TL;DR

Traditional SEO is rapidly losing relevance as users shift from search engines to AI-powered interfaces like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. In 2024, over 58% of digital journeys now begin with generative models — not Google. These LLMs don’t show links; they generate answers.

As a result, AEO (AI Engine Optimization) is emerging as the new growth lever — optimizing how your brand is mentioned, framed, and ranked inside AI-generated responses. Companies like a16z and SparkToro call this shift “GEO” (Generative Engine Optimization), signaling an $80B opportunity.

If your brand isn’t showing up in AI conversations, it’s effectively invisible. Tools like Thirdeye now help brands monitor, measure, and optimize their presence across LLMs — making AI visibility the new frontier of digital strategy.

Introduction:

In a recent leadership meeting, a Fortune 500 CEO posed a pressing question: “Our website ranks #1 on Google, so why is traffic flattening?” The answer became clear when her team showed how customers were getting what they needed directly from AI-powered answers – without ever clicking a link. The rules of search are changing. Gartner’s latest report predicts that by 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop 25% as users shift to AI chatbots and virtual assistants.

In the past, dominating the “10 blue links” of Google was every business’s goal. Today, success means appearing in featured snippets, voice answers, and AI-generated summaries. Welcome to the era of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), where optimizing for search requires a broader, smarter approach.

https://easy-read-graphics.lovable.app/

A high-level “mind map” of how traditional SEO, AEO, and GEO relate. SEO remains the foundation of visibility, while AEO focuses on direct answers (featured snippets, voice results) and GEO focuses on AI-generated responses. All three overlap in emphasizing authoritative, well-structured content.

The New Search Landscape: AI Disruption Meets SEO Fundamentals

It’s no secret that generative AI is reshaping how people find information. Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, millions have experimented with getting answers from AI instead of typing keywords into a search bar. Google responded in 2023 by introducing its Search Generative Experience (SGE), weaving AI “snapshots” into results.

By early 2025, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai noted that over a billion users have already been served by Google’s new AI overviews in search. Pichai hinted that “search will continue to change profoundly…you’ll be surprised even early in [2025] the newer things search can do”. In other words, we’ve only seen the beginning of AI’s impact on search.

Does this mean the end of traditional SEO? Far from it. In fact, Google Search usage is still at an all-time high. Recent research shows Google handled more than 5 trillion searches in 2024 (about 14 billion per day), 373 times more than the daily queries on ChatGPT. Google’s search volume actually grew by over 20% in 2024 despite the rise of AI tools. And as of mid-2025, AI search (via chatbots and AI assistants) drives less than 1% of traffic to most websites.

In short, traditional search remains dominant – but user behavior is expanding. People still trust Google for most needs, yet increasingly expect direct answers when the context is right.

Crucially, Google’s own advancements confirm that classic SEO best practices are as relevant as ever. When Google published new guidelines for content in AI-overview search, the advice “echoes nearly all the same SEO best practices Google has shared for years”. High-quality content, solid site architecture, and authoritative backlinks continue to be foundational.

However, businesses can’t ignore the profound shifts in how search results are displayed and consumed. Featured snippets, Knowledge Panel answers, and AI summaries mean that users often get what they need without clicking through to your site. For publishers and brands, this is a double-edged sword: great if your content is the one featured, devastating if it’s your competitor’s answer stealing the limelight.

Two major challenges stand out for search marketers today:

1. The “Zero-Click” Phenomenon:

Google’s continued addition of SERP features (ads, maps, People Also Ask, and now AI answer overviews) pushes organic links further down. A new study found Google’s AI generated answers (SGE overviews) now appear in 47% of all searches, often occupying half the screen on mobile. Early data shows these AI answers can siphon off clicks – one analysis saw organic results suffer a 70% drop in click-through rate when an AI overview is present. In plain terms, even if you rank #1, fewer users may visit your site if an AI snippet satisfies their query.

2. The Rise of AI-Only Q&A:

Meanwhile, users are increasingly turning to AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, or Claude for certain tasks, bypassing search engines entirely. These AI tools give link-free answers, often with zero direct traffic back to websites. If a potential customer asks an AI assistant for product advice or local services, how do you ensure your brand is mentioned? This is the puzzle that Generative Engine Optimization aims to solve.

