Best SEO Consultant for AI Startups — Austin Heaton
Full-service SEO, Digital PR, and AI Search Optimization for funded AI startups ready to own their category. 12 years of hands-on experience — led directly by Austin, not a junior team.
Featured In & Published On
What Separates Austin Heaton from Other SEO Consultants for AI Startups
Most SEO consultants don't understand AI companies. Austin Heaton has spent years at the intersection of SEO and AI — building growth systems purpose-built for how AI startups compete.
Deep Understanding of the AI Startup Landscape
Austin works with AI companies daily — he understands your market, your buyers, your competitors, and the unique challenges of marketing AI products where the audience is highly technical and sceptical.
SEO + AI Search Under One Roof
Your competitors appear in Google and in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Austin optimises for all of them simultaneously — so you're visible wherever AI buyers research solutions.
Proven Results at Startup Scale
830K+ Google clicks, 22,801 top-3 rankings, 8.23K AI search clicks, and 452% AI click growth — all delivered in a 12-month engagement with a single funded startup client.
You Work Directly with Austin
No account managers, no junior teams, no rotating staff. Austin is your single point of contact for strategy, execution oversight, reporting, and every conversation in between.
Full Execution, Not Just Strategy
Content production, digital PR, link building, technical SEO, AI search optimisation, and reporting — all delivered monthly. Strategy and execution from the same team, with no gaps.
Published Authority in the Space
Featured in SimilarWeb, European Business Review, Fast Company, Digital Journal, and more. Austin has the authority that search engines and AI models recognise and trust.
How Austin Heaton Builds Organic Growth for AI Startups
A unified system where every deliverable compounds the impact of the others — across Google, AI search platforms, and the publications that LLMs cite most.
Content Engine
Data-driven content production targeting buyer-intent keywords, LLM prompt mapping, and every stage of the AI buyer journey — 20+ optimised posts per month.
Authority & Digital PR
Strategic backlinks, brand mentions, listicle placements, and digital PR campaigns targeting premium outlets — building the domain trust that lifts everything.
AI Search Optimisation
LLM prompt monitoring, citation optimisation, sentiment analysis, and proactive strategies to ensure your brand is cited across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini.
Technical Foundation
Monthly auditing, schema markup, crawl optimisation, Core Web Vitals, and AI search readiness — ensuring nothing is lost to infrastructure issues.
Full-Service SEO & AI Search for AI Startups
Everything you need to dominate organic search and AI discovery — strategy, content, links, PR, technical SEO, and AI optimisation — delivered monthly.
AI Search Optimisation (GEO)
LLM prompt monitoring across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. Citation optimisation, sentiment analysis, and competitor benchmarking across AI search platforms.
Content Strategy & Production
Keyword research, LLM prompt mapping, competitor audits, and 20+ SEO-optimised articles per month — aligned to every stage of the AI buyer journey.
Digital PR Campaigns
Original data studies and expert commentary pitched to premium outlets. Targets include Forbes, TechCrunch, Yahoo News, and industry-specific publications.
Backlinks & Brand Mentions
High-authority backlink acquisition, listicle placements, and brand mentions on publications that LLMs frequently cite — building domain trust and AI visibility.
Technical SEO Management
Monthly audits covering crawlability, indexation, schema, Core Web Vitals, AI search readiness, site architecture, and JavaScript rendering for SPAs.
Reporting & Analytics
Weekly snapshots and monthly deep-dive reports covering Google performance, AI search citations, technical health, competitor tracking, and custom metrics unavailable in off-the-shelf tools.
Why Most AI Startups Struggle with Organic Growth
AI startups face a unique paradox: the buyers you're targeting are the same people building the search tools that are reshaping discovery. Generic SEO doesn't work here.
- Technical audiences see through thin content immediately
- AI buyers research on ChatGPT and Perplexity, not just Google
- Category creation requires authority, not just rankings
- Most agencies don't understand AI products or technical positioning
- Competitors are getting cited by LLMs — you're not
AI search clicks are compounding
AI search referral traffic for Austin's startup clients grew 452% year-over-year — and that trajectory is accelerating as AI search adoption increases.
AI traffic converts at higher rates
Referral traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity consistently shows 10x higher conversion rates than traditional organic — especially for technical B2B products.
Top-3 keyword growth is achievable
Austin delivered 718% growth in top-3 keyword positions for a funded AI startup in 12 months — from 2,785 to 22,801 keywords.
AI indexability is a new metric
Austin tracks AI indexability — the percentage of your site that AI models can retrieve and cite. Most AI startups are below 20% without dedicated optimisation.
What You're Actually Buying
Not a list of tactics. Not an agency selling hours. You're buying a complete organic growth system purpose-built for AI startups.
Category Ownership in Organic Search
Dominate the keywords and queries that define your category — across Google, AI Overviews, and every LLM your buyers use to research and shortlist solutions.
AI Search Visibility & Citations
Be the company that ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini cite when users ask about your category — not your competitor.
A Senior Operator, Not an Agency
Direct access to Austin via Slack and email with same-day response SLA. One accountable owner for strategy, execution, and every conversation in between.
Compounding Growth That Scales
Every deliverable feeds the others — content fuels link acquisition, PR builds authority that lifts rankings, and AI optimisation ties it all together into a durable growth system.
Who This Is For
✓ This Is a Fit If You:
- Are a funded AI startup ready to scale organic growth
- Want to own your category in Google and AI search
- Need a senior operator, not a junior agency team
- Are ready to invest in a multi-month engagement
✗ This Is Not a Fit If You:
- Are pre-funding and need low-cost execution
- Expect overnight rankings without strategic investment
- Only care about traffic volume, not pipeline or authority
- Want a one-off SEO audit or project-based work
How It Works
Discovery Call
30–45 minutes to understand your goals, traction, competitive landscape, and where organic search fits into your growth motion.
Custom Proposal
A tailored scope based on your specific market, product, and growth stage — not a one-size-fits-all package.
Onboarding & Kickoff
Full audit, baseline measurement, and a 90-day strategic roadmap — then execution begins immediately.
Let's Build Your Organic Growth Engine
If your AI startup is ready to dominate organic search and AI discovery — and you want a senior operator leading it — let's talk.
Book a Discovery Call