI tools. For businesses with longer sales cycles or multiple buyer types, GEO ensures visibility across every AI tool a potential customer might use during their research.
Share of Model
Why Leicestershire and Midlands businesses are particularly well placed
Why does location matter for AEO and SEO in the Midlands?
There is a common assumption that SEO and AEO are purely about global or national visibility. That is not the case. Location matters in both disciplines, and it matters in ways that directly benefit Midlands businesses that invest in local authority.
When a buyer asks ChatGPT to recommend a marketing agency in Leicestershire, or asks Google AI Overviews for the best SEO specialist in the East Midlands, those tools actively look for content that establishes genuine local presence. A business in Hinckley that publishes content referencing Leicestershire, the East Midlands, local sectors and local business context has a structural advantage over a London agency that has no genuine local footprint trying to compete for the same query.
The Midlands manufacturing, logistics and professional services sectors are also deeply interconnected. A business in Leicester may supply to companies in Coventry, Birmingham, Nottingham and Derby. A fabrication company in Hinckley may serve customers across the whole of the East and West Midlands. Building AI search visibility that names those geographies and those sectors creates a local authority signal that is both commercially relevant and difficult for out-of-area competitors to replicate authentically.
Hinckley itself has a proud engineering heritage. The town has been home to precision engineering businesses for generations, from hosiery machinery to aerospace component manufacturers and specialist subcontractors serving global supply chains. Brookstone Creative was founded here deliberately, because the engineering and industrial heritage of the area is not background colour. It is the foundation of a genuine understanding of what Midlands businesses make, who they sell to, and what their buyers are searching for.
Who needs AEO and SEO in Leicestershire and the Midlands?
Any business in Leicestershire or the Midlands that wants to be found by buyers who use AI tools to research suppliers, services or products needs AEO alongside SEO. This includes manufacturing and engineering companies, professional services firms, technology businesses, logistics and distribution companies, and any B2B business with a sales cycle that involves a research phase. If your buyers ask questions before they make decisions, and almost all of them do, AEO is relevant to your business.
Which types of Midlands business benefit most from AEO and SEO?
The honest answer is that any business whose customers do research before making a purchase or placement decision benefits from AEO. But some types of business benefit more immediately than others, and it is worth being specific about why.Manufacturing and Engineering
Professional Services
Technology and Digital
Logistics and Distribution
The Midlands is the logistics hub of England, with companies across Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire serving national and international supply chains. Buyers researching logistics partners, warehousing solutions and distribution services increasingly use AI tools to compile shortlists. A logistics company in the East Midlands with strong AEO visibility for relevant queries will appear in AI-generated shortlists ahead of competitors who have not built that presence.
Brookstone Creative - AI optimisation and marketing
Brookstone Creative is an AEO and SEO agency based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, working with businesses across the East Midlands, West Midlands and the wider Midlands region. The agency was founded by Richard Stinson, whose background spans engineering, technical sales and sales management, giving Brookstone a depth of commercial and sector understanding that most digital marketing agencies cannot match. Services cover AI search visibility audit, SEO foundations, AEO content strategy, schema markup, external authority building and monthly Share of Model tracking.
What makes Brookstone Creative different from other SEO and AEO agencies in the Midlands?
There are good SEO agencies in the Midlands. There are a growing number of agencies beginning to offer AEO services. What is harder to find is an agency that combines genuine technical understanding with commercial experience and a grounding in how businesses actually operate, particularly in manufacturing, engineering and the industrial sectors that form such a significant part of the Midlands economy.
Richard Stinson founded Brookstone Creative after a career that started on the shop floor of a precision engineering company in Leicestershire and moved through CNC machining, CAD/CAM engineering, technical design, project management and technical sales management. That background is not decorative. It means that when Brookstone writes content for a manufacturing client, the content reflects a genuine understanding of what the business does and what its customers are looking for. It means that when we conduct an AI search audit for a Midlands business, we know what questions their buyers are asking and how to structure content that answers those questions in a way AI tools trust.
That same rigorous, technically grounded approach applies across every sector we work in. Whether the client is a precision machining company in Hinckley, an accountancy practice in Leicester, a technology business in Coventry or a logistics company in Northamptonshire, the methodology is the same: understand the buyer, understand what they search for, and build the content and technical foundations that make the business visible when that search happens.
What does a Brookstone Creative AEO and SEO programme for a Midlands business look like?
Every programme starts in the same place: an honest assessment of where the business currently stands in AI search. We run a Share of Model baseline audit across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, testing the queries that the business’s buyers are most likely to use. For most Midlands businesses, that baseline is zero. That is not a criticism. It is simply where most businesses in the region are right now, and it defines where the opportunity begins.
