Diagnose
Find what the business is known for today, where it appears and what blocks retrieval, recommendation or citation.
SEO + AI Search
Search doesn't know what you know.
Main Heading is a boutique SEO and AI search agency. We define the topic your business should own, build the pages and proof that earn it, and turn visibility in Google and AI answers into qualified demand.
Topical Audit
Example audit excerpt. Findings and scope are specific to each site.
- Apparent topical focus
- Enterprise payment operations, spread across disconnected service and resource pages
- Strongest topic
- Payment workflows / Topic Strength: Strong
- Topic overlap
- Implementation guidance / Competes with: Finance automation
- Missing topics
- Implementation risk, compliance evidence and proof for high-value decisions
Topical hierarchy excerptPriority sequence
Enterprise payment operationsDefensible topic position
Implementation and controlsHigh-value decision support
Risk, compliance and proofUnderdeveloped evidence territory
Point-in-time diagnosticNot a recurring monthly report format
Visibility follows structure.Incumbents own the brand. You can own the topic.
Experience behind Main Heading
300+brands served, each with its own topical strategy
2,000+SEO professionals trained
114,000+monthly organic visits, SaaS startup, from zero in 18 months
+375%monthly demo requests from organic traffic, fintech SaaS, within ten months
Search can't see scattered expertise.
Your knowledge is spread across service pages, product pages, PDFs, webinars and years of content. Buyers can piece it together when they already know where to look.
Search engines and AI systems usually cannot.
Publishing more does not fix an undefined topic. Your expertise must be organized, supported and reachable by search systems before it can be ranked, retrieved or cited.
Same knowledge. Only one gets cited.
Search and answer engines reward expertise they can interpret. They look for one clear topic, the entities that define it, connected evidence and enough outside authority to trust the source.
Scattered
- Expertise spread across disconnected pages
- Important claims without visible support
- Search systems left to infer the topic
Cited source
Structured and retrievable
- One defensible topic
- Connected pages, named entities and expert evidence
- Signals that can be ranked, retrieved and cited
How the work gets done
AI answers take seconds. Authority takes work.
Main Heading runs SEO and AI SEO as one program. AI SEO is the work of getting found in AI search: your pages retrieved, cited and recommended by AI systems. It covers what others call GEO and AEO. The foundation under both is semantic SEO: a topical map defines the topic, and the entities behind it make it recognizable to search systems. Entities are the named things a topic is made of: products, problems, methods and people. The work is concrete, staged and measured.
Build
Turn the findings into a defensible topic, a clear architecture, better evidence and pages search systems can read.
Compound
Keep shipping useful work, earn third-party authority, measure visibility and improve as search behavior changes.
How to read the five stages: they run in sequence and overlap, and Compound continues for as long as the engagement does. Timings run from kickoff and assume access to analytics, Search Console and the CMS in week one.
Stage 01 / Diagnose
Establish the baseline
Document how the business appears in Google and the selected AI systems before anything changes. This gives every recommendation a defensible starting point.
What Main Heading does
What this stage can include
Services in this stage
01Establish the baseline Weeks 1–2
Document how the business appears in Google and selected AI systems before anything changes.
- Search and technical baseline
- Technical SEO audit and fix list
- AI visibility snapshot
- Brand mention and citation baseline
- Competitor comparison
- Analytics and Search Console review
What Main Heading does
Reviews the site's structure and topical focus.
Records a defensible starting point for later comparison.
Services: SEO audit · Technical SEO audit · AI visibility audit · Competitor analysis
02Map the topic Weeks 2–6
Combine search demand, buyer questions, sales conversations and AI prompts into one prioritized territory.
- Priority query set
- Buyer question map
- Topical map
- Site architecture
- Topical scope and coverage gaps
- Prioritized roadmap
What Main Heading does
Connects market evidence to your expertise and commercial priorities.
Separates useful territory from subtopics that would dilute it.
Services: Keyword and topic research · Topical map · Content strategy · Site architecture
03Build the evidence From month 2, ongoing
Create or improve the pages buyers and AI systems need to retrieve, quote and trust.
- Page architecture
- Content briefs
- Articles and pages, written and published
- Existing content updates
- On-page optimization
- Internal linking
- Entity schema
- Technical SEO fixes
- Expert evidence requirements
What Main Heading does
Connects subject-matter expertise to a clear page structure.
Writes, optimizes and publishes the agreed pages.
Services: Content briefs and production · On-page SEO · Internal linking · Schema and entity markup · Technical SEO fixes
04Earn outside authority From month 3, ongoing
Identify the outside sources that appear in the answers that matter, then pursue the opportunities that fit the business.
- Cited-source landscape
- Qualified publications
- Digital PR and link outreach
- Review and directory opportunities
- Expert contribution targets
- Brand mention tracking
What Main Heading does
Prioritizes third-party sources with a clear role in discovery or trust.
