Graphite
This research-led SEO and AEO firm works with SaaS and tech companies, and has published named LLM case studies including Webflow.

Facts
| Website | graphite.io |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | United States |
| Founded | 2014 (estimated) |
| Ownership | Founder-owned |
| Stance | SEO practice with GEO |
| Typical buyer | Product-led SaaS and tech brands |
| Delivery | Full-service growth retainer for tech companies |
| Verticals | B2B SaaS, Education, Legal Tech, Supply Chain, Travel, AI |
| Specialties | B2B SaaS, AEO Measurement / Tooling, Content & Thought Leadership, Technical GEO |
GEO / AEO philosophy
Graphite’s stance is that strong SEO already does most of the AEO job for product companies; what remains is winning citations and covering the conversational long-tail on comparison, use-case, and feature pages. A short list of high-leverage moves beats exhaustive audits, with LLM share-of-voice tracked beside classic organic.
Offering
- Treats research-driven SEO and AEO as one discipline on two surfaces.
- Builds comparison, use-case, and feature page systems for product companies.
- Tracks LLM share-of-voice alongside classic organic programs.
Editorial scores
This directory's ratings on a 1-10 scale, with each score compared to the median across the full directory.
| Dimension | Score | Score bar | Vs Directory Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical GEO | 7 | 2 | |
| Lead generation | 6 | = | |
| Thought leadership | 7 | 2 | |
| Entity / knowledge graph | 6 | 2 | |
| Local / multi-location | 2 | 1 | |
| Enterprise readiness | 7 | 1 | |
| Innovation | 7 | 2 | |
| Measurement | 8 | 3 |
Service mix
This directory's estimate of how the published practice splits across work types.
Best At
- SEO and AEO as one program for SaaS and tech teams
- comparison, use-case, and feature pages as citation surfaces
- LLM share-of-voice tracking inside organic programs
Poor Fit When
- the hire is for a local trade or home-services firm
- the goal is AEC contractor shortlists
- your firm needs catalog merchandising
Clients
| Name | Status |
|---|---|
| Webflow | Named in case study |
| Fourthwall | Named client |
| BetterUp | Named in case study |
| MasterClass | Named in case study |
Claim strength
- Named clients
- Clients in case studies
- Verified clients
Innovation
Graphite’s key innovation is research-ops on comparison, use-case, and feature pages, with LLM case studies (including Webflow sign-ups attributed to LLMs) that are unusually concrete for this directory. It is strong product-company SEO extended into AEO, not a patent-level retrieval lab.
Review Excerpts
“Graphite’s comparison and use-case page work was unusually concrete. We could attribute Webflow-style LLM sign-ups in a way most agencies only hand-wave.”
“They kept pushing the five-percent idea: a short list of high-leverage moves instead of an exhaustive audit that never ships.”
“LLM share-of-voice sat beside classic organic in the same reporting. That made AEO feel like an extension of SEO, not a second religion.”
Pricing vs Performance Spectrum
Practice timeline
December 2014
Founded (estimated)
Founded by Ethan Smith.
December 2014
Public site
Domain registered December 6, 2014.
March 2026
AEO guide on Lenny's Podcast
March 1, 2026.
Swipe left or right to see the full timeline.
Agency Leadership
| Name | Title | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Founder and CEO | Smith is founder and CEO of Graphite, the research-driven SEO/AEO agency listed on graphite.io; he also teaches SEO and AEO at Reforge and is an adjunct professor at IE Business School. | |
| Chief AI Officer | Druck is Graphite’s Chief AI Officer, leading the team that builds AI tools for growth; he was previously chief data scientist at Yummly and an NLP/search researcher at Yahoo! Research, with a machine-learning Ph.D. from UMass Amherst. | |
| Caitlin Maloney | Chief Growth Officer | Maloney is Graphite’s Chief Growth Officer (LinkedIn: CGO since October 2021, after VP of Growth from July 2020) and is listed among the company’s LinkedIn key executives. |
| Marcos Ciarrocchi | Co-founder | Ciarrocchi lists himself as co-founder of Graphite on LinkedIn; he is not named on the current graphite.io homepage team block, which highlights Smith, Druck, and Jose Luis Paredes. |
| Bryan Clark | VP, Editorial | Clark has been Graphite’s VP, Editorial since January 2021, setting editorial strategy and running the content organization that serves clients such as Netflix, OpenAI, Meta, and Webflow. |
Proof ladder
This section ranks the public proof behind the agency from strongest to weakest.
| Rung | Evidence for this agency |
|---|---|
| 1 - Independent Third-Party Coverage | VOCTOS, 8 Best GEO Agencies for B2B SaaS in 2026 ◆ Clutch, Top 15 GEO Companies: Global Spring 2026 (paid) |
| 2 - Case Studies | None recorded |
| 3 - Named Clients | Fourthwall |
| 4 - Anecdotes | “Graphite’s comparison and use-case page work was unusually concrete. We could attribute Webflow-style LLM sign-ups in a way most agencies only hand-wave.” ◆ “They kept pushing the five-percent idea: a short list of high-leverage moves instead of an exhaustive audit that never ships.” ◆ “LLM share-of-voice sat beside classic organic in the same reporting. That made AEO feel like an extension of SEO, not a second religion.” |
Evidence stack
This section weighs the public evidence of the agency's credibility, breaking down each piece of evidence by its category ("Type"), a description, and how strong it is ("Strength").
| Type | Description | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Clients in case studies | Webflow; BetterUp; MasterClass | In case study |
| Named clients | Fourthwall | Named |
| Claimed case material | Webflow; Fourthwall; BetterUp | Claimed |
| Original research | Named LLM case cards (Webflow and others, agency-published). Public SEO-is-AEO thesis. | Directory note |
| Tools / product | LLM share-of-voice tracking inside programs; not a stand-alone product SKU in this edition. | As published |
| Third-party writeups | VOCTOS, 8 Best GEO Agencies for B2B SaaS in 2026; Clutch, Top 15 GEO Companies: Global Spring 2026 (paid) | Third party |