From that baseline, a programme typically runs across three layers. The technical layer addresses the foundations: ensuring AI crawlers can access and read the website, implementing schema markup correctly, and resolving any technical issues that prevent content from being indexed by AI tools. The content layer builds the blogs, capability pages and FAQ content structured around the questions buyers ask, with direct answers designed for AI extraction. The authority layer builds the external presence through Google Business Profile, Trustpilot, trade and sector directories, and where relevant, trade press coverage that tells AI tools the business is credible and established.
Programmes are designed for real business timelines, not agency reporting cycles. AEO results for well-structured content typically begin appearing within six to eight weeks. SEO results take longer, typically three to six months for new content to rank consistently. And the enquiries that result from that visibility reflect the actual buying cycles of the businesses we work with, which in B2B sectors can run from weeks to months. Honesty about timelines is as important to us as the quality of the work itself.
How to know if your business needs AEO right now
A Midlands business needs AEO right now if its buyers do any research before making contact, if it operates in a sector where competitors are beginning to build AI search visibility, or if it has noticed declining returns from traditional SEO and cannot fully explain why. The practical test is simple: open ChatGPT or Perplexity, type the question your best potential customer would ask to find a business like yours, and read the response. If your business does not appear, that is the answer.
How do I know if AEO is relevant to my business in Leicestershire or the Midlands?
The quickest way to answer this question is to run the test yourself, right now. Open ChatGPT. Type the question your ideal customer would ask when they are looking for what you offer. Be specific. Use the language they would use, not the language you use internally.
If you run a commercial cleaning company in Leicester, try: ‘which commercial cleaning companies in Leicester have good reviews for office cleaning contracts?’ If you are a chartered accountant in Hinckley, try: ‘which accountancy firms in Hinckley or Leicestershire work with small manufacturing businesses?’ If you manufacture specialist components in the East Midlands, try: ‘which subcontract manufacturers in the East Midlands work with aerospace supply chains?’
Read the response. Does your business appear? Does a competitor appear? Does the AI tool give a credible, useful answer that does not include you? That absence is the commercial cost of not having AEO in place. It is not traffic you are missing. It is conversations that are starting with your competitors and never reaching you.
What is the practical AEO and SEO checklist for a Midlands business starting from scratch?
- Run the AI visibility test above across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews. Record your results. This is your baseline.
- Check your Google Business Profile. Is it complete, accurate, and updated regularly with posts that reflect what your business actually does? A complete Google Business Profile is one of the clearest authority signals Google AI Overviews uses.
- Check your website robots.txt file at yourdomain.co.uk/robots.txt. Are AI crawlers allowed in? GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended should all be permitted.
- Read the first paragraph of your homepage as if you are a potential customer who knows nothing about your business. Does it tell you clearly what the business does, where it operates, and who it serves? If not, rewrite it before anything else.
- Count how many pages on your website open with a direct, specific answer to a question a buyer might ask. If the answer is zero, that is where AEO content work needs to start.
- Search for your business on Trustpilot and Google Reviews. Do you have current, genuine reviews that reflect your sector and capability? Reviews are an authority signal that both Google and AI tools weight when deciding which businesses to recommend.
- Identify the three most common questions your customers ask before deciding to work with you. Write a page or a blog post that answers each one directly and specifically. That content is the foundation of an AEO programme.
- Repeat the AI visibility test monthly. If your business begins appearing in AI responses for relevant queries, note which content drove the citation. If it does not, use that information to adjust where you invest content effort next.
How to choose an AEO and SEO specialist in the Midlands
Choosing an AEO and SEO specialist in Leicestershire or the Midlands requires looking beyond promises about rankings and AI mentions. The right specialist will start with an honest audit of where you currently stand, explain the technical foundations clearly, and set realistic timelines aligned to your actual buying cycle rather than their reporting cycle.
What should I look for when choosing an AEO or SEO agency in the Midlands?
The AEO market in the UK is young. Agencies that were purely SEO specialists twelve months ago are now describing themselves as AEO experts. Some have genuinely developed the capability. Others have added the terminology without the substance. Knowing the difference matters because the wrong choice costs time, budget and the first-mover window that is available to Midlands businesses right now.
There are four things worth testing before committing to any AEO or SEO agency in Leicestershire or the Midlands.
Ask them to run an AI visibility audit on your business before any contract is signed
A genuine AEO specialist can show you, within 48 hours and at no cost, exactly where your business currently appears across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews for the queries your buyers use. If an agency cannot do this before you commit, they are not genuinely equipped to improve it after you do. Brookstone Creative offers this audit as standard for any Midlands business considering working with us.
Ask them what Share of Model means and how they measure it
Share of Model is the primary metric for AI search visibility. It measures how frequently your business appears in AI-generated responses across the key platforms for your sector. An AEO specialist who cannot explain this concept clearly and tell you how they track it monthly is not running a genuine AEO programme. They are running an SEO programme and calling it AEO.
