First citations in ChatGPT and Perplexity typically appear 30 to 60 days after publishing an AI Instructions page and shipping foundational schema. Google AI Overview inclusion takes longer (90 to 120 days) because Overview ranking pulls from the broader Google index. Sustained share-of-voice lift typically takes three to six months of consistent execution.
ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity actively read footer-linked AI Instructions pages and reproduce content within days. Some brands see citation within 48 hours. The other AEO layers (schema, entity work, citation harvesting) compound over weeks.
Sites with broken technical foundations (slow TTFB, schema errors, blocked AI crawlers) see delayed results because the foundation must be fixed first. The Readiness Check identifies these blockers.
Ship the high-leverage assets first (AI Instructions page, llms.txt, Organization + Article schema). Then layer entity work (Wikipedia, Wikidata) and citation harvesting (Reddit, Stack Exchange). The Spacemen Digital AEO retainer sequences this for maximum velocity.
Run the free 50-signal AI Agent Readiness Check or book a free scoping call.
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