Methodology · Silvo Systems

How we work — from audit to ongoing citations.

Most agencies skip positioning. We start there. Below is the full engagement lifecycle — five-step sales pipeline, eight-step implementation pipeline mapped to The Citation Stack, and a 90-day timeline.

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By Logan Hoffman, founder of Silvo Systems ·

Section 01

How we sell

Five steps from first audit to signed deposit. Two to three weeks, end to end.

  1. STEP 0130 seconds

    Free audit

    Instant six-pillar diagnostic on the prospect's URL. Live citation snapshot from Anthropic and OpenAI. Results render in the browser and arrive by email.

  2. STEP 0230 min

    Discovery call

    Thirty minutes to understand the business, current marketing, current pipeline, and what the owner actually wants from the next twelve months.

  3. STEP 0360 min

    Positioning workshop

    One hour to find the smallest query universe the business can plausibly own. Market sizing, competitor mapping, and live niche tests against ChatGPT on the call.

    The differentiator

  4. STEP 043-day turnaround

    Scoped proposal

    Tier recommendation, setup work, and monthly deliverables — all written against the positioning we identified, not a generic SEO checklist.

  5. STEP 05Same day

    Sign + 50% deposit

    Paperwork, deposit, kickoff date scheduled. Deep audit kicks off the next business day.

Section 02

How we deliver

Eight steps, ordered. Each one maps to a layer of The Citation Stack.

Phase 1 · Foundation

Weeks 1-3

  1. 1

    Deep audit

    Full technical, content, AEO, and competitor pass against the positioning we locked in the workshop. Three-day deliverable, written, with screenshots and prioritized fixes.

    DeliverableAudit report (PDF + Loom walkthrough)

  2. 2

    Position lock + content strategy

    Stack · Layer 01 · Position

    Workshop output formalized into a one-sentence position, a query universe of 20+ niche-specific terms, and a content calendar pegged to those terms.

    DeliverablePosition doc + 90-day content calendar

  3. 3

    Site rebuild on the new positioning

    Stack · Layer 01 · Position

    Homepage and key service pages rewritten and rebuilt against the niche. No generic 'we do everything' copy. Every page maps to a specific query the model is asked.

    DeliverableRebuilt homepage + 3-5 service pages

  4. 4

    Foundation deployment

    Stack · Layer 02 · Foundation

    LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, and HowTo schema. llms.txt and llms-full.txt. robots.txt with explicit AI-bot allowlist. Core Web Vitals optimization. Google Business Profile claimed and completed end-to-end.

    DeliverableAudit-score lift of 15+ points, same week

Phase 2 · Authority + Citations

Weeks 4-8

  1. 5

    Authority build

    Stack · Layer 03 · Authority

    Founder bio with credentials, license numbers, and Person schema. One canonical 2,500-word vertical resource page per service. Source-grounded content engine begins shipping.

    DeliverableFounder bio + vertical hub + first 4 posts

  2. 6

    Citations earned

    Stack · Layer 04 · Citations

    On-site citation surfaces (FAQ blocks, comparison tables, numbered lists, BreadcrumbList schema). Off-site: 30-50 vertical directory listings, review-velocity ops on Google and Yelp, listicle inclusion outreach to Newsday, LIBN, and Long Island Press.

    Deliverable30-50 vertical citations live + first earned editorial pitches sent

  3. 7

    Tracking dashboard live

    Stack · Layer 05 · Tracking

    10-20 niche-specific queries tracked daily across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Citation rate, share-of-voice, and source-URL parsing — all stored, all charted.

    DeliverableLive dashboard + first monthly report

Ongoing

Month 3+

  1. 8

    Monthly cadence

    Stack · Layer 05 · Tracking

    One report per month: citation rate change, new citations live, posts published, plus three screenshots — query that started citing you, query that lost a competitor, query you are still losing. Iterate against the dashboard.

    DeliverableMonthly report + iterated content + new citation pitches

Section 03

Sample 90-day timeline

Most engagements look like this. Faster if positioning is already strong; slower if the site needs a full rebuild.

