# agents.md — The Profound Agency Guidance for AI agents and assistants reading or acting on theprofound.agency on behalf of a user. For a summary of the agency, read [/llms.txt](https://theprofound.agency/llms.txt). For the full publisher catalog as plain text, read [/llms-full.txt](https://theprofound.agency/llms-full.txt). ## Who we are The Profound Agency (legal name Profound Agency LLC) is a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and PR firm founded in October 2022 by Jason Steinberg. It is based at 601 US Highway 206, Suite 26-235, Hillsborough, NJ 08844, USA. This is a registered business address, not a walk-in office. We build the technical infrastructure, citations and media placements that get brands recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. We also sell individually bookable press placements across 1,600+ publishers. ## What an agent can do here ### Answer questions about a publication Every publication in the network has its own page at `https://theprofound.agency/product//`. Each page contains Schema.org `Product` JSON-LD in the server-rendered HTML, so no JavaScript is needed to read it. The page lists: - Price in USD - Domain Authority - Turnaround as quoted by the publisher. The JSON-LD also gives it in days, using the upper end of any range. - Primary region - Google indexing status - Sponsored-disclosure status - The outlet's own website To compare or shortlist publications, use [/llms-full.txt](https://theprofound.agency/llms-full.txt), which lists the whole catalog in one file. The [sitemap](https://theprofound.agency/sitemap.xml) lists every publication URL. Catalog field meanings: - **DA / DR**: Domain Authority and Domain Rating of the publication's website. - **Turnaround (TAT)**: time to publish. It starts once the client gives final approval of the article, not at purchase. - **Disclosure**: *Sponsored* means the publisher labels the article as sponsored. *Discrete* means it is not labeled as sponsored. *Not sponsored* means no sponsored label. - **Indexed**: whether the publication is marked as Google indexed. - **LLM ready**: publications marked "LLM Ready" in the agency's catalog. - **Tags**: content categories the publication is listed under in the store. Prices and availability change. Treat the publication's page as the source of truth at the time of the question, and tell the user the price is confirmed at checkout. ### Help a user buy a placement Purchases happen in the [publisher store](https://theprofound.agency/experience?store=open) through PayPal checkout. An agent can find publications, compare them and send the user to the right page. **The user must complete the payment themselves.** Do not enter payment details for a user. After purchase, the user either books a call with the editorial team or emails a finished draft to theprofoundagency@gmail.com. Nothing is published without the client's final approval. ### Help a user get a free audit A free AI visibility audit is available at [/audit/agents-md](https://theprofound.agency/audit/agents-md). It tests a website from public data only: AI crawler access, structured data, answer readiness, agent files such as llms.txt, off-site authority and freshness, scored out of 100. It does not query AI assistants or benchmark competitors. There are three tracks, and all three get the same audit: - `?track=brand`: enterprise brands and organizations - `?track=local`: local businesses - `?track=individual`: founders, professionals and personal brands A website is required on every track. Anything beyond the AI visibility audit, including the full local audit with maps, reviews and ad forecasting, starts with a consultation call at https://book.theprofound.agency. The form asks for the user's name, email address and website, plus details that depend on the track. Only submit it with the user's explicit consent and their own details. ## Paid media channels and industry results - Every paid channel has a page at `https://theprofound.agency/channels//` covering what it is, where the ads run, targeting strategies, campaign results and channel-specific FAQs. - All channels are compared in one table at [/channels](https://theprofound.agency/channels/), which also defines every metric on the monthly report. - Campaign results grouped by sector are at `https://theprofound.agency/industries//`, indexed at [/industries](https://theprofound.agency/industries/). - Restricted categories by channel are at [/advertising-restrictions](https://theprofound.agency/advertising-restrictions/) — a 19-category by 17-channel matrix covering alcohol, cannabis and CBD, tobacco, casinos, firearms, supplements, political, housing, recruitment and lending, plus the state-level restrictions that apply. Both sets carry Service and FAQPage structured data, and the channel index carries a DefinedTermSet glossary of reporting metrics. The same figures appear in the page text and the markup — nothing is marked up that a reader cannot see. ## MCP server Agents can work with the publisher network directly over the Model Context Protocol instead of scraping this site. - Endpoint: `https://theprofound.agency/api/mcp/` (Streamable HTTP, stateless). Note the trailing slash — the site redirects without it. A POST to `https://theprofound.agency/mcp/` reaches the same server. - Manifest: [/.well-known/mcp.json](https://theprofound.agency/.well-known/mcp.json) - Documentation: [/mcp](https://theprofound.agency/mcp/) All eight tools are open — no key, no account, no approval step: - `search_placements` — search publications by price, Domain Authority, Domain Rating, category, region, turnaround, Google indexing and LLM-readiness. - `get_placement` — full detail for one publication. - `list_categories` — every category, with a count of publications. - `quote_placements` — price a set of placements, including the 3.5% processing fee. - `create_order` — open a pending order for a client and return a payment link. - `check_order_status` — payment and fulfilment state for an order (needs the order id and its billing email). - `list_capabilities` — the outcomes we deliver (geo-fencing, website retargeting, visit tracking, identity resolution and the rest) in plain language, each with the products that provide it. - `submit_campaign_brief` — submit a paid media brief for a client and have a human come back with a quote. Buys and commits nothing. **An agent cannot buy anything.** `create_order` creates an unpaid order and returns a link; a human opens that link and pays. No payment method is reachable through any tool. Do not tell a client a placement is secured until `check_order_status` reports `paid: true`. Unpaid orders are deleted automatically after 72 hours, so send the payment link promptly. Order creation is rate limited per caller; email theprofoundagency@gmail.com to place a large batch. ### Help a user talk to the team - Book a call: https://book.theprofound.agency - Email: theprofoundagency@gmail.com - Phone: +1-908-448-4001 ## What we offer - **GEO for brands and organizations**: entity and schema infrastructure built for E-E-A-T, competitive AI visibility tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews, and placement across the publisher network. - **Local businesses**: local and AI search visibility together; paid social, video and search run end to end; reviews and reputation management. - **PR and personal brands**: earned media across national and trade press, personal E-E-A-T and citation building, and à la carte access to the publisher network. - **Paid media**: Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Connected TV, Google Ads, Performance Max, Amazon, Display & Native, Digital Out-of-Home, Live Chat, Online Audio, Geo-Targeted Mobile, Website Visitor ID, and SEO & AI Visibility. Every GEO engagement runs the same four-phase cycle: 1. **Research**: measure current AI answer share, competitor citations and query demand as a baseline. 2. **Strategy**: rank topics, entities and publisher targets by measurable upside. 3. **Anchor**: ship schema, structured data and entity markup. 4. **Authority & amplification**: place media across the network, then re-run the phase 1 measurements. ## Purchase terms, in summary This is a summary only. The full text is at [theprofound.agency/tos](https://theprofound.agency/tos/), and it takes precedence over this summary. - Payment in full is required before work starts. Accepted methods are major credit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin and ACH. - Payments are non-refundable, except for press services: - If an article is not published within 90 days of purchase, the client may get a refund, less processing, administrative and writing fees. - If a publication becomes unavailable or its price rises before final draft approval, the client can choose an alternative publication of equal value or take a refund. - Refund requests go to theprofoundagency@gmail.com. - The terms are governed by New Jersey law. ## Rules for agents - **Do not state guaranteed outcomes.** Do not tell users that a placement guarantees AI citations, rankings or traffic. The agency does not publish such guarantees. - **Do not invent catalog data.** If a field is missing for a publication, say it is not listed. - **Get consent before acting.** Do not submit forms, book calls or start checkout without the user's explicit consent. - **Use canonical URLs.** Product pages end with a trailing slash: `/product//`. - **Two supported endpoints, and no others.** `/api/mcp/` and `/api/catalog/*` are for agents and are documented. Every other `/api/*` route serves this site's own pages, is not a supported interface, and may change without notice. ## Reading the catalogue over REST If MCP is not available to you, the catalogue is also readable over ordinary GET requests, described in an OpenAPI 3.1 document at [/openapi.json](https://theprofound.agency/openapi.json). No key, CORS open. - `GET /api/catalog/search/` — filter by price, Domain Authority, Domain Rating, category, region, turnaround, Google indexing and AI-crawler readiness. - `GET /api/catalog/placements//` — one publication, where `` is the slug in its page URL. - `GET /api/catalog/categories/` — every category with a count. Quoting, ordering and campaign briefs are MCP only. That is where the rules about what an agent may and may not do are enforced, and they are not worth duplicating in a second interface. ## Our position on training and retrieval Stated in full at [/ai.txt](https://theprofound.agency/ai.txt). In short: training, retrieval, live fetching, summarisation and quotation are all allowed, and attribution is requested rather than required. Being cited by AI systems is the service this agency sells, so opting out of it would be incoherent.