Enterprise digital marketing know-how, now building the tools I always wished existed.
John Lawson spent two decades in enterprise digital marketing and now builds AI-first software for marketing teams and agencies — across search, paid, social, CRO and A/B testing. His first product, AEO APP, is a Claude connector that audits any page for answer-engine optimisation and returns paste-ready fixes with a shareable report.
Two decades in enterprise digital marketing taught me what good work and delivery at scale really take: building apps on big budgets and running the teams behind them, writing the SOPs and tracking the outcomes. I've followed AI closely for four years, and in early 2026 it came of age: it can follow an SOP, own an outcome, work at scale, and ship in days, not quarters. I build in the gap between what I know teams need and how fast it can now be made.
An on-page AEO audit tool built as a Claude connector. Point it at a page and a keyword, add competitors, and get a full report with paste-ready fixes and a shareable link.
Case study: took this very site from 82 to 100 on AEO APP, with an A+ security grade — now hosted privately on Cloudflare Pages.
Open AEO APP →Tell me what your dream app would do, and let's build it together.
AI-first software for digital marketing teams and agencies. The work spans SEO, answer-engine optimisation, PPC and paid search, paid social, conversion-rate optimisation, A/B testing, content and analytics. The first released product is AEO APP, with further tools in development.
AEO APP is an on-page answer-engine-optimisation audit tool delivered as a Claude connector. You give it a page URL, a target keyword and competitor URLs; it scores how likely AI answer engines are to cite the page and returns a full report with paste-ready fixes and a shareable link.
SEO optimises a page to rank in traditional search results and earn clicks. AEO optimises a page to be cited by AI answer engines such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. The signals overlap, but AEO leans more on clear direct answers, structured data and citable facts.
AEO APP is currently free to use as a Claude connector.
Yes, open to a full-time role building software for a digital marketing team or agency, and to individual app builds on a project basis. The quickest way to start is to describe the tool or outcome you need.
With an AI-first workflow, a working first version is typically ready in days rather than weeks or quarters. Timelines depend on scope, integrations and review cycles, but the build-and-iterate loop is materially faster than traditional development.
Two decades in enterprise digital marketing, building applications on large budgets, running the teams behind them, writing the SOPs and tracking outcomes. Over the last four years I have followed AI development closely, and now build the software directly.