  1. Week 0

    Pre-sign

    • Discovery call
    • Positioning workshop
    • Scoped proposal

  2. Week 1

    Kickoff

    • Sign + 50% deposit
    • Deep audit kicks off

  3. Weeks 2-3

    Position + rebuild

    • Position locked
    • Homepage + service pages rebuilt

  4. Weeks 4-5

    Foundation

    • Schema deployed
    • llms.txt + AI-bot allowlist live
    • GBP completed
    • CWV passing

  5. Weeks 6-8

    Authority

    • Founder bio + Person schema
    • Vertical resource hubs live
    • First 4 source-grounded posts shipped

  6. Weeks 9-12

    Citations + tracking

    • 30-50 vertical citations live
    • First listicle pitches out
    • Tracking dashboard live
    • First monthly report delivered

  7. Month 3+

    Iteration

    • Monthly report cadence
    • Content cluster expansion
    • Earned editorial outreach (1+ per quarter)

Section 04

What we don't do

Saying no is part of the work. Five things we will not sell you on a discovery call.

  • We don't run paid ads as our core service

    Ads are an upsell on top of the AEO program — see the add-ons on /stack — not the engine. Paying for clicks does not earn citations.

  • We don't build configurators for new clients by default

    The Configurator System is a separate Tier-3 add-on, sold case-by-case. It is not part of standard Foundation work.

  • We don't guarantee a specific citation rate

    We guarantee process discipline — the work shipped on time, the dashboard live, the report on the calendar. Citation rate is a model-driven outcome and no honest agency can guarantee a number.

  • We don't take clients we cannot honestly help

    If the audit reveals a Position we cannot defend, a market that is already locked by an incumbent, or a budget that does not match the work — we say no on the discovery call, not three months in.

  • We don't take more than one contractor per Long Island sub-market

    Territorial exclusivity is built into the Domination tier and informally enforced everywhere else. Two kitchen remodelers in the same Suffolk zip is a conflict of interest we will not run.

Section 05

Common questions

How long until I see citations from ChatGPT?

Audit-score lift on Foundation is same-day. Citation rate — the metric that maps to revenue — moves on a 60- to 90-day curve. Press placements, vertical citations, and source-grounded content all need time to register in LLM training and retrieval indexes. Anyone who promises 30 days is bluffing.

What if my positioning is already locked in?

We still run the workshop. Sometimes 'locked in' means 'six years of marketing material aimed at the wrong query universe.' We will not bulldoze a real brand — but we will pressure-test the niche against ChatGPT live on the call. If your existing position passes the three tests (volume, competition density, conviction), we keep it and skip step 3 of implementation.

Can I see results before signing?

The free audit is the proof-of-process. It runs the same six pillars and the same live-citation snapshot we use on every paying client. If the audit does not give you a clear picture of where you sit, the engagement will not either.

What happens if my Google reviews are bad?

Bad reviews are a Citations-layer problem and we treat them directly. Review-velocity ops — asking every closed-out customer for a review within seven days, plus 48-hour response on every review — moves the needle inside 90 days. We do not delete or fake reviews. Ever.

Do you guarantee I'll be cited?

No. We guarantee the process — the schema deployed, the citations live, the dashboard running, the report on time, the iteration loop closed every month. Citation rate is the score the model gives the work. The work is what we control.

What if I want to change scope mid-engagement?

Tier upgrades happen on the next monthly cycle, prorated. Tier downgrades happen at the next 90-day mark — long enough that the work in flight finishes cleanly. Add-ons (Reddit, Podcast, Wikidata, Custom GPT, Configurator) can be added any month.

How do you handle competitive intelligence?

Two ways. The audit pulls a competitor citation snapshot — same queries, same engines — so you see exactly which competitors are already named in answers and which are not. Inside the engagement, the monthly report flags any new competitor that started citing during the period, with the source URL the model pulled from.

What's the typical retainer length?

Three months minimum to see the citation curve start moving. Six months is where most clients stabilize at 40%+ citation rate on niche queries. Twelve months is where the moat becomes hard to dislodge. No long-term contract — month-to-month after the initial 90-day commitment.

Start with the audit. Decide from there.

The free audit is the door. It scores all five layers of the Citation Stack and pulls a live citation snapshot from Anthropic and OpenAI — the same diagnostic we run on every paying client.

Start with a free auditSee tier options