Frequently Asked Questions

A small business website with Unghost starts at $500 one-off. This covers a custom React front-end and Node back-end, not a template. Growth builds for larger businesses can scale up to $4,000 depending on page count and integrations.

SEO at Unghost costs a $500 one-off setup fee, plus $200 per month. This covers both traditional technical SEO and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) to ensure your business appears in AI search results like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.

Yes, paying for SEO is worth it if it targets actual commercial intent and adapts to AI search. Unghost focuses entirely on high-intent conversion terms and ensuring you are cited when a buyer asks an AI for a recommendation.

You should pay a flat management fee, never a percentage of ad spend. Unghost charges a flat $500 per month to manage Google or Meta ads. Percentage-based fees create a structural conflict of interest where the agency is incentivised to inflate your budget.

Unghost charges a flat fee for ads because percentage models penalise success and encourage agencies to push budget increases even when efficiency drops. A flat fee aligns our incentives: we only earn our retainer by keeping you profitable.

No, Unghost operates on month-to-month retainers with no lock-in contracts. You can pause or cancel at any time if you are not seeing the promised technical outcomes and reporting transparency.

The $500 starter website is a lean, highly optimised landing page designed to convert immediately. The $2,500–$4,000 growth build scales up to 12 pages, adds a CMS for blogging, and integrates booking or inventory systems.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the process of structuring your website content so that AI models like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity understand and cite your business in their answers. Unlike traditional SEO which aims for a blue link, GEO aims to place Unghost clients directly into the AI's generated response.

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is structurally identical to GEO. The terms are used interchangeably in the industry to describe optimising content for AI retrieval rather than traditional search engine ranking.

SEO optimises for search engines to rank your pages in a list of links. GEO and AEO optimise for AI engines to extract your content and quote it directly in a generated answer. Unghost includes both in our retainer because they rely on the same technical foundation.

You get your business mentioned by ChatGPT by structuring your website with answer-first passages, using descriptive semantic HTML, and maintaining a high-authority entity footprint. ChatGPT relies heavily on technical SEO fundamentals combined with specific chunking structures.

You show up in Google AI Overviews by holding high-ranking traditional Google Search positions and providing clear, easily extractable answers to long-tail queries. Google's AI Overview heavily biases toward pages that already rank well in its standard index.

Your business isn't appearing in AI search results because your website likely relies on client-side rendering without a pre-rendered fallback, blocking AI crawlers from seeing your text. Unghost fixes this foundational error before applying GEO tactics.

Yes, AI search sends highly qualified traffic to small businesses. While the total volume of clicks is lower than traditional search, AI answers provide direct citations and links that users click when they have high purchase intent.

No, SEO is not dead, but its shape has changed. AI engines like Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews still rely on traditional search indexes to find the information they quote. Good SEO is the prerequisite for GEO.

Unghost builds and launches a custom starter website in roughly 5-7 days. Larger growth builds take between 2 and 4 weeks depending on the complexity of the CMS and booking integrations required.

Yes, you own your website and your ad account 100%. Unghost delivers all website code directly to a GitHub repository you control, and sets up ad accounts in your business name. We never hold your assets hostage.

If you want to leave, you keep the code. Because Unghost delivers custom React and Node builds via GitHub, you can hand the repository to any modern development team. You are never locked into a proprietary drag-and-drop builder.

Yes, while Unghost is a Sydney-based digital agency, we work with small businesses Australia-wide. Our remote processes and reporting are designed to serve clients regardless of their physical location.

To get started, Unghost needs a brief alignment call to understand your commercial goals, access to your existing domain registrar or Google Business Profile if applicable, and any brand assets you currently hold.

An AI chat widget intercepts visitor questions on your website, instantly retrieves the correct answer from your specific business documentation, and replies conversationally. It captures the user's name and email, and seamlessly hands the lead off to you if it cannot resolve the inquiry.

No, the chat widget will not make things up about your business. Unghost deploys Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) which strictly limits the AI to only using facts and pricing provided in your approved documentation.