Aaron BarefootAaron Barefoot
SEO & AEO Consultant

SEO, AEO & AI visibility for fintech, crypto & Web3.

I build search and AI-visibility strategy for fintech, crypto, and Web3 companies, on Google and increasingly inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. The result: inbound leads and compounding organic traffic, with no ad spend required.

See how I workBackground & experience
Remote, worldwideLinkedInaaron@coldchain.agency
Aaron Barefoot, SEO and AEO consultant
Who I work with
Financial Data & FintechCrypto ExchangesBlockchain ProtocolsDeFi & StablecoinsWeb3 Infrastructure
10+
Years across fintech, financial data & Web3
Founder
Of ColdChain, a Web3 growth & marketing agency
Polkadot, LSEG
Among the protocols & platforms I've worked with
Cointelegraph
Ongoing contributor on crypto SEO & marketing
The result

What strong SEO & AEO produces

01

Inbound Leads

Buyers find you already searching for what you offer, instead of you chasing cold outreach or interrupting their feed.

02

Organic Traffic

Visibility across Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity that keeps growing month over month instead of resetting to zero.

03

No Ad Spend

Built for categories where paid media is restricted or unreliable. Everything here is earned, not rented by the click.

04

High ROI

A one-time investment in structure, content, and authority that keeps paying out, rather than a budget that has to run forever to keep working.

05

Brand Visibility

Consistent, citable positioning across search engines, AI answer engines, press, and podcasts, so you show up everywhere your buyers are looking.

06

Future-Proofed for AI

Built for how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews actually retrieve and cite information today, not just how Google ranked a decade ago.

About

Ten years in fintech and Web3 search.

I'm an independent SEO and AEO consultant working with fintech, crypto, and Web3 companies. Over the past decade I've built organic search and content programs inside financial data, banking, and blockchain, including work with Polkadot and the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

My focus is the specific mechanics of ranking and getting cited in a space that traditional SEO playbooks weren't built for: regulatory constraints on paid media, volatile SERPs, decentralized search, and now, being surfaced correctly by AI answer engines. I write and speak on this regularly, including as a contributor to Cointelegraph and as a guest on the Web3 CMO Stories podcast.

I'm also the founder of ColdChain, a Web3 growth and marketing agency. This site is about my personal consulting and advisory work.

Featured in & published on
CointelegraphAthens SEOWeb3 CMO Stories PodcastSpotify PodcastColdChain Insights
Latest writing

Most ChatGPT Topics Have No Owner: What That Means for Fintech & Crypto

A 50,000-brand study found 85% of ChatGPT topics have no clear owner, and domain authority predicts the winner only about half the time. Read the piece →

Fintech SEO vs Crypto SEO: What Actually Changes

They look like the same job from the outside. In practice they run on almost opposite rules, one is a trust problem, the other is a distribution problem. Read the piece →

Areas of focus

Where I spend my time

01

Crypto & Web3 SEO

Technical SEO, content strategy, and organic acquisition for protocols, exchanges, and DeFi platforms.

02

Fintech SEO

Organic strategy for financial data providers, payments, and trading platforms operating in regulated markets.

03

AEO, GEO & LLMO

Optimizing for AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity: being the answer, not just the ranking.

Fintech AEO consulting →
Why work with me

What's different about this

01

Fluent in both TradFi and Web3

Most consultants specialize in one or the other. I move between regulated financial platforms and decentralized protocols, and understand where the playbooks overlap and where they diverge.

02

Built for categories where paid media is restricted

Crypto and fintech both face heavy constraints on paid advertising. I build organic and AI-visibility strategy as the primary channel, not a backup to ads.

03

Early to AEO, not catching up to it

I've been writing and speaking about AI answer engines and generative search since the shift started, not repositioning old SEO decks with new acronyms.

04

Agency-tested, personally delivered

As founder of ColdChain, I've run these strategies at agency scale. Working with me directly means senior-level judgment without a layer of account management.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions

Q1

What is Web3 SEO?

Web3 SEO is the practice of making blockchain protocols, crypto exchanges, and decentralized applications discoverable through organic search and AI answer engines. It differs from traditional SEO because paid advertising is heavily restricted in crypto, so organic visibility carries more weight, and audiences are often found through community channels like Discord and Telegram as well as search.
Q2

What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)?

AEO is the practice of structuring content so AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can extract it and cite your brand directly in their answers. It relies on clear, consistent entity definitions, direct-answer content, and structured data, rather than traditional ranking signals alone.
Q3

How is fintech SEO different from crypto SEO?

Fintech SEO operates in a heavily regulated environment where accuracy, compliance, and E-E-A-T signals matter most. Crypto SEO deals with a faster-moving, less regulated category where paid advertising restrictions make organic and community channels the primary way to be found. Aaron Barefoot has worked in both, including with the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Polkadot.
Q4

Do you work with fintech companies as well as crypto and Web3 companies?

Yes. Aaron Barefoot consults on SEO and AEO strategy for financial data providers, payments platforms, crypto exchanges, DeFi protocols, and blockchain infrastructure companies.
Q5

How can I work with Aaron Barefoot?

Get in touch through LinkedIn or email to discuss a project audit, ongoing consulting, or fractional advisory engagement. See the Services page for details.
Q6

Do I need to run paid ads to see results?

No. Organic and AI search are treated as the primary channel, not a backup to paid media. This matters most in crypto, where paid advertising is often restricted or unreliable, but it applies to fintech too: the goal is inbound visibility that compounds and keeps producing leads without ongoing ad spend.
SectionGet in touch

Let's talk SEO, AEO, and the growth it drives.

The best way to reach me is LinkedIn or email, happy to discuss how this applies to your search visibility, traffic, and leads.

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