The Honest Truth About AEO Timelines.
AI search engines don't trust new websites immediately. They need to crawl your site repeatedly, verify your entity across directories, assess your content depth, and build confidence in your authority before recommending you. This process takes time — and no amount of money accelerates the fundamental requirements.
During those 90 days, three things need to happen. First, AI crawlers need to visit your site multiple times and index your content. Second, your entity needs to appear consistently across directories — Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, LinkedIn, and industry-specific platforms. Third, your content needs to demonstrate depth and freshness through regular updates and expansion.
None of this requires an ongoing monthly AEO retainer. It requires a properly built website with the right architecture — which is what you're paying for with the one-time build price.
What Other Agencies Do.
Many agencies offering AEO services begin charging monthly retainers from the day they sign the contract. The first few months of that retainer pay for setup work — schema implementation, directory submissions, content planning — that IECAN includes in the one-time website build.
The result: you pay $3,000-$5,000/month for 3 months ($9,000-$15,000) before AI search optimization can even produce results. At IECAN, that same foundation work is built into your website price of $2,497-$9,997 — and you own every file.
What IECAN Does Instead.
The one-time build includes everything the site needs to start building AI authority. Schema markup (4+ types per page). AI crawler access (15 crawlers explicitly allowed in robots.txt). Answer-first content architecture. FAQ sections with FAQPage schema. llms.txt file. Directory registration guidance. Entity graph foundation.
The ongoing AEO program activates when you're ready. At $1,500/month, AEO Full Speed includes content freshness updates, citation monitoring, entity graph expansion, schema maintenance, and ongoing optimization. But only when the site has built enough authority to produce measurable results.
We tell you when you're ready. Not before. If your site isn't producing AI citations after 90 days, charging you $1,500/month for "optimization" would be dishonest. We'd rather earn your ongoing business by proving the foundation works first.
The Business Logic Behind Honesty.
This approach isn't charity — it's good business. A client who pays $3,000 one-time, sees their AI visibility improve over 90 days, and then chooses to invest $1,500/month because they've seen evidence it works — that client stays for years. A client who pays $5,000/month from day one, sees nothing for 3 months, and cancels — that's a failed relationship for everyone.
We'd rather have 50 clients paying $1,500/month because they chose to than 10 clients paying $5,000/month because they were contractually obligated. The math works better, the relationships are healthier, and the referrals are genuine.