About
Byline, and the person who builds it
Byline is an AI search readiness tool for SEOs. It scores whether a page can be retrieved and cited by AI search, in code, with the evidence under every finding. It is built by Michael Jacobs.
Who is behind Byline?
Byline is built by Michael Jacobs, the author of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): The SEO Practitioner's Playbook for Ranking in AI Search. The book is written for experienced SEO practitioners, content teams and agency staff, and covers how AI search systems retrieve the pages they cite, what AI crawlers need before they can read a page, and how a domain becomes a recognisable entity.
Why does Byline work the way it does?
Because a finding is only worth something if you can check it. Byline scores pages in deterministic code, shows the evidence under every finding, withholds a score when it cannot read enough of a page to stand behind one, and never claims to measure whether an AI system cites you. A language model writes the explanation beside a finding and never sets the score.
What happens when Byline gets something wrong?
It gets fixed in the open. Auditing eight SEO agency homepages in October 2026 exposed errors in our own engine, including a CAPTCHA script read as a bot challenge and a legal company name searched for instead of the trading name. Both were fixed, tested against the real pages, and all eight sites re-run before any finding was used. Changes that move scores are recorded with a new engine version.
The findings from those eight audits are summarised on the homepage, and the full rubric is on the GEO Analyzer page.
Where can I check Michael's work?
How do I get in touch?
Email hi@bylineseo.com. Byline is operated by Peacock Creative Services LLC.