AI search optimization · Minneapolis · answers, not rankings

Show up when someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude who to call

A growing share of your next customers won't type your service into Google. They'll ask an AI assistant, in a full sentence, who in Minneapolis does what you do, and they'll call whoever it names. 1771 makes sure the models have what they need to name you, and checks every month whether they do. The baseline is the first section of our $995 AI audit; the fixes are a fixed-price project; the monthly check runs on the retainer.

AI audit $995 · projects from $1,995 · retainer $1,995/month · every price public

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What we've built with clients

Getting found in AI answers is one of the things we build. These are three other automations we've built with clients, so you can see the shape of the work.

A weekly SEO digest with next steps — Every Monday, a plain-language note on what moved in search for your site and the three things to do about it. Pulled from Search Console and your analytics: which pages gained, which slipped, which new questions people are typing, and a short list of actions ranked by payoff. No dashboard to log into. It reads like a note from a colleague who checked so you didn't have to.
After-hours follow-up for texts, calls, and emails — A message that lands at 9 p.m. gets a useful reply in your voice within minutes, and you find it logged and queued in the morning. Missed calls get a text back. Emails and texts get an answer that covers the common questions, sets expectations, and offers a booking link. Everything is logged with context, so your first job in the morning is a two-minute review, not a pile of cold replies.
From sales call to finished proposal — Record the prospecting call. By the time you're back at your desk, a proposal PDF in your template is waiting for your edits. The transcript becomes scope, options, pricing, and terms drafted from what was actually said, in your voice, laid out in your branded template. You correct a few lines and send it the same afternoon instead of next week.

Why this is different from SEO, and why it isn't

Google returns ten links and lets the reader choose. An AI assistant returns one answer, usually naming two or three businesses, and most people don't ask for a fourth. That makes the stakes higher and the list shorter.

Under the hood, though, the assistants are reading the same web. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity fetch live pages when they answer a question about a local business, and they lean on the same sources people do: your website, your Google Business Profile, review sites, directories, and the "best of" articles that already rank. Google has said there's no special markup for its AI features; the things that earn a ranking are the things that earn a citation. So the work is familiar, and the measurement is new.

What we do, in order

Four steps. The first is part of the audit, the middle two are a project, and the last one is why some clients keep the retainer. Each is something we do together on a screen share, not a report we hand you.

Baseline, in the $995 audit: the twenty questions your customers ask, run through ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode, with who got named and which pages were cited. It comes with a priced plan for the fixes.
Your site, as a project: plain statements of what you do, for whom, where, and at what price; FAQ pages that answer real questions in full sentences; structured data and an llms.txt file so the facts are machine-readable; a check that AI crawlers aren't blocked and that your pages render as real HTML.
Your citations, same project: the directories, review sites, and lists your competitors are being cited from, with your listing added and your name, address, phone, and description identical everywhere.
Monthly check, on the retainer: the same questions rerun, in a short note with what changed and what to fix next.

Who this is for

Owner-led businesses in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities where a recommendation is how customers arrive: trades and home services, professional services, medical and dental practices, agencies, specialty retail, and B2B firms with a niche. If you'd be glad to be the name an assistant gives when someone asks "who should I call for this," this is for you.

It also works alongside the automations. The same plan that gets you into the answer can include the after-hours responder that catches the lead when they call.

The baseline and the plan: part of the $995 AI audit, credited to whatever you do next
The site and citation fixes: an AI search fix-up project, from $1,995, with a rerun at the end to show what moved
The monthly check: on the $1,995 a month retainer, alongside whatever else gets built that month
The baseline, the plan, and every monthly note live in your Notion hub and are yours to keep

What we won't promise

A guaranteed spot in any AI answer. The models change often, the answers vary from one run to the next, and anyone who guarantees placement is selling you a guess. We promise the work, the measurement, and a straight monthly read on whether it's moving. How fast it moves depends on how crowded your category is and how much is already out there about you, and we'll give you an honest read on both on the first call.

Minneapolis since 2013

251 N 1st Ave #400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 · (612) 424-0509 · [email protected]. 50+ projects for organizations like Cargill, Adobe, NetApp, Snap-on, Optum, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, plus two AppExchange apps rated 4.98 across 51 reviews.

Partners: Ben McDermott (founder) and Dan Roseman, CAMS. See about and clients & results.

Questions people ask

Can you guarantee my business shows up in ChatGPT?

No, and neither can anyone else. Answers vary from run to run and the models change often. What we guarantee is the work and the measurement: a baseline, the fixes, and a monthly rerun that shows you exactly where you appear and where you don't.

Is this the same as SEO?

Mostly the same inputs, different scoreboard. The assistants read the same pages and the same directories Google does, so the fixes overlap heavily. The difference is that we measure AI answers directly, question by question, instead of rankings, and we write for a reader that needs facts stated plainly.

Do I need to block or allow AI crawlers?

Allow them, if you want to be found. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Perplexity each run their own crawler, and some hosts and security plugins block them by default without telling you. We check your robots.txt and your host's bot settings in the first session and fix what's blocking you.

What is llms.txt and do I need one?

A plain-text file at the root of your site that describes your business, pages, and pricing for AI systems, proposed in 2024. It's cheap to add and harmless, so we add one, but it's one small piece. Clear pages, structured data, and consistent listings do more.

How much of this can I do myself?

Quite a bit, and we'll show you. The monthly check in particular is something your office manager can run once the question list and the sheet are built. We build it with you so you're not dependent on us.

What does it cost?

The baseline is part of the $995 AI audit, which ends in a priced plan. The fixes are a project from $1,995. The monthly rerun is part of the $1,995 a month retainer. No setup fees anywhere, and the first 30-minute call is free.

Find out what the AI assistants say about you today

Bring the three questions a customer would ask before hiring you. We'll run them live on the free call, show you what comes back, and tell you whether the full audit is worth it.