DOGFOOD · SELF-AEO · PRE-LAUNCH
vAEO applied к itself.
Methodology applied к its own surface before launch. The cobbler's son problem resolved publicly · seven first-pass misses disclosed honestly · Citation Stack 4-layer audit + fix sequence + Gate C probe results preserved as audit artifact.
ANSWER · AEO-EXTRACTABLE
We applied vAEO methodology к vaeo.ai before launching. This page documents the audit · the fix sequence · the result. Per DEC-WEB-005 P1 self-AEO compliance · this is a hard launch gate.
The principle from Methodology M6: evidence over claim. The dogfood case is the principle applied to itself. If vaeo.ai doesn't cite itself when AI engines are asked about AEO · we have no business charging for it.
Pre-launch baseline (2026-05 · staging · 4 test queries · 5 engines): vaeo.ai didn't exist yet — Share of Model = 0% across all engines on all queries. The site was not indexed · entity graph wasn't established · staging environment was crawler-disallowed by default.
Citation Stack 4-layer self-audit · what we found: L1 Access — SSR rendering correct · llms.txt absent in first draft · robots.txt initially missing 2 of 8 AI crawler bots (all fixed). L2 Structure — schema validation initially failed on Person sameAs · early Organization carried legalName · LocalBusiness carried streetAddress (all caught · all fixed against DEC-WEB-001 canonical). L3 Semantics — Answer Capsule discipline applied 300-400 words after H1 across content pages · Princeton GEO compliance (+40 Statistics · +38 Quotation · +30 Cite Sources). L4 Authority — sameAs network (LinkedIn canonical + GitHub + Substack placeholder) · 7+ external authoritative sources on Methodology · BBR as real client proof.
Self-AEO smoke test (T-2 weeks pre-launch · Gate C probe): vaeo.ai cited in 3 of 5 engines on 3 of 4 test queries within 14 days of staging indexing — Gate C PASS criterion met. P Crawler hit logs confirm GPTBot · ClaudeBot · PerplexityBot all visited within 7 days of staging deployment.
Cobbler's son has shoes. Methodology proven against the methodology owner.
CITATION STACK · 4 LAYERS
- 01 TECH
Access
Can AI agents reach the content — robots · sitemaps · SSR · rate limits.
- 02 FORMAT
Structure
Can models parse what they find — schema · semantic HTML · hierarchy.
- 03 INTENT
Semantics
Does meaning match user intent — entities · FAQs · answer surfaces.
- 04 TRUST
Authority
Does the model trust the source — citations · mentions · sameAs.
We applied vAEO к our own site before it launched.
Self-AEO compliance is the P1 launch gate. If we don't cite ourselves when AI is asked about AEO · we have no business charging for it.
The principle is from Methodology M6 point 2: evidence over claim. Every statement on a vAEO-managed page is anchored to citation · measurement · expert quote · or dataset. No exception.
If we publish that principle and don't apply it к ourselves · the methodology is broken.
Per DEC-WEB-005 P1 · vaeo.ai self-AEO compliance is a hard launch gate. Three criteria:
- AI crawler hit logs show all 4 major AI bots (GPTBot · ClaudeBot · PerplexityBot · Google-Extended OR Bingbot) visited key pages within 14 days of staging deployment.
- Manual probe smoke test — vaeo.ai cited in ≥2 of 5 engines on ≥2 of 4 test queries («What is verifiable AEO?» · «Who does AI Visibility audits?» · «Best Citation Stack methodology» · «AEO agency partnership Barcelona») within 14 days of staging indexing.
- Schema validation — Google Rich Results Test 0 errors across all 13 routes.
Without all three passing · launch is BLOCKED. No override. No «soft launch.» The principle from Methodology M9 Proof Ladder P1 applied to our own production: if we can't prove self-AEO mechanically · we don't ship.
The cobbler's-son problem in AEO consulting is real. Most AEO vendors publish elaborate frameworks and have invisible-to-AI websites themselves. Their own sites lack llms.txt · ship JavaScript-only content · run schema with 12 validation errors · have no sameAs network. They sell what they don't apply.
This page is the artifact preventing that pattern at vAEO. Methodology · proven against the methodology owner.
«If we don't cite ourselves when AI is asked about AEO · we have no business charging for it. The dogfood case is the principle in load-bearing position.»
The baseline · vaeo.ai before AI engines knew it existed.
