How Windgrove Works: The Client Process Behind Every AI Visibility Engagement
Executive SummaryMost AEO agencies hand you a strategy deck and a list of recommendations. Windgrove does the work, writing content, fixing technical infrastructure, managing Reddit accounts, securing directory placements, and reporting on results using Searchable data.The engagement model is built around a single principle: low touch for the client, fully managed by Windgrove. The typical client time commitment is 30 minutes per month.Every engagement follows a structured 90-day programme, Foundation, Authority, Visibility, with a clear reporting cadence: weekly Slack updates, bi-weekly progress reports, monthly strategy calls, and quarterly business reviews.Windgrove backs every 90-day engagement with a results guarantee: if your AI visibility score has not meaningfully increased and LLM-sourced leads are not entering your funnel, Windgrove works for free until they are.
Most agencies will tell you what to do. Very few will actually do it.
That distinction matters more in AEO than in almost any other discipline. Answer Engine Optimizationwill requires simultaneous execution across technical infrastructure, content production, third-party citation building, and funnel attribution. It is not a strategy you hand off to an internal team after a kick-off call. It is a continuous, compounding programme — and the results depend entirely on the consistency of execution.
This article explains exactly how Windgrove runs client engagements: what the onboarding looks like, what the reporting cadence is, what we need from you, and what you can expect at the end of 90 days.
The short version: you show up to one call, get a Slack update every Friday, and review results once a month. We handle everything else.
It Starts With One Hour
The first thing that happens when a new client joins Windgrove is an onboarding call. One hour. That is the only time-intensive ask we make of you in the entire engagement.
On that call, we map everything we need to start executing immediately:
- Your brand — positioning, voice, what makes you different, what you want to be known for
- Your competitors — who is already winning AI citations in your category, and what they are doing to earn them
- Your target prompts — the specific questions your buyers are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews right now
- Your priorities — which funnel stages matter most, which markets you are focused on, and what a meaningful result looks like for your business
By the end of that call, we will have everything we need. There is no back-and-forth after that. No follow-up questionnaires. No waiting for internal approvals before we can start.
We are moving.
What We Need From You
Before the onboarding call, we ask for three things:
- Access to your CMS (Webflow, WordPress, or equivalent) for technical changes
- Access to GA4 and Google Search Console so we can audit what is already working and set up proper attribution tracking
- The ability to loop in a co-founder or key team member for content and podcast assets when relevant
That is typically all that is needed. Because this is a custom engagement, there may occasionally be one or two additional requests specific to your setup. But the model is built to minimise your involvement — not to require it.
The channels we use: Slack, Google Meet, and Gmail. No new tools to learn. No project management platforms to navigate.
The Reporting Cadence: What You Hear From Us and When
One of the most common frustrations with agency relationships is not knowing what is happening. You send a brief, someone disappears for two weeks, and then you get a report that raises more questions than it answers.
Windgrove is structured to prevent that entirely. The cadence is predictable, the reporting is specific, and you never have to chase us down for a status update.
Frequency | Format | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
Weekly (every Friday) | Slack message | What was executed that week, what is live, what is coming next |
Bi-weekly | Written report | Visibility movement, trajectory, Searchable prompt-level data, content published |
Monthly | 30-minute Google Meet | Full Searchable data review, funnel attribution, next 30-day prioritisation |
Quarterly | Deeper session | ROI review, compounding results, market expansion strategy |
The Friday Slack Update
Every Friday, you receive a detailed Slack message covering exactly what happened that week. Not a vague summary. Specific: which articles went live, which technical fixes were deployed, which directory placements were secured, and what is scheduled for the following week.
This keeps you informed without requiring your involvement. You can read it in two minutes and move on with your day.
The Bi-Weekly Progress Report
Every two weeks, we share a more detailed written report that shows visibility movement across your tracked prompts. This includes Searchable data, prompt-level changes, and a breakdown of what content went live. You can see exactly which prompts are moving, which are holding, and where we are focusing next.
The Monthly Strategy Session
The monthly call is 30 minutes. We walk through your full Searchable data together: what moved, what is compounding, and what we are prioritising in the next sprint.