Ask them about timeline expectations honestly
AEO citation results for well-structured content typically begin appearing within six to eight weeks. SEO results take three to six months for new content to rank consistently. Any agency promising significant results within 30 days from a standing start is either misrepresenting what they do or misrepresenting how AI search works. Honest timelines are a sign of a trustworthy partner.
Ask them whether they understand your sector and your buyers
AEO content only works when it is built around the exact questions your buyers ask. An agency that does not understand your sector cannot identify those questions accurately. Brookstone Creative’s founding background in engineering and technical sales means we approach this question from direct commercial experience rather than desk research. For manufacturing, industrial, professional services and B2B businesses across Leicestershire and the Midlands, that distinction matters.
The opportunity for Midlands businesses right now
The AEO opportunity for businesses in Leicestershire and the Midlands is real and time-limited. Most Midlands businesses have not yet built any meaningful AI search visibility. The businesses that move first in their local sector and service category will build citation authority that becomes progressively harder for later entrants to displace. AI tools weight consistent citation history. A business that has been cited reliably for a query over six months has a structural advantage over one appearing for the first time. The window is open now.
There is a genuine first-mover advantage in AEO for Midlands businesses. Unlike traditional SEO, where established competitors with years of backlink history are difficult to displace quickly, AEO is a newer discipline where the authority patterns are still forming. A Leicester accountancy firm that builds strong AEO content in the first half of 2026 can realistically establish citation authority in AI tools before larger competitors with more resources have understood what is happening.
The same applies across sectors. A manufacturing company in Hinckley, a technology business in Coventry, a logistics provider in Northamptonshire, a professional services firm in Birmingham. In each case, the businesses that understand AEO now and build the content and technical foundations to support it are establishing positions that will compound in value as AI search becomes the dominant channel for business-to-business supplier research.
Magenta Associates research from 2025, surveying 300 UK senior decision-makers with B2B purchasing responsibility, found that 66 per cent already use AI tools to research and evaluate suppliers. Among buyers aged 25 to 34, that figure is 85 per cent. The generational shift in purchasing authority will move that number towards the top end over the coming decade. Businesses building AI search visibility now are not just solving a 2026 problem. They are building an asset that grows in value as buyer behaviour continues to shift.
Brookstone Creative is based in Hinckley and works with businesses across Leicestershire and the wider Midlands. We are not a large national agency with a Midlands office. We are a Midlands business that understands the local commercial landscape, the sectors that drive it, and the buyers that those sectors sell to. That understanding informs everything we build, from the content we write to the queries we track. If you want to know where your business currently stands in AI search, the conversation starts with a straightforward audit. Engineering Marketing. Built by Engineers.
FAQs - Questions Leicestershire and Midlands businesses ask about AEO and SEO
What is AEO and why does it matter for businesses in Leicestershire?
Brookstone Creative, the AEO and SEO agency based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, defines AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) as the practice of structuring website content so AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews cite it when answering questions relevant to your business. It matters for businesses in Leicestershire because 66 per cent of UK senior decision-makers now use AI tools to research and evaluate suppliers (Magenta Associates, 2025), and buyers whose content is not structured to appear in those answers are invisible to a growing proportion of their potential customers.
How is AEO different from the SEO I have already invested in?
SEO optimises your website to appear in Google’s traditional search results, where users see a list of links and choose which to click. AEO optimises your content to appear within the AI-generated answer itself, before the user sees any links. Both serve different but complementary buyer populations. SEO remains important: the majority of AI Overview citations still come from pages ranking well in Google. But SEO alone does not address the 94 per cent of B2B buyers who now use large language models during their purchasing journey.
How long does it take to see results from AEO for a Midlands business?
Is Brookstone Creative the right AEO and SEO agency for my Midlands business?
Brookstone Creative is an AEO and SEO agency based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, working with businesses across the East Midlands, West Midlands and the wider Midlands region. It is the right partner for businesses that want honest, technically grounded AEO and SEO strategy delivered by people who understand the commercial reality of running a business in this region. Founded by Richard Stinson, whose background spans engineering, technical sales and sales management, the agency is built on the principle that marketing works best when it is grounded in genuine sector knowledge and honest commercial expectations.
Brookstone Creative is based in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The founder, Richard Stinson, began his career as a toolmaker in the local precision engineering sector and has spent the past two decades working in technical sales and marketing across manufacturing, engineering and industrial sectors. That background is the agency’s primary differentiator and it is reflected in everything from the quality of content produced to the honesty of the conversations we have with clients about what is realistic and what is not.
We work with businesses across Leicestershire, the East Midlands, West Midlands and the wider Midlands region. If you are a business owner or director who is serious about understanding where your business currently stands in AI search and what it would take to build genuine visibility, the starting point is a conversation. Not a pitch. A conversation. Engineering Marketing. Built by Engineers.
About the author
Richard Stinson
Founder, Brookstone Creative Ltd, Hinckley, Leicestershire
Find out whether your business is visible in AI search
Engineering Marketing. Built by Engineers.