Probe methodology (Gate C smoke test).
- Engines probed: ChatGPT (GPT-4o) · Perplexity · Gemini (Pro) · Google AI Overviews · Claude (3.5 Sonnet)
- Test queries (4): «What is verifiable AEO?» · «Who does AI Visibility audits?» · «Best Citation Stack methodology» · «AEO agency partnership Barcelona»
- Probe window: staging environment · 2026-05 · single point-in-time baseline (per Gate C standard)
- Output capture: raw AI-engine responses preserved · brand citation tracked · competitor citation tracked · misrepresentation flags noted
Baseline numbers (T0 · pre-launch · staging):
| Query | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Gemini | AIO | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| «What is verifiable AEO?» | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited |
| «Who does AI Visibility audits?» | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited |
| «Best Citation Stack methodology» | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited |
| «AEO agency partnership Barcelona» | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited |
| Share of Model (aggregated) | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
vaeo.ai didn't exist yet — the domain pointed к staging environment · crawler-disallowed by default · entity graph wasn't established · no public sameAs network · no inbound links. Zero Share of Model across the board was the only honest baseline.
This is what every newly-launched brand looks like in AI engines. The dogfood case starts from this null state · which is where most of our client engagements also start. The starting condition is shared · the methodology applied is the same.
BOX grade on baseline: P — multiple cross-referenced anchors (cross-engine probe + raw output preserved + null result verified · per Methodology M7). Baseline measurement reproducible · null result = honest data point.
«Zero Share of Model · five engines · four queries. That's where every new brand starts in AI Visibility. We didn't fake an early-mover advantage.»
What we found · layer by layer.
Per Methodology M2 Citation Stack 4-layer assessment applied к vaeo.ai.
L1 Access — self-audit findings
- ✅ Astro 6 SSR rendering correct from initial build — full HTML at first byte across all 13 routes.
- ❌ llms.txt manifest absent in first draft — Cot's initial repo scaffold didn't include llms.txt · caught in self-audit · added к
/llms.txtat root with canonical entity overview · methodology summary · service ladder · contact pointer. - ❌ robots.txt initially missing 2 of 8 AI crawler bots — first draft included GPTBot · ClaudeBot · PerplexityBot · Google-Extended · Bingbot · ChatGPT-User · BUT was missing OAI-SearchBot and Applebot-Extended · caught in audit · added explicitly.
- ✅ sitemap.xml auto-generated by Astro ·
<lastmod>populated on all 13 routes. - ✅ Lighthouse Performance ≥ 95 mobile on all routes · LCP < 1.2s · INP < 200ms · CLS < 0.1.
L2 Structure — self-audit findings
- ✅ Per-page schema spec implemented per DEC-WEB-014 L2 table — WebSite + Organization + Person + Service + Article + HowTo + FAQPage + BreadcrumbList as appropriate per page type.
- ❌ Person schema sameAs missing GitHub URL in first draft — Vlad's Person schema initially included LinkedIn but not GitHub · caught in second-pass audit · added.
- ❌ LocalBusiness schema initially included streetAddress — early draft had street address before DEC-WEB-001 canonical correction («addressLocality Barcelona only · no streetAddress») · caught · streetAddress removed · Barcelona addressLocality only.
- ❌ Organization legalName field present in early draft — early Organization schema had
legalName: "EMCC Digital SL"placeholder · before DEC-WEB-001 canonical correction («no legalName field · no entity declared») · caught · legalName field removed entirely. - ✅ Schema validation Google Rich Results Test · 0 errors all 13 routes (after all 3 above fixes applied).
L3 Semantics — self-audit findings
- ✅ Answer Capsules present on every content-heavy page · 300-400 words · positioned after H1 before fold.
- ✅ Content sandwich pattern applied — intro → H2 sections ~300-500w → summary across Home (9 sections) · Methodology (11 sections) · Services tier pages (7 sections each) · Partners (12 sections) · case pages (10 sections each).
- ✅ Princeton GEO compliance — ≥3 statistics with inline source per page · 1-2 expert quotes where contextually relevant · ≥3 external authoritative source links per page · no keyword stuffing.
- ✅
<dfn>definition discipline applied to all vAEO terms first-mention (vAEO · AEO · GEO · Citation Stack · Proof Ladder · Share of Model).
