+1,413%organic traffic growth
DBB Software
Built the marketing function from zero — website, SEO, paid, AI search — from 166 to 2,513 monthly clicks and 3 enterprise deals won.
- 28 SQLs from zero
- 3 deals won
Service · AI Search Optimization (AEO/GEO) for Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
AI search optimization for MSPs that need to be the provider AI assistants recommend — not another name that never shows up when a business owner asks who to trust with their IT.
Get your managed service or managed security provider cited by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews for the commercial prompts your buyers actually run — 'best MSP for healthcare in [region],' 'managed IT vs. MSSP for a 150-person company,' 'co-managed IT provider that handles compliance' — measured against real recommendation visibility and pipeline, not a screenshot.
- B2B tech companies worked with
- 60+
- Years marketing to technical & executive buyers
- 9+
- CRM-tracked marketing-led revenue
- $30M+
- AI Search recommendation success rate
- 80%
- A map of the commercial MSP prompts buyers run across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews — vertical, regional, security, and switching-intent queries.
- A baseline audit of where your firm is — and is not — currently recommended for those prompts, and which competitors are named instead.
- Authority content that gives AI models the right evidence to cite you: capabilities, vertical proof, security posture, real SLAs, compliance credentials, and a clear no-downtime migration path off an incumbent.
- Entity and citation building: placing your firm in the third-party sources — review platforms, vertical directories, comparison pages, regional tech coverage — that models trust for MSP vendor questions.
- Structured data and on-site signals that make your expertise, vertical focus, and geographic service area machine-legible.
- Influence over the listicles, comparison pages, and switching guides models pull from when a buyer asks 'best MSP for [vertical] in [region]' or 'how to switch managed IT providers.'
- Ongoing prompt-visibility tracking across assistants, by prompt category and by competitor, so you see movement rather than assumptions.
- Reporting that ties AI recommendation visibility to CRM-tracked conversations, assessments booked, and pipeline — reported as contract value, not vanity appearances.
How the system works
How the system works
Diagnose the MSP recommendation landscape
We identify the high-intent prompts your specific buyers run — local, vertical, security, and switching queries — and audit your current citation footprint across every major AI assistant. We map competitor visibility at the same time so we know exactly what ground is available to take.
Compare against known B2B tech and MSP patterns
We benchmark your visibility and evidence base against what has made comparable managed-service providers citable — the vertical proof, the security narrative, the local trust signals, and the switching-cost answers that models pull from for MSP recommendation prompts.
Choose the right growth path for your stage and verticals
We prioritize the prompts, citation sources, and entity signals with the most commercial upside for your specific service area, target verticals, and average contract value — security and compliance queries first if you are positioning as an MSSP, local and regional queries first if your near-term pipeline is geographic.
Build the AI-visibility system
We produce the authority content, third-party citation placements, entity signals, and structured data as one connected system — not disconnected tactics. Every asset is written to serve both the AI recommendation and the human buyer who eventually lands on your site.
Optimize against sales feedback and CRM
We track prompt visibility and AI-sourced pipeline and double down on the prompts and sources that produce real IT assessments and MSP evaluations. Prompts that attract tire-kickers get deprioritized; prompts that produce business owners with a live contract renewal coming up get more investment.
The XQL difference
Why XQL approaches AI search differently for MSPs
- 01
We understand the MSP buying decision
Nine-plus years marketing for 60+ B2B tech companies — managed-service and managed-security providers among them — means we arrive with a read on the MSP buyer: they are not choosing a vendor, they are choosing an operational dependency, and the fear is being locked into a bad one. We write the citable evidence that models use to recommend you through that lens, not generic 'managed IT services' language that sounds like every other provider.
- 02
Faster diagnosis of where you are — and are not — showing up
We start by mapping the commercial MSP prompts your buyers run across all major assistants and auditing exactly where you are already cited, where competitors are named instead, and where no credible source exists yet. That baseline is built before we touch a piece of content.
- 03
Citation strategy built for trust-heavy, local, vertical buying
MSP buyers trust local reputation and peer referrals, and AI assistants draw on the same signals: reviews, third-party listicles, vertical-specific directories, and authoritative local coverage. We target the citation sources models actually pull from for vendor recommendations — not the generic backlink game.
- 04
Sales feedback loop specific to long, high-stakes MSP sales cycles
An MSP deal closes slowly and through multiple contacts. Your sales team tells us which AI-sourced conversations involved real business owners with a live re-evaluation — and we steer prompt targeting and entity signals toward the prompts that produce those conversations, not informational queries that attract price-shoppers.
- 05
CRM attribution tied to recurring contract value, not traffic
An MSP deal is worth far more than a one-off project. We track AI-assistant-influenced conversations into the CRM and report against pipeline created and contract value influenced — so the work is judged on the revenue it touches, not whether your name appeared in a screenshot.
Why XQL vs alternatives
Why XQL vs the alternatives
DimensionTypical approachThe XQL way
Traditional SEO agencyOptimizes for Google rankings and assumes AI visibility follows — it does not, especially for local and vertical MSP queries.Targets AI recommendation directly — the prompts, entities, and third-party sources models cite for managed IT vendor questions.
Generalist marketing agencyHas no method for getting a managed-service provider cited by AI assistants, and no understanding of the switching-cost or security-liability dynamics that drive MSP buying.Runs a defined AI Search Optimization system built for the trust-heavy, multi-year-contract MSP buyer journey.
MSP-focused channel marketing firmDelivers vendor co-branded content and templated campaigns every competitor also runs — none of it builds entity authority or citation in AI models.Builds owned citation and entity signals that make your specific firm — not the vendors you resell — the recommended name in AI answers.
