NextLab / How We Work
How we work
Four signals. One answer. Here's exactly how.
No black box. This page is the whole method — what happens in week one, what a report looks like, what it costs, and what we won’t promise you along the way.
Report contents, every month
Answer Share by platform, against baseline. The full prompt set, marked named / not named. Raw screenshots, timestamped, in the appendix. Competitors named where you weren't. Local pack and organic performance. What was done. What's next.
The method, briefly
Four signals, in a specific order.
Each one depends on the one before it, so we build them in sequence rather than all at once.
Identity — a canonical description of your business, consistent everywhere. Evidence — what independent sources say about you, which is roughly 77% of what actually gets cited. Extraction — content an AI can lift a clean answer from. Endorsement — earned authority from sources AI platforms already trust.
The full breakdown, with what we deliver for each signal, is on the AI search visibility page. This page is about the process and the reporting around that work.
The engagement
What happens, and in what order.
Four phases. Baseline first, so every result that follows is measured against a real starting point — not an assumption.
- 01
Baseline · Week 1–2
We test forty prompts and tell you the truth about where you stand.
The prompt set is defined and approved by you. We test it across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini, plus the local pack, and build a competitor citation map — who's being named instead of you, and where.
- 02
Foundation · Day 1–60
Identity and Extraction — the two signals everything else depends on.
Entity reconciliation across every platform you're listed on, plus core service and city pages rewritten so an AI can actually lift a clean answer from them. This is where Answer Share first starts to move.
- 03
Build · Day 61–150
Evidence at depth — the highest-leverage, most-neglected signal.
Review program, directory and association placement, licensing records surfaced consistently. This is usually where Answer Share and local pack visibility rise together, and where the first AI-referred inquiries tend to show up.
- 04
Compound · Ongoing
Endorsement, plus monthly reporting for as long as you're a client.
Trade press, association content, expert commentary, original research. The slowest signal and the one that's hardest for a competitor to copy quickly — it's what turns an early result into a durable position.
Investment
Four steps. Start free, pay for what's working.
The diagnostic is paid on purpose — it filters for prospects who’ve already decided the problem is real, and it’s credited against your first month if you go ahead.
Step 1
Free
AI Answer Check
Ten prompts for your market, tested across four platforms. Screenshots, competitors named, one-page summary. No call required.
Get the free checkStep 2
$1,500 one-time
Answer Share Baseline
Forty-prompt audit across four platforms plus the local pack. Full competitor citation map. Four Signals gap report. A 60-minute findings session.
Start the baselineStep 3
$2,500 / month
Visibility Build
Signals 1 through 3 implemented across your business. Monthly Answer Share report. Local pack work included. 90-day minimum.
Ask about BuildStep 4
$1,500–3,000 / month
Named Partner Retainer
Signal 4 and ongoing maintenance. Monthly Answer Share reporting, review program, content and earned authority, expansion by service line and city.
Ask about the retainerThe Answer Share Baseline fee is credited against your first month if you proceed to Visibility Build within 30 days.
Every month
What your report actually contains.
| 01 | Answer Share, current month, per platform, against baseline |
| 02 | The full prompt set, every result marked named or not named |
| 03 | Raw screenshots in the appendix, timestamped |
| 04 | Competitors named in the answers you didn't win |
| 05 | Google local pack and organic performance beneath the AI section |
| 06 | What was done this month, mapped to the four signals |
| 07 | What's planned next month |
This is the artifact clients forward to other business owners, so it’s designed, not exported from a dashboard. We report the number whether it moved up or down that month — a report that only shows good months isn’t measurement, it’s marketing.
We hold ourselves to the same standard: NextLab publishes its own Answer Share for its own category queries, including the months it’s losing.
Before you ask
What we won't promise you.
Anyone who promises the first four is telling you they control something they don’t.
- Guaranteed placement in any AI answer. Nobody controls these platforms.
- That AI referral traffic will be large. It's small, high-intent, and frequently logged as direct traffic in your analytics.
- That schema markup alone will get you cited.
- A fixed Answer Share figure by a fixed date. We'll give you a range based on your starting point and your market.
- More than an hour of your time per month after the first two weeks. That one we do promise.
Frequently asked
Questions about the process.
Why is the baseline paid when the Answer Check is free?
The free check is ten prompts and a summary — enough to see whether there's a real gap. The baseline is forty prompts, a full competitor map, and a findings session — real diagnostic work. Charging for it filters for prospects who've already decided the problem is worth solving, and the fee is credited against your first month if you continue.
How long until I see movement in Answer Share?
Foundation