L4 Authority — self-audit findings
- ✅ Vlad Person sameAs network: LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/vladyslav-rovny · canonical) + Substack placeholder + GitHub.
- ✅ External authoritative source links present on Methodology (7+ links: Princeton GEO arXiv · Seer · Searchbloom · iPullRank · Profound · Gartner · Conductor · OpenAI · Anthropic).
- ✅ BBR case = real client proof · L1+L2 cycle complete · L3 in flight · cross-link prominent.
- 🔄 Substack publication = placeholder until launch · cross-link bidirectional to be established post-launch.
- 🔄 Wikidata entity for vAEO as Organization · creation pending external review cadence.
«We caught what we missed. Three L2 schema fixes were our own first-pass misses · including legalName field that contradicted our own canonical decision. Honesty here is the artifact.»
Seven things we caught — three in the initial pass · four in this comprehensive compliance audit.
This section is the trust signal. Most vendors publish dogfood cases that frame everything as perfect from initial build. We name seven first-pass misses honestly. The audit happened in two waves: Miss 1-3 caught in the initial self-audit during build (canonical Page Brief v2.1). Miss 4-7 caught in the comprehensive AEO compliance audit (2026-05-15) leading directly to this page's publication. The fact that we caught four more while writing the dogfood case is itself the artifact: the audit catches what muscle memory misses · continuously · including muscle memory formed by our own initial audit.
Miss 1 — llms.txt manifest absent.
Cot's initial Astro 6 scaffold focused on robots.txt + sitemap.xml as
the canonical AI-discoverability layer · llms.txt wasn't in the first
build. Caught in self-audit (D3 L1 above) · added к /llms.txt
with canonical entity overview · methodology summary · service ladder ·
contact pointer. Time-to-fix: 2 hours from detection.
Why we missed it: llms.txt is newer convention than robots.txt + sitemap.xml. Our own playbooks reference it · but the initial scaffold-build attention defaulted к the older canonical set. Lesson: the audit catches what muscle memory misses.
Miss 2 — Person schema sameAs missing GitHub URL.
Vlad's Person schema initially included LinkedIn but not GitHub. Caught in second-pass schema audit. Added. Time-to-fix: 30 minutes.
Why we missed it: sameAs network coverage was treated as «main social presence» in first pass · GitHub was treated as secondary. Self-audit caught the gap. Lesson: sameAs network = entity-graph completeness · not «main social profile.» Every authoritative cross-link counts at L4.
Miss 3 — Organization legalName field + LocalBusiness streetAddress.
Most subtle miss. Early Organization schema included
legalName: "EMCC Digital SL" placeholder · because Cot's
scaffold defaulted к full LocalBusiness pattern with streetAddress.
Both fields contradicted DEC-WEB-001 canonical («no
legalName · no streetAddress · only addressLocality Barcelona»).
Caught in canonical review pass. Both removed. Time-to-fix: 15 minutes.
Why we missed it: schema templates from default Astro starter packs assume conventional LocalBusiness schema patterns. Our specific canonical decision (no entity declared · no streetAddress · per DEC-WEB-001) required manual override of default pattern. Lesson: canonical decisions require explicit checks against schema defaults · automation only catches what convention expects.
Miss 4 — WebSite schema inLanguage declared array ['en', 'uk'].
Caught in comprehensive AEO compliance audit (Stream A acceptance
review · 2026-05-15). SchemaGraph.astro websiteSchema
declared inLanguage: ['en', 'uk'] while DEC-WEB-005 P11
locks EN-only at launch (UA mirror deferred к Phase 2). Schema declared
bilingual when site monolingual. Time-to-fix: 5 minutes.
Why we missed it: the schema component anticipated the UA mirror infrastructure that's deferred. UA-readiness defaults shipped before UA content. Lesson: infrastructure anticipation creates schema-content mismatch · canonical decisions require schema synchronization before forward-defaults ship.
Miss 5 — hreflang alternate link к UK pre-mirror.
Same root cause as Miss 4. BaseLayout.astro shipped
<link rel="alternate" hreflang=uk>
pointing к /uk/* alternates that don't exist yet. AI
engines + search engines see broken alternate references. DEC-WEB-005
P11 violation. Caught in same audit pass · removed. Time-to-fix: 3
minutes.
Why we missed it: default Astro layout patterns ship i18n infrastructure before i18n content. Convention shipping ahead of canon. Lesson: hreflang alternates require actual target routes · NOT placeholder readiness.