Pursues the opportunities included in the engagement.
Services: Digital PR · Link building · Citation and mention building · Expert contributions
05Measure and improve Monthly from month 2; first full comparison at month 6
Use a stable query set to compare movement, then connect visibility to business performance where tracking supports it.
- Search performance
- AI visibility reporting
- Competitor movement
- Qualified demand where attributable
- Monthly report and review call
- Next-priority list
What Main Heading does
Separates point-in-time analysis from ongoing measurement.
Turns new evidence into the next set of priorities.
Services: SEO reporting · AI visibility tracking · Competitor tracking
Scope rule. Each stage lists everything it can include. What your engagement includes depends on scope, because the program is built around the brand's needs rather than a package, and there is no disguised article quota. The proposal states what Main Heading owns, what the client team owns, what ships each month and which measures define progress.
Ways to work together
Four ways in. One method underneath.
Every engagement draws on the same five stages. What changes is how much of the program you buy, and for how long. Prices are starting points, set by scope. The proposal names the number.
The first six weeks, on their own
$5,000 to $7,500One-off, by scope · weeks 1 to 6
Stages 01 and 02 as a standalone deliverable: baseline, AI visibility snapshot, competitor comparison, topical map, site architecture and prioritized roadmap. Yours to build from, with us or without us.
- Everything in stages 01 and 02
- Handover session, and everything is yours to keep, whoever builds from it
All five stages, run for you
From $5,000 a monthSix-month initial term, then month to month
For startups, B2B SaaS, professional services firms and multi-location businesses. Yoyao leads the strategy, a specialist team builds the pages, earns the authority and reports the movement. The roadmap sets the volume; most call for 8 to 16 pages a month alongside technical and authority work.
- Call every two weeks, written report monthly
- First full before-and-after at month six
- Scope and volume named in the proposal
Root cause, then the recovery plan
From $3,500One-off · two to three weeks
For a traffic drop, a core update that moved you, or competitors that get cited when you don't. A full investigation of the site against the topical, entity and technical signals search systems actually use, ending in a written diagnosis, a prioritized recovery plan and a readout call. The free Topical Audit shows what your site is known for today; the deep dive investigates why something broke and what to do about it.
- Traffic drop and core update investigation
- AI citation gap analysis
- Topical focus, entity and technical review
- Written diagnosis, prioritized recovery plan and readout
One location, found and chosen
From $1,000 a monthPlus $2,000 setup · six-month initial term
For a single-location practice or high-value service business whose customers search on their phones. A narrower scope built around the profile, the local pages and the reviews that decide who gets the call.
- Google Business Profile and citations
- Location and service pages
- Review strategy and local reporting
- Setup covers the front-loaded site and profile work
Every price is a starting point, and the number depends on a scope that is unique to each brand: site size, competition, how many search and AI systems are tracked and how much of the work Main Heading owns. The proposal names it before anything starts. If you begin with Diagnose and map and continue into the full program, the retainer starts the month the map is delivered, so the first six weeks are paid for once. Multi-location businesses and anything with a content program belong in the full program, not the local one.
How we measure AI Search
Buyer questions, tracked across Google and AI.
We start with a defined set of buyer questions and record where you appear across Google and the AI systems in scope. We separate mentions from citations, show which pages are cited, on your site and elsewhere, and name the competitors and entities the answers recommend. Movement is then tracked against the same question set.
Systems can include Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. The proposal names which.
Floyi is the topical authority platform. Main Heading uses its research and authority-measurement systems to collect and compare evidence faster. Clients hire Main Heading for the strategy and execution. They do not need a Floyi subscription.
System viewShows where the brand appears for the defined question set.
Traffic is not the result. Qualified demand is.
Traffic only matters when it reaches the right buyers and produces a business result. Each case shows the starting point, the work, the outcome and the timeframe. Yoyao Hsueh, Main Heading's founder, led all three.
114,000+monthly organic visits in approximately 18 months
Media SaaS
- Starting point
- A new site began with no content, rankings or organic acquisition channel.
- Work
- Built the topical strategy first, created a focused publishing plan and expanded it after the initial authority foundation held.
- Outcome
- The site reached more than 114,000 monthly organic visits in approximately 18 months.
- Business result
- The site produced 670 to 1,200 trials per month from organic traffic only.
As a new startup we had a lot of expertise about our topics, but not enough SEO experience to know how to share that knowledge.
In a lot of markets the larger companies never had to focus on SEO because everyone already knows their brand. That gave us, as a newcomer, the opening to create fully optimized content off the topical map. It resulted in a lot of top three rankings above the big brands. Organic search and AI traffic is now our largest acquisition channel.
+295%organic traffic over 10 months
Financial SaaS
- Starting point
- The site had content, but its pages competed with one another and never established a coherent topic.
