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How AI decides who to name, and how we change it

Engines pick sources they can reach, understand, quote and verify. Each of those has specific work, and each can be measured.

Buyer asks

What is the best SOC 2 platform for a 60-person startup?

AI engines

northwind.io/pricingYour site
G2 reviews4.8 rating
r/startups threadCommunity
Old directory listingWrong price

AI answer

Waiting for sources…

The four layers engines read

Each layer depends on the one below it. Click through the stack.

Engines read from the bottom up. Click a layer.

Layer 1: Access

Can engines and agents reach and read you?

  • AI crawler policy
  • Server-rendered content
  • Markdown for agents
  • llms.txt and clean sitemaps

The first four months

A typical engagement. The audit can run on its own as the first two weeks.

  1. 1

    Weeks 1 to 2

    Measure

    Prompt set, competitor baseline, citation source map and accuracy review. You see the starting line before anything changes.

  2. 2

    Weeks 3 to 6

    Fix the foundation

    Access and facts first, because nothing else works if engines cannot read you. Then the pages closest to earning citations.

  3. 3

    Months 2 to 3

    Build and earn

    New answer pages for prompts you are losing, plus outreach to the third-party sources the engines trust.

  4. 4

    Month 4 onward

    Compound

    Weekly tracking and monthly priorities. We double down on what moves and cut what does not.

What we will do

  • Show you raw prompt results, not just summaries
  • Tell you when a tactic is not working and stop it
  • Leave you owning every page, dataset and line of code
  • Disclose any paid placement

What we will not do

  • Guarantee what a model will say
  • Buy links, write fake reviews or astroturf communities
  • Publish AI-generated filler at volume
  • Lock your data inside our tools

Find out what AI says about you this week.

Get a free AI Answer Snapshot: five of your buyer prompts, tested across six engines, with the competitors named instead of you.