Miss 6 — og:locale conditional uk_UA / en_US.
Third surface of the same UA-pre-mirror infrastructure drift.
BaseLayout.astro shipped
<meta property="og:locale" content=en_US>
when no uk_UA locale page exists. Caught in audit · made
static "en_US". Time-to-fix: 1 minute.
Why we missed it: three separate file locations (schema · hreflang · OG locale) all encoded the same i18n anticipation. Lesson: P11 canon needs grep-wide enforcement · not per-component decisions.
Miss 7 — OG image /og/default.png broken link.
Most embarrassing miss. BaseLayout.astro referenced
og:image at /og/default.png · but the file
didn't exist в public/og/. AI engines + social previews
получали 404 on every route. L2 Structure compliance gap · brand
presentation broken silently. Caught in audit · generated 1200×630
brutalist canonical PNG via reproducible sharp pipeline
(scripts/generate-og-default.ts). Time-to-fix: 15 minutes.
Why we missed it: scaffold pattern referenced canonical asset path before asset itself was authored. Default OG image was treated as «later polish» instead of «day-1 L2 compliance.» Lesson: if BaseLayout references an asset path · the asset ships in build-1 · OR the reference doesn't exist. No forward-references к non-existent files.
The honest takeaway: a self-audit catches things first-pass execution misses. This isn't unique к vaeo.ai — it's the normal pattern in every client audit. The miss isn't the problem · the failure to audit and catch is the problem. That we caught four more while writing this very page is the strongest possible signal: the discipline is continuous · not episodic.
«Seven first-pass misses on our own site · all caught in self-audit · all fixed before launch. Three in initial pass · four while writing this page. The audit is the discipline · not the execution. Same standard applied to clients.»
The full fix sequence applied to our own site.
Per Services-Optimize O3 atomic deliverable spec · applied к vaeo.ai itself.
L1 Access fixes applied
- llms.txt manifest created · placed at
/llms.txt· validated · canonical entity overview + methodology summary + service ladder + contact pointer included. - robots.txt updated · all 8 AI crawler bots explicitly allowed (GPTBot · ClaudeBot · PerplexityBot · Google-Extended · Bingbot · ChatGPT-User · OAI-SearchBot · Applebot-Extended).
- sitemap.xml
<lastmod>populated all 13 routes · auto-regenerated on Astro 6 builds. - Astro 6 SSR confirmed on all routes (no JavaScript-only content).
L2 Structure fixes applied
- Person schema sameAs updated · LinkedIn + Substack placeholder + GitHub.
- LocalBusiness schema streetAddress removed · addressLocality «Barcelona» + addressCountry «ES» only.
- Organization schema legalName field removed entirely (no entity declared per DEC-WEB-001).
- All 13 routes pass Google Rich Results Test · 0 errors.
- JSON-LD per page type per DEC-WEB-014 L2 spec — WebSite + Organization + Person + BreadcrumbList on Home · Article + HowTo + FAQPage on Methodology · Service + OfferCatalog (3 Offers) per tier page.
L3 Semantics fixes applied
- Answer Capsules 300-400 words on every content-heavy page (Home · Methodology · 3 Service tier pages · Partners · 2 Case pages · 5 Field Notes · About).
- Content sandwich pattern applied per Methodology M2 DEPT canon · median 377-word RAG chunks.
- FLIP In-depth threshold (≥1500 words) met on all main pages.
- Princeton GEO compliance per Methodology M4 — Statistics Addition (≥3 inline stats per page) · Quotation Addition (1-2 expert quotes where relevant) · Cite Sources (≥3 external authoritative links per page) · no Keyword Stuffing.
<dfn>definition discipline applied across all vAEO terms first-mention.
L4 Authority signal applied
- Vlad's sameAs network: LinkedIn (canonical · linkedin.com/in/vladyslav-rovny) · Substack placeholder · GitHub.
- External authoritative source links — Princeton GEO arXiv · Seer Interactive · Searchbloom · iPullRank · Profound · Gartner · Conductor · OpenAI · Anthropic across Methodology + Field Notes.
- BBR case = real client proof of methodology.
- Vlad's LinkedIn cross-linked back к vaeo.ai (bidirectional entity reinforcement).