We also review your HubSpot and Typeform data to track LLM-sourced leads moving through your pipeline — from waitlist join to consultation booked to introductory call. The goal of this call is not to discuss visibility numbers in isolation. It is to connect what we are doing to booked consultations and closed pipeline.
The Quarterly Business Review
Once per quarter, we run a deeper session covering compounding results, full ROI analysis, and your evolving AI search strategy. For clients expanding into new markets, this is where we align on what needs to be built before those markets go live — not reactively after.
The total time commitment on your end: approximately 30 minutes per month. Everything else is handled by Windgrove.
The 90-Day Programme: Foundation, Authority, Visibility
Windgrove engagements begin with a 90-day commitment. The structure exists for a specific reason: AI visibility changes take time to compound. The technical foundation has to be in place before content can be cited. Content has to accumulate before citation patterns shift meaningfully. Trying to compress that timeline produces noise, not results.
The 90 days are divided into three distinct phases.
Month 1: Foundation
No content production starts until the site can be properly read and cited by AI engines. This is non-negotiable.
Month 1 is entirely technical. Windgrove audits the site, identifies every blocker between your pages and AI crawlers, and resolves them before a single article is published. The work includes:
- Schema.org structured data implementation (FAQ schema, Organisation schema, Article schema with author attribution)
- robots.txt and llms.txt configuration
- XML sitemap optimisation and submission
- Canonical URL resolution
- Reformatting of existing articles to front-load direct answers
- Google Business Profile optimisation
- Entity consistency audit across LinkedIn, Crunchbase, Apple Maps, Bing Places, and relevant vertical directories
- Baseline Searchable report and funnel attribution setup
The deliverable at the end of Month 1: a site that AI crawlers can fully read, index, and cite — with a documented baseline showing exactly where visibility stands before content begins.
Month 2: Authority
With the foundation solid, Month 2 shifts to content production and citation footprint expansion.
Windgrove publishes four new AEO-optimised articles per week during this phase. Each article is mapped to a specific tracked prompt. The structure is deliberate: the opening 100 words contain a direct answer to the target question, the body provides supporting depth, and a FAQ section with schema markup allows LLMs to pull individual Q&A pairs as standalone citations.
Alongside content production, Month 2 activates the Reddit presence — including account warmup and engagement in relevant subreddits — and secures the first wave of directory placements. Existing content is fully rewritten to match AEO citation mechanics.
To understand what this looks like in practice, the Opal case study is the clearest example. Opal went from zero AI visibility to a 15.9% AI Visibility Score and 1,766 brand mentions in 31 days. The first eight AEO articles went live during this phase. Within seven days of publishing the Ad Pay page, Opal ranked #2 for "ad pay" and #2 for "ad spend cards" — both bottom-funnel terms with direct commercial intent.
Month 3: Visibility
Month 3 is about dominating the conversations your target customers are already having.
The work expands to include YouTube setup and video syndication, comparison pages targeting "[your brand] vs [competitor]" queries, podcast guest pipeline activation, and emerging topic capture. For clients expanding into new markets, location pages and local entity profiles are built before those markets go live.
Target outcomes at the end of 90 days:
- 5 to 10 percentage point increase in AI Visibility Score
- 3 to 5 percentage point increase in Share of Voice above 10%
- 10 or more LLM-attributed leads entering the funnel
After 90 days, engagements move to month-to-month continuation at the same rate, with scope adjusted based on what the data shows.
What the Results Look Like in Practice
The Opal engagement is the most complete picture of what this process produces.
When Windgrove began working with Opal in late March 2026, the product was strong but AI search visibility was non-existent. The site had four indexed pages, no blog, weak metadata, and no sitemap in Google Search Console. Anyone searching for Opal's category in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews was finding only competitors.
Thirty-one days later:
- AI Visibility Score: 0% to 15.9%
- Brand mentions across LLMs: 0 to 1,766
- Site health score: 66.2 to 80.7 (top 10% of benchmarked sites)
- AEO articles live: 0 to 8
Opal is now surfacing as a named recommendation inside Perplexity AI responses. When a buyer searches "what cards allow you to pay ad invoices with a credit card," Opal Ad Pay appears in the answer — not as an ad, not as a sponsored result, but as the recommended solution with a direct link to the product page.