PR or link-building agencyChases coverage and links with no view of which sources AI assistants actually pull from for MSP vendor recommendations.Places citations specifically in the sources that change AI recommendations for managed IT prompts, tied to CRM pipeline.
Do nothingCedes the AI shortlist — and the first impression with a buyer who has already formed a mental shortlist — to competitors and national directories.Gets your MSP onto the AI-generated shortlist before buyers ever reach your site or a competitor's.
Commercial outcomes
Proof from the same playbook.
Strategy first, channels second, sales feedback always. We measure by the qualified demand and revenue we can trace back inside the CRM.
Selected results
Senior operators on every account. Never a junior pod.- +500%more SQLs from organic
Synebo
Turned Salesforce-niche SEO into a deal channel — 2.73× traffic and MQL-to-SQL conversion up from 17% to 29%.
- 2.73× organic traffic
- MQL→SQL 17% → 29%
Client signal
What B2B tech founders and CEOs say
Thanks to XQL Group's efforts, we've seen a 207% increase in web traffic and an improvement in domain rating from 12 to 45. The team has successfully optimized our SEO strategy and gained around 160 backlinks. Overall, they're responsive and thorough in their project management.
Since working with XQL Group, our domain rating has improved from 27 to 44. In addition, we've seen a 15% increase in monthly traffic within nine months. The team completes work on time and within the agreed budget. Moreover, their subject matter expertise is highly impressive.
XQL Group's efforts have resulted in 44 leads from paid campaigns and improved web traffic from Germany by 5x. The team is responsive, quickly surfaces issues, and communicates regularly through chats and virtual meetings. Their expertise and proactiveness have impressed our team.
Organic traffic has increased by 10–15% each month, and we have started receiving our first inbound requests. XQL Group's optimization tips have also helped improve keyword rankings, and internal stakeholders are impressed with the team's collaborative approach.
XQL Group has successfully defined a clear marketing strategy and established our company's unique value proposition. The team has also helped hire critical specialists for our marketing team. They are communicative and organized, and their expertise in the tech industry is impressive.
Thanks to XQL Group's efforts, we have defined our marketing strategy and hired key developers for our website. The team has launched retargeting campaigns on LinkedIn and developed a strong content marketing strategy. XQL Group's marketing expertise is a hallmark of the engagement.
They were not just talking about AI search in theory; they knew how to approach it practically.
What impressed us most was their deep specialization in working with software development companies.
They've brought structure, strong execution, and constant initiative to improve outcomes.
They operated with the discipline and initiative of an internal senior marketer.
Their ability to combine strategic vision with hands-on execution was particularly valuable.
Their focus on results and true interest in making things work set them apart.
XQL Group's project management was exemplary.
The quality of their work is consistently high.
FAQ
Questions about this service.
Yes — and it may matter more for local MSPs than for national ones. Buyers explicitly ask AI assistants for managed IT providers in their region and vertical: 'best MSP for healthcare in [city],' 'managed IT provider for law firms in [state],' 'co-managed security partner for a 200-person financial services firm.' Those are geographic and vertical queries, and a local or regional MSP with the right citation footprint and entity signals can outrank national players and directories for exactly those prompts. We have achieved an 80% recommendation success rate for selected commercial prompts doing this kind of targeted work.
Traditional SEO targets ranked pages in Google; AI Search Optimization targets being cited inside a generated answer — by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews. They overlap but need different work: entity signals, citable evidence (real SLAs, vertical proof, security posture), and presence in the third-party sources models trust for vendor recommendations. Many MSPs rank reasonably well on Google and are completely absent from AI-generated shortlists — these are separate problems.
Because referrals and local reputation are exactly what AI assistants are now synthesizing and surfacing. A buyer who gets a referral still verifies it — and increasingly that verification starts with 'is this MSP actually recommended for businesses like ours' in an AI assistant, not just a Google search. If the referral and the AI answer align, you are in a strong position. If the AI answer contradicts the referral or names three competitors instead, you have a problem. AI Search Optimization makes sure the AI layer of the verification process confirms rather than undermines the trust you have built locally and through your network.
Vertical compliance prompts are among the highest-value targets in MSP AI search — 'managed IT for HIPAA compliance,' 'MSP with SOC 2 experience for a fintech,' 'cyber-insurance-ready managed security for a law firm' — because they signal a buyer who has already moved past 'should I use a managed IT provider' to 'which provider is right for our specific regulatory situation.' We specifically target these commercial, high-intent, vertical-plus-security prompts, not informational queries that attract students and job seekers.
We track recommendation visibility per prompt and per competitor across all major AI assistants, and we tie AI-influenced conversations to pipeline in your CRM — reported as assessments booked, SQLs, and contract value influenced, not raw traffic. MSP deals close slowly, so we build the attribution model to reflect a multi-month cycle: first AI-influenced touch, assessment booked, qualification, and won contract with recurring contract value attached.
Some prompts — especially regional or vertical queries where the citation landscape is sparse — shift within weeks as citable evidence and third-party source placements improve. More competitive prompts where national directories and larger players are already well-cited typically compound over two to four months as your entity authority builds. Security and compliance queries, where MSP content is generally weak, often move faster than broad 'managed IT services' prompts where everyone is already present.
Ready when you are
Let's talk.
Bring your offer, channels, and revenue goals. We'll show you where the biggest growth constraint is and what to build next.
Danylo FedirkoFounder
For B2B tech companies selling complex expertise to serious buyers.
- B2B tech clients
- 60+
- Revenue generated
- $30M+