In response, leading organizations are evolving their search strategy into a “triple threat” approach. Traditional SEO remains vital for discovery on search engines. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) focuses on capturing those coveted direct-answer spots (featured snippets, voice answers, and AI-powered info boxes). GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) targets the new frontier – ensuring your content informs and appears in AI-driven responses on chatbots and next-gen search. Let’s break down each piece and how they fit together.

SEO – The Core Fundamentals (Still Going Strong)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the bedrock of online visibility. It’s the art and science of making your content rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant queries. The goal: attract organic traffic by being one of the top results a user can click on.

The traditional pillars of SEO include optimizing keywords, site content, meta tags, technical health, and backlinks to signal relevance and authority. For years, these tactics have helped businesses climb the rankings on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

Why is SEO still as important as ever in 2025?

Simply put, the vast majority of customer journeys still begin with a search. Google’s own data confirms it handles billions of searches every day, and that number is not shrinking. Even as AI chat usage grows, it’s often additive – many users who try AI for some questions still turn to Google for others.

And importantly, the content that fuels those fancy AI answers often comes from the web – which means SEO-driven content. As one analysis put it, “AI search draws from traditional search signals and may even leverage Google’s search results” to generate its answers. If your site doesn’t rank or isn’t indexed well by search engines, AI likely won’t see it either.

At the same time, SEO has evolved. Google’s algorithms are far smarter than a decade ago – thanks to AI systems like BERT and MUM for understanding language. This means search rewards high-quality, well-structured, trustworthy content more than ever (and can more easily ignore or penalize the rest).

It also means the definition of “search result” has expanded: it’s not just ten blue links anymore. Now a result might be a rich snippet answering the query directly, a map pack for local searches, or an AI-generated summary on the results page.

For example, a healthcare website that once relied on ranking #1 for “symptoms of diabetes” might now find that Google shows an AI synopsis of diabetes symptoms at the top – perhaps citing a site like WebMD. If your site isn’t the one cited, you’ve lost a potential visitor. This is why we need to go beyond classical SEO.

As SEO expert Wisam Abdulaziz noted, “To stay competitive, SEOs must evolve. GEO and AEO aren’t replacing SEO, they’re expanding on it”. The foundation (great content, technical excellence, authority links) remains non-negotiable – but now we must build on that foundation so that our content can serve both search engine rankings and answer engine visibility.

Before diving into AEO and GEO, it’s worth emphasizing: neglecting core SEO is not an option. Google still rolls out broad core updates that can crush your visibility if your site has poor content or shady tactics.

In fact, chasing AI visibility with low-quality content is a trap – sites that spam out AI-generated text may see short-term gains in AI answers but suffer massive losses in Google rankings when quality updates hit. And since Google’s own AI results are built on the search index, a hit to your SEO will echo across all channels. Bottom line: Keep your SEO fundamentals strong – they underpin everything else.

AEO – Answer Engine Optimization (Winning Featured Answers)

Imagine a busy executive grabs her phone and asks, “What’s the best way to improve cash flow this quarter?” Instead of showing a list of links, her voice assistant reads out a concise answer – pulled from a blog post on an accounting firm’s website. If that blog post is yours, congratulations: you’ve just scored a win in Answer Engine Optimization.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is all about positioning your content to be the answer provided directly by search engines and digital assistants. Rather than the user having to click your link and find the answer themselves, AEO focuses on delivering the answer up front – in a featured snippet, in the “People Also Ask” dropdowns, on a voice device like Alexa or Google Assistant, or in Google’s new AI overview box. One digital strategist succinctly described AEO as ensuring “your content gets surfaced in AI answer engines” and other direct-answer platforms.

Key characteristics of AEO include:

• Clear, Concise Answers:

AEO content is typically formatted to answer specific questions clearly and succinctly. This could be a paragraph definition, a step-by-step list, or a table – whatever format best satisfies the query. The old advice “write at a 5th-grade reading level” is truer than ever when aiming for featured snippets. The content should be easily scannable by algorithms looking for a quick answer. Think of those summary boxes at the top of Google (Position Zero). Studies show featured snippets and AI overviews now appear in nearly half of Google searches, so if you can “own” the snippet, you win a ton of visibility.

