Terms of use
Two matters live on this page: (1) using the answer-engine-optimization.org site, and (2) how paid review work is set up. The site is for information. Paid work runs under a separate written agreement, and where that agreement and these terms differ, the agreement decides.
1. Using the site
What I publish on answer-engine-optimization.org reflects, honestly and at the time of writing, how I do the review work. It is not legal, regulatory, or commercial advice. If you act on something here without an active engagement with me, the decision is yours and so is the risk.
Bulk scraping of the site is not permitted, and neither is reconstructing my review method from public material or republishing large parts of it without credit. Linking and quoting with attribution are, as a rule, welcome.
2. The case form
Sending the form is not an offer, a contract, or a promise on either side. It is just a clean way to give me context. I reply once the context lets me say something useful. Sending it does not earn a guaranteed answer, a guaranteed turnaround, or a guaranteed piece of work.
I may turn down a case if it sits outside what I do, if my current capacity cannot reach it, or for any other practical reason. A decline is not a judgement on your publication; far more often it is simply capacity and fit with this narrow review focus.
3. How engagements run
Paid work runs under a written contract that both sides sign before anything begins. That contract sets the scope, deliverables, timing, fees, payment terms, confidentiality, intellectual property, indemnities, and how disputes are settled. These site terms do not replace that contract.
Engagements follow the working rules set out elsewhere on the site: I start from the question a reader would ask rather than a keyword list, I treat the archive as evidence rather than a content warehouse, and no recommendation is finished until an editor or section owner can act on it without rebuilding the site. If an instruction cuts against those rules, the work is either reshaped or stopped. The rules are not traded away for convenience.
4. No promises about results
Visibility in answer engines and search systems depends on things no reviewer fully controls: how models behave, the policies of third-party platforms, the choices a publisher makes when applying changes, the market, and plain time. I cannot guarantee a ranking, a citation, a recommendation, or any particular behaviour from any AI system. Where there are concrete expectations about outcomes, they are written into the engagement contract, with the caveats spelled out and the scope defined.
5. Liability
For free use of the site, liability is limited as far as the law allows. For paid work, liability is set and capped inside the contract itself. Nothing here removes liability for deliberate wrongdoing, fraud, gross negligence, or anything else the law does not permit to be excluded.
6. Governing law and venue
For use of the site, the law and courts of South Africa apply, unless consumer-protection law gives a user a more favourable venue. For paid work, the governing law and venue are fixed in the contract, normally the operator's home jurisdiction unless both sides agree otherwise.
7. Changes to these terms
I revise these terms as the way I work changes. The "Updated" date at the top marks the live version. Changes that touch active engagements are told to clients directly; changes that affect only the site are simply reflected here.
Contact
Questions about these terms: hello@answer-engine-optimization.org.