# The Companion Guide

> The Companion Guide is a done-for-you AI visibility and SEO service for growing online businesses. We make daily, human-reviewed improvements to a client's website so AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot) and search engines (Google, including AI Overviews, and Bing) can find the business, trust what they read and recommend it by name.

## Service
- Model: a done-for-you service, not software. One plan: $2,000/month, month to month, or $1,500/month on a 12-month commitment.
- Cadence: improvements ship every day. A person reviews each change before it goes live, and a report goes out every Monday.
- Covers: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Google (incl. AI Overviews), Bing.
- Each month, up to: 12 long-form guides, 50+ fixes to existing pages, plus AI answer tracking and corrections, index checks and indexing requests, comparison pages and free tools, and a weekly report.
- Work includes: AI answer monitoring and corrections; audience and question research; page-to-keyword mapping; long-form guides; "vs" and alternatives pages; free mini-tools and calculators; on-page copy and speed fixes; crawl and index health; facts consistency (prices, features, claims). Also: directory listings, link outreach, social posts per article, weekly report.
- No guaranteed rankings or mentions. Results usually build over a few months.

## How to start
- Send one sentence: "When someone asks AI [their question], the answer should mention [yoursite.com]."
- Reply within one business day with a yes and next steps, or an honest no.
- Day one: the client grants access (website/CMS, Google Search Console, analytics) through a short checklist.

## Guides
- [How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT](https://thecompanionguide.com/guides/get-recommended-by-chatgpt/): A step-by-step guide to getting your business named in ChatGPT answers: crawler access, clear identity, pages that answer real questions, and honest measurement.
- [GEO vs SEO (and AEO): what's actually different](https://thecompanionguide.com/guides/geo-vs-seo/): GEO, AEO and SEO compared in plain language: what each means, what stays the same, what really changes for AI answers, and how to measure each.
- [Should you block GPTBot? AI crawlers and robots.txt, explained](https://thecompanionguide.com/guides/ai-crawlers-robots-txt/): Which AI crawlers to allow or block (GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended), and a robots.txt you can copy and an honest take on llms.txt.
- [How to check whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini mention your brand](https://thecompanionguide.com/guides/check-if-ai-mentions-your-brand/): A repeatable way to measure AI visibility: build a question list, ask in clean conditions, score mention rate, citation rate and share of voice, check accuracy.
- [AI visibility glossary](https://thecompanionguide.com/guides/ai-visibility-glossary/): Plain-language definitions of AI visibility and AI search terms: GEO, AEO, AI Overviews, grounding, llms.txt, GPTBot, share of voice, IndexNow and more.
- [AI visibility tools vs a done-for-you service vs doing it yourself](https://thecompanionguide.com/guides/ai-visibility-service-vs-tools/): Tracking software, doing it yourself, or a done-for-you service for AI visibility: what each covers, who does the work, and questions to ask before you choose.

## Free tools
- [Free AI visibility checker](https://thecompanionguide.com/tools/ai-visibility-checker/): Free check of whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google and Bing crawlers can read your site, and whether your homepage clearly says who you are.

## Contact
- Founder: Mandel Sherrod
- Operated by: Flow Solutions
- Email: mandelsherrod@gmail.com
- Website: https://thecompanionguide.com/

## Pages
- [Home](https://thecompanionguide.com/): service overview, pricing, FAQ, start form
- [Privacy](https://thecompanionguide.com/privacy): plain-language privacy policy