• Question-Focused Content:

AEO encourages us to research the actual questions users ask and build content around those. Instead of just targeting the keyword “bake a cake,” an AEO approach would target the full question “How long does it take to bake a cake?” and answer it directly. If your content precisely and directly answers a common query, Google might showcase it as a snippet or use it in an AI summary. Voice search magnified this trend – people speak in questions (“How do I fix a leaky faucet?”), and voice assistants prefer to read a single best answer. Optimizing for these means including FAQs, Q&A sections, and clearly labeled answers in your pages.

• Structured Data & Formatting:

To land in answer boxes, it helps immensely to use structured data markup (like FAQ schema, HowTo schema, etc.) and clean HTML structure. This essentially waves a flag to Google saying “here’s the question, and here’s the answer.” By adding FAQ schema markup to a Q&A section or using proper heading tags for questions, you make it easier for search engines (and AI algorithms) to identify the answer piece of your content. AEO also favors content formatted with lists, tables, and bullet points when appropriate, as these are easy for Google to excerpt. If you have a complex explanation, consider adding a simple summary box at the top of your article.

• Authoritative and Trustworthy Answers:

It’s not just about being quick – you must also be accurate and credible. Google will not feature an answer from an untrustworthy source (especially on sensitive topics like finance or health). Ensuring your content demonstrates E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is critical for AEO success. For example, a medical query is more likely to show an answer from a site with profiles of medical reviewers (trust), not a random blog. Featured answers often come from sites that have already proven their SEO strength (one study found 75% of websites cited in AI Overviews were among Google’s top 12 organic results for that query). This means your general SEO authority contributes to your AEO – another reason they complement each other.

How do you get started with AEO?

A practical step is to audit your content for questions. What common questions in your industry can you answer better than anyone?

Use tools like AnswerThePublic or Semrush’s Question feature to find popular questions. Then, create dedicated, well-structured sections or pages for those questions. Include an FAQ on relevant pages.

Monitor what triggers featured snippets in your domain – for instance, if you notice Google often shows a list for “how to do X”, make sure your “how-to” article has clear step-by-step list formatting. In essence, think like a customer asking a question – and ensure your site delivers the exact answer in the format the search engine likes.

For example, if someone searches “best time of day to exercise,” Google might want to show a quick answer. AEO-oriented content would have a heading like “What’s the Best Time of Day to Exercise?” followed by a concise answer paragraph. Supporting details can come after, but that first sentence or two could be what lands in the coveted snippet box.

One more aspect of AEO is voice search optimization. Voice assistants (Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa) usually pull answers from featured snippets or knowledge graph data. Content that’s optimized for snippets by definition is optimized for voice.

Additionally, consider the conversational tone of voice queries – they often include filler words (“Hey Google, what’s the best running shoe for flat feet?”). Content that directly addresses these natural-language queries (perhaps even including likely Q&A phrasing) can increase your chances of being the spoken answer.

The imperative for AEO is clear in the industry. As Edward Cowell, Global VP of Organic Search at GroupM, bluntly put it: “Everyone sitting on their hands and doing nothing is not an option” when it comes to adapting to AI-driven search changes.

In other words, if you simply keep churning out generic SEO content without considering how it will surface as an answer, you risk losing ground to competitors who are tailoring their content for these new answer engines.

GEO – Generative Engine Optimization (Influencing AI Answers)

Now imagine another scenario: A customer doesn’t go to Google at all, but instead asks ChatGPT or Bing Chat, “What are the top 5 project management software tools?” The AI scours its training data (and possibly current web data) and produces a neatly synthesized answer: “The best project management tools include Asana, Trello, Monday.com…” and so on, perhaps with brief descriptions.

How do you make sure your product or content is included or cited in that AI-generated answer? That challenge is at the heart of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

Generative Engine Optimization is a new discipline, so new that even experts haven’t settled on a single name – some call it GEO, others AIO (AI Optimization), or even talk about “LLM optimization”. Whatever the label, GEO focuses on maximizing your visibility and accuracy within the outputs of AI generative systems – whether that’s a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT, a multimodal AI like Google’s Gemini, or any AI-infused search experience that crafts answers on the fly.

As Digiday explained, all these terms “describe the same trend… ensuring AI crawlers can easily understand enough information about your brand to surface it in synthesized answers”.