That is what the Foundation and Authority phases produce when executed in sequence. The 15.9% AI Visibility Score at 31 days is a starting point. As content compounds and citation frequency increases, that number climbs. You can read the full Opal case study here.
For a deeper look at how Windgrove measures progress across every engagement, the metrics breakdown covers the full Searchable data model — including how AI Visibility Score, Share of Voice, and funnel-stage visibility are tracked and reported.
The Guarantee
Most agencies ask you to trust the process. Windgrove backs it with a guarantee.
If at the end of 90 days your AI Visibility Score has not meaningfully increased and LLM-sourced leads are not entering your funnel, Windgrove works for free until they are. No awkward conversations. No renegotiation. We eat the cost until we earn it.
This guarantee exists because the model is built around outcomes, not activity. A Friday Slack update that lists tasks completed is not a result. A bi-weekly report that shows visibility movement is not a result. The result is a buyer finding your product in ChatGPT when they were not looking for you by name — and taking the next step.
Why the 90-day window? Because that is how long it takes for the compounding mechanics to become visible in the data. Month 1 fixes the foundation. Month 2 builds the content and citation footprint. Month 3 is where the visibility shifts show up clearly in Searchable — and where LLM-sourced leads begin entering the funnel in measurable numbers.
The guarantee is not a hedge. It is a reflection of how confident Windgrove is in the process when it is executed in full.
For a broader perspective on why the timing of AEO investment matters — and what happens to brands that wait — the article on why investing in AEO now pays compounding dividends is worth reading before you make a decision.
Where to Start
If your product is strong but buyers are not finding you in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews, the gap is usually smaller than it looks. And it almost always starts with the same two things: a technical foundation that AI crawlers cannot read, and content that was built for Google rather than for citation.
The fastest way to understand where you stand is a free AI visibility audit. Windgrove will review your current visibility across tracked prompts, identify the highest-leverage gaps, and show you what a 30/60/90-day AEO programme looks like for your specific situation.
Run your free AI visibility audit at windgrove.ai/audit
If you would rather talk through the process first, you can book a free consultation directly. No obligation. No generic deck. Just a clear-eyed look at where your AI visibility stands and what it would take to move it.
The brands that are winning AI citations today are not necessarily the ones with the best products. They are the ones that built the right infrastructure first. That window is still open — but it is narrowing every quarter as more companies recognise what is at stake.
If you want to understand what questions to ask before committing to any AEO agency, the article on 10 questions to ask an AEO agency before you sign is a useful place to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time does working with Windgrove actually require?
The typical client commitment is approximately 30 minutes per month — the monthly strategy call. Beyond that, the onboarding call (one hour, once) and occasional requests for access or approvals specific to your setup. Windgrove handles all execution: content production, technical fixes, Reddit management, directory placements, reporting, and attribution tracking.
What does the onboarding call cover and what happens immediately after?
The onboarding call is one hour. Windgrove maps your brand positioning, key competitors, target prompts, and priorities. By the end of the call, there is enough information to begin executing immediately. No follow-up questionnaires, no waiting for internal sign-off. Month 1 technical work begins within days of the call.
How does Windgrove measure whether the engagement is working?
Windgrove uses Searchable as the primary measurement platform. It tracks AI Visibility Score (the percentage of tracked prompts where your brand is mentioned across LLMs), Share of Voice against named competitors, prompt-level data including position and sentiment, and funnel-stage visibility segmented by TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU. Secondary metrics include LLM-sourced leads entering the funnel, tracked via "how did you hear about us" attribution and CRM pipeline data.
What happens if results do not materialise within 90 days?
Windgrove works for free until they do. If at the end of 90 days the AI Visibility Score has not meaningfully increased and LLM-sourced leads are not entering the funnel, the engagement continues at no charge until those outcomes are achieved. No renegotiation, no awkward conversations.
Is Windgrove a fit if we already have an SEO agency?
Yes. Windgrove is not an SEO agency and does not compete with traditional search optimisation work. AEO and SEO operate on different signals — content that ranks on Google does not automatically get cited by AI engines, and vice versa. Windgrove's work runs in parallel with existing SEO programmes and typically complements rather than conflicts with them.