- Work
- Rebuilt the content strategy around buyer research, audited existing content and corrected the site structure and internal connections.
- Outcome
- Organic traffic grew 295% over 10 months.
- Business result
- Monthly demo requests from organic traffic increased from 4 to 19.
5,000+monthly organic visits in nine months
Chiropractic practice
- Starting point
- A one-year-old practice had a starter website that produced almost no search visibility.
- Work
- Rebuilt the site, created the content strategy and aligned the site, Google Business Profile and external citations around the same subjects.
- Outcome
- Organic traffic grew from zero to more than 5,000 monthly visits in nine months.
- Business result
- The practice receives 20 to 40 bookings per month from the site.
Founder
Built by someone who has done the work.
Yoyao Hsueh spent eight years as an agency SEO consultant and, before that, built and ran his own content and affiliate sites. He created Topical Maps Unlocked, a semantic SEO methodology, and founded Floyi, the topical authority platform. At Main Heading he defines the topic, sets the priorities and holds the quality bar on every engagement. Clients who want Yoyao doing the hands-on page work himself, rather than leading a team, hire him fractionally through yoyao.com.
Real work. Direct access. Senior judgment.
For businesses chosen for what they know.
A strong fit
- Startups and B2B SaaS companies whose buyers research complex products and categories
- Law firms and professional services businesses where trust drives high-value decisions
- High-value local businesses where reputation and lead quality justify sustained work, through the local program
- Businesses willing to provide subject-matter experts, real evidence and useful context
Not a fit
- Businesses competing mainly on price, convenience or short-term promotions
- Companies looking for a fixed article quota without a coherent position
- Teams expecting rankings or AI citations within 30 days
- Businesses unwilling to provide access to the people who hold the knowledge
What clients ask before they hire us.
01How is this different from hiring a conventional SEO agency?
Main Heading begins with the topic your business should own, then connects search demand, AI visibility, evidence, site architecture, and outside authority around it. The work is not reduced to rankings or a fixed article quota.
02What is AI SEO, and where do GEO and AEO fit?
AI SEO is the umbrella for getting your business retrieved, cited and recommended by AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Two terms sit under it and they are not the same thing. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is about the synthesized answer: whether your brand is named and your pages are cited when a model assembles a response from many sources. It runs on entity clarity, consistent facts across the web, third-party mentions and citation tracking. Answer engine optimization (AEO) is about a single question: whether one of your pages is lifted as the direct answer, in a snippet, a People Also Ask box or an AI reply. It runs on page structure, extractable passages and schema. Both rest on the same foundation as SEO, topical authority: a site that owns a topic completely gets retrieved for GEO and extracted for AEO, which is why all three run as one program here.
03Will I work directly with Yoyao?
Yes. Yoyao leads positioning, priorities and major recommendations. Specialists support delivery, but clients retain direct access to the person accountable for the thinking.
04What if we already have an agency, content team or writers?
Then Main Heading defines the strategy, the briefs and the measurement, and your team executes the agreed parts. The proposal makes ownership explicit. If what you actually want is Yoyao personally doing the on-page and priority-page work rather than a team, that is a fractional engagement and he runs those through yoyao.com.
05We're a startup with almost no search presence. Is that a problem?
No. It is the most common starting point. Incumbents own the brand searches, but a new company can own a topic long before it owns a name. The media SaaS case above began with no content and no rankings.
06How long before we see results?
The baseline lands in the first two weeks and the prioritized roadmap by week six. Pages start shipping in month two. Expect the first measurable movement between months three and six, and the first full before-and-after comparison at month six. Our three cases took 9, 10 and 18 months to become a reliable source of demand, and the difference was starting point and competition. Main Heading does not promise rankings or citations within 30 days.
07What does an engagement cost?
The full program starts at $5,000 a month on a six-month initial term. The local program starts at $1,000 a month plus a $2,000 setup. Diagnose and map runs $5,000 to $7,500 one-off by scope, and a deep dive starts at $3,500. Those are starting points, and the number depends on the scope of work, which is unique to each brand. After the Topical Audit, the proposal states what Main Heading owns, what the client owns, what ships and how progress is measured, and the number reflects that scope.
08How much of our time does this take?
A kickoff of about ninety minutes, then two to three hours a month: a thirty-minute call every two weeks, a short interview when a page needs knowledge only your people have, and review of what ships. We ask for draft feedback within five business days so the pace holds. In week one we need access to analytics, Search Console and the CMS.
09Who actually does the work?
Yoyao defines the topic, sets the priorities and reviews the work. Specialists he has worked with for years handle content, technical SEO, digital PR and editing, assembled per engagement rather than kept on a bench. You will know who is writing your pages and who is doing the technical work before you sign, because they are named in the proposal. You own everything produced.