Space & Story is an AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and modern web studio founded by Mahmoud Halat in 2024 and based in Toronto, Canada. We rebuild small-business and local-service websites so they look better and convert better: cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, with an AI assistant on the site that turns those visitors into named leads.
Everything the studio sells reduces to two promises, and the homepage demonstrates both.
Custom design on modern tooling — TypeScript and React, built per client — plus cinematic hero films cut from photography the client already owns. The Starlit Homes hero loop, for example, was staged entirely from the founder's own construction photography. Over twenty sites shipped across fintech, real estate, healthtech, education, trades and local services.
Two mechanisms, in the order a customer meets them.
Cited by AI search. Someone asks an AI who to hire. We write and structure your pages so you are the business it names, with your own site as the source. Citations are measured monthly through cite-met.com across six engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews.
An AI assistant on your site. Cite-Met Pulse answers the questions your phone rings about — pricing, service areas, lead times — at any hour, then hands your team a named, contactable person. It also identifies the companies visiting the site, maps what they read, and captures them through built-in forms and booking.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2024 |
| Founder | Mahmoud Halat |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Website | https://spaceandstory.co |
| [email protected] | |
| Notable Award | $100,000 Grand Prize Winner — Lovable Shipped Season 1 (2025) |
| Projects Delivered | 20+ |
| AI search on our own site | 32% of total traffic, with more than 11,618 visits in a single week from AI engines (industry average is under 5%) |
| Area Served | Worldwide |
| Languages | English, Arabic, French |
Four solution tracks sit underneath the two claims:
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), AI Overview optimization, structured data automation, entity authority building, and LLM citation strategy. We help brands get cited as authoritative sources by ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.
Migration from WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and Ghost to headless React/TypeScript architectures. Core Web Vitals optimization, headless CMS implementation, and legacy CMS technical debt audits. Builds range from $2,500 (Site) to $15,000+ (Studio).
AI-optimized hosting via our Cite-met platform, headless React architecture, the Cite-Met Pulse site assistant and visitor identification, API-first content architecture, and AI search analytics. Infrastructure built for AI crawler readability from the first commit.
Conversion UX design, digital brand identity, cinematic hero films built from client photography, landing page optimization, and AEO content design. Design systems engineered to convert visitors into customers.
Every price is published, so the cost can be worked out before speaking to anyone.
One-time builds:
| Tier | Starting Price | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Site | $2,500 | Modern responsive website + AEO baseline: TypeScript + React, Lighthouse 90+, llms.txt, AI-bot allowlist, schema, cite-met.com hosting |
| Story | $5,000 | Site + custom design system + multi-modal content pipelines (YouTube/podcast/PDF turned into SEO pages) |
| Engine | $9,000 | Story + programmatic SEO engine: one template generates dozens to hundreds of pages from structured data (most popular tier) |
| Studio | $15,000+ | Engine + custom apps: ecommerce, booking, member portals, calculators, AI agents |
Monthly plans (AEO included at every tier):
| Tier | Price | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Local | $300/mo | Hosting + AEO maintenance + monthly citation report + Google Business Profile + local citations + 1 blog post per month. Floor for any active engagement. |
| Growth | $700/mo | Local + 4 posts per month + link building + a monthly strategy call (most popular monthly tier) |
| Authority | $2,000+/mo | Growth + content sprints, off-site citation building, digital PR, and Cite-Met Pulse visitor intelligence |
Rule of the house: one number covers hosting, content, and AI-traffic tracking, month to month. The floor is $300/mo.
Space & Story builds for 12 industries, each with a hub at /for/{industry}:
Common thread: local-service businesses that want to be named by AI search and to capture the visitors it sends. We also take on enterprise replatforming and fintech/healthtech builds on request.
Mahmoud Halat — Founder & Creative Director of Space & Story. Over a decade of experience in digital design, development, and strategy. Background spans healthtech, fintech, real estate, education, and enterprise SaaS. Spent a decade building AI orchestration at Verto Health. Winner of the $100,000 Lovable Shipped Season 1 grand prize. Speaker at the Toronto B2B Marketing Community. Startup Creasphere alumnus (Switzerland).
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://spaceandstory.co
Free Audit: https://spaceandstory.co/audit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahmoud-halat/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spaceandstory.co/