Citation Stack composite self-score (post-fix · pre-launch):
| Layer | Score (0-100) | BOX grade |
|---|---|---|
| L1 Access | 95 | G |
| L2 Structure | 92 | G |
| L3 Semantics | 87 | G |
| L4 Authority | 71 | S |
| Composite (Triangle Model weighted) | 86 | G |
«86 composite · Gold-grade Citation Stack health · self-applied · pre-launch. Same fix sequence we sell к clients. No special version for ourselves.»
AI crawlers actually visited.
Per Pre-Launch Gate C criterion 1 — AI crawler hit logs from Cloudflare must show key pages were visited within 14 days of staging deployment.
Cloudflare crawler hit log (staging deployment window · pre-launch):
| Crawler | First hit | Pages visited | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPTBot (OpenAI) | Day 2 | Home · Methodology · Services hub · BBR case | ✅ |
| ClaudeBot (Anthropic) | Day 4 | Home · Methodology · About · Field Notes | ✅ |
| PerplexityBot | Day 3 | Home · Methodology · Services hub · 3 tier pages | ✅ |
| Google-Extended | Day 5 | Home · Methodology · Services hub · About | ✅ |
| Bingbot | Day 1 | Home · all 13 routes (full sitemap crawl) | ✅ |
| OAI-SearchBot | Day 6 | Home · Methodology · BBR case | ✅ |
| Applebot-Extended | Day 7 | Home only | ⚠️ partial |
| ChatGPT-User (user-triggered) | observed Day 9 | Home · Services Diagnose | ✅ |
Gate C criterion 1 status: PASS — all 4 major AI bots (GPTBot · ClaudeBot · PerplexityBot · Google-Extended) visited key pages within 14 days. Bingbot bonus full-sitemap crawl. Applebot-Extended partial coverage flagged but не blocking.
Why crawler logs matter: crawler hit logs are the L1 Access discipline made observable. Without them · «we let AI engines crawl us» is just a claim. With them · we can prove robots.txt allowlist worked · llms.txt was discovered · sitemap was consumed.
«Eight crawlers · all visited · logs preserved. L1 Access discipline isn't a claim · it's a log entry.»
The probe — did AI engines cite us?
Per Pre-Launch Gate C criterion 2 — manual probe smoke test · vaeo.ai must be cited in ≥2 of 5 engines on ≥2 of 4 test queries within 14 days of staging indexing.
Probe methodology (T-2 weeks pre-launch · 14 days post staging deployment):
- Engines probed: ChatGPT · Perplexity · Gemini · Google AI Overviews · Claude
- Test queries (same 4 as baseline): «What is verifiable AEO?» · «Who does AI Visibility audits?» · «Best Citation Stack methodology» · «AEO agency partnership Barcelona»
- Probe window: 14 days after staging deployment · before DNS cutover
- Output capture: raw responses preserved as audit artifact
Self-AEO probe results (T-2w pre-launch):
| Query | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Gemini | AIO | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| «What is verifiable AEO?» | ✅ cited | ✅ cited | not cited | not cited | ✅ cited |
| «Who does AI Visibility audits?» | ✅ cited | not cited | not cited | not cited | ✅ cited |
| «Best Citation Stack methodology» | ✅ cited | ✅ cited | not cited | not cited | not cited |
| «AEO agency partnership Barcelona» | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited | not cited |
| Citations per engine | 3 of 4 | 2 of 4 | 0 of 4 | 0 of 4 | 2 of 4 |
Aggregated Share of Model (post-fix · pre-launch):
ChatGPT: 75% · Perplexity: 50% · Gemini: 0% · AIO: 0% · Claude: 50% · Cross-engine aggregated: 35%
Gate C criterion 2 status: PASS — vaeo.ai cited in 3 of 5 engines (ChatGPT · Perplexity · Claude) on 3 of 4 test queries. Threshold was ≥2 of 5 on ≥2 of 4 · met with margin.
Honest disclosures
- Gemini and AIO cited zero times. Likely L4 Authority gap — Gemini relies heavily on Google Search index · vaeo.ai indexing window hadn't fully matured at probe time · AIO uses ranked organic results which weren't established yet. Continued monitoring post-launch.
- «AEO agency partnership Barcelona» cited zero times across all engines. Likely L3 + L4 gap on geographic + service-type entity-graph clarity. Scheduled L4 reinforcement work post-launch.
- Coverage = uneven. Methodology query («Best Citation Stack methodology») cited 2 of 5 · partnership-geographic query cited 0 of 5. Coverage shape is itself a finding.
«35% aggregated Share of Model · pre-launch · self-applied methodology. Gate C passed. Gemini · AIO · partnership-geographic query · still work to do. Honest about both.»
What's still broken · what comes next.
The dogfood case isn't a success story. It's a snapshot of a methodology applied honestly · including the parts that haven't compounded yet.
Currently underperforming
Gemini citation = 0 of 4 test queries. Gemini's reliance on Google Search index means newly-launched sites face longer indexing window before citation appears. Scheduled monitoring: weekly Gemini probe post-launch · expect citation appearance 30-60 days post-launch as Google indexing matures.
Google AI Overviews citation = 0 of 4. AIO uses ranked organic SERP positions as content base. vaeo.ai SERP rankings hadn't established at pre-launch probe. Scheduled monitoring: monthly AIO probe · expect citation 60-90 days post-launch as organic rankings build.
Geographic + service-type entity query («AEO agency partnership Barcelona») cited 0 of 5. L4 gap — vaeo.ai entity-graph hadn't established «Barcelona» + «partnership» + «AEO» cross-reinforcement at pre-launch. Scheduled L4 fix: Wikidata entity creation · industry directory placements · Substack publication launch · LinkedIn company page activation.
Wikidata entity for vAEO as Organization. Creation pending external review cadence (Wikidata community approval typically 2-6 weeks after submission). Scheduled post-launch.
Substack cross-link bidirectional. Placeholder pre-launch · will establish bidirectional reinforcement after Substack publication launches Q3 2026.
What success looks like in 90 days (post-launch target)
- Aggregated Share of Model ≥ 50% across 5 engines on 4 test queries (vs 35% at launch)
- Gemini citation ≥ 1 of 4 queries
- AIO citation ≥ 1 of 4 queries
- L4 composite Citation Stack score ≥ 85 (vs 71 at launch · L4 partial)
«35% at launch · 50% target at 90 days · Gemini + AIO measurement on probabilistic cadence. We name what doesn't work yet · we don't fake the chart.»
What we measure · monthly · forever.
Per Services-Dominate Dm2 Grow retainer cadence · self-applied: same monthly cadence vAEO sells к clients · applied к ourselves.
Monthly cadence (effective at vaeo.ai launch)
- Week 1: Cross-engine probe (5 engines · 4 test queries + 10 expanded commercial queries) · Citation Stack composite health score · drift detection vs previous month.
- Week 2: Proactive fix work on drift detected · schema corrections · sameAs maintenance · misrepresentation flags.
- Week 3-4: Content sandwich rebuild on 1-2 priority pages (Field Notes new publications · methodology page refresh) · monthly authority brief drafted · monthly written report assembled.
Quarterly review (every Q)
- 90-day Share of Model trend analysis
- Citation Stack composite progression
- L4 Authority signal maturity (sameAs · Wikidata · Substack · industry directories)
- Next-quarter focus pivot decisions
Public update cadence on this page
- Q3 2026: D7 + D8 sections updated with actual post-launch measurement results · new Share of Model numbers · success/limitation honest disclosure.
- Q4 2026: 6-month engagement retrospective · what compounded · what didn't.
- Annual: full case retrospective with year-over-year data.
«Monthly cadence · same as clients · same numbers reported back into the case page. Public · transparent · ongoing.»
The page that prevents the cobbler's-son problem.
The cobbler's son problem in AEO consulting is real and unsolved across the category. Vendors publish elaborate frameworks. Their own websites are invisible к AI engines. Schema validates with 12 errors. llms.txt absent. sameAs network = single LinkedIn link. Methodology not applied к the methodology owner.
The result: AEO industry credibility is fragile. Buyers can't distinguish vendors who do the work from vendors who write about doing the work.
This page is vAEO's load-bearing answer. Methodology applied к the methodology owner. Baseline · audit · fix sequence · crawler logs · probe results · limitations · continuous measurement plan · all preserved as audit artifact. Public. Verifiable. Updated monthly.
If vaeo.ai doesn't cite itself when AI engines are asked about AEO · we have no business charging for it. The dogfood case is that principle in load-bearing position.
«Cobbler's son has shoes. Methodology proven against the methodology owner. If we don't cite ourselves when AI is asked about AEO · we have no business charging for it.»