Key elements of GEO include:

• Ensuring AI Can Access Your Content:

Unlike a traditional search crawler, which indexes pages and follows links, AI systems might ingest content in different ways. Some rely on web crawlers (e.g., Bing’s GPT-4 browsing or Google SGE pulling from live search index), others on pre-trained data. A practical GEO step is to not block AI bots and consider ways to feed them your data.

For instance, there’s talk of new standards like LLM-friendly site maps (“LLMs.txt”) to let you submit your content for AI ingestion. Forward-looking companies are exploring publishing APIs or data feeds that generative AI applications can consume. The easier you make it for AI to find and digest your content, the better.

• Comprehensive, Context-Rich Content:

Generative AI favors content that is comprehensive and contextually rich. Unlike a snippet that just needs one fact, an AI model might be more likely to “know” or cite your content if it covers a topic in depth and covers multiple angles or subtopics. In practice, this means creating high-quality long-form content that answers not just one question, but the follow-up questions a user might ask.

Influencing what an AI engine “thinks and says” requires being the source that has the full story. One GEO strategy is to produce authoritative guides, research reports, and in-depth FAQs that an AI would consider a trusted source. As one writer put it, GEO is “less about links and more about being recognized as an authoritative source worthy of citation”.

• Strong E-E-A-T Signals:

Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust – these signals are arguably even more crucial for GEO than for SEO. Why? Because modern AI, when connected to search or web data, is trained to prefer reliable, authoritative information to avoid giving bad answers. If your brand is a well-known authority in an area, mentions of it in the AI’s training data (e.g. news articles, Wikipedia, high-authority sites) create an association of trust.

Moreover, if an AI tool like Bing is retrieving live info, it will cite sources that it deems trustworthy and authoritative. To maximize your chances, bolster your brand’s authority across the web: get mentioned in reputable publications, earn quality backlinks, and demonstrate expertise in your content. GEO is tightly linked to online reputation management.

Google’s own generative search will even cite “about this result” info – showcasing credentials or reputation of sources. So invest in those E-E-A-T factors: author bylines with credentials, positive reviews, case studies showing experience, up-to-date trustworthy info. It’s your brand’s digital footprint that influences AI.

• Conversational and Natural Content:

While SEO once had us obsessing over exact keywords, GEO encourages a more conversational writing style that aligns with how people naturally ask questions. AI models generate answers in human-like language – to be included, your content should be easily quotable or paraphrasable in that style.

This doesn’t mean dumbing things down; it means writing clearly and in a reader-friendly tone. Content that reads like it was written by an expert human (and not stuffed with SEO jargon) tends to be valued by AI.

Some have started calling this “writing for the AI reader” – ensuring the AI can interpret the nuance of your text. For example, if you have a page about mortgage rates and it’s written in a convoluted way, an AI might misunderstand or ignore it. Write as if you’re explaining to a smart, curious colleague – that tends to be both user-friendly and AI-friendly.

• Structured Data and Markup (for AI understanding):

Just as with AEO, structured data markup plays a role in GEO, although how exactly LLMs use it is still being explored. Many experts believe that providing schema.org structured data (for things like products, authors, FAQs, HowTo, etc.) will help AI engines interpret your content accurately. It’s not proven how directly ChatGPT or others use schema, but Google’s own AI search draws from its index which heavily uses schema for rich results.

One structured data expert noted, “It’s not clear if or how AI tools use structured data… but as they slurp up our HTML, they try to ‘make sense’ of it. If that markup contains conveniently structured, easily tokenizable descriptions of the important attributes… that feels like a good investment”.

In essence, structured data is like packaging your content neatly – maybe current AIs only peek at it, but future ones likely will appreciate it, and in the meantime it certainly can’t hurt your SEO. As Specbee’s GEO guide put it, “It’s like providing Google and AI assistants a roadmap for your content”.

• Real-Time Accuracy and Freshness:

Generative AI systems have a well-known weakness – outdated information. If their training data is from last year, they might not know this year’s facts unless they retrieve fresh content. For GEO, it’s important that your content is kept up-to-date and factual, so that if an AI does pull it, it isn’t giving wrong info (which could cause the AI to avoid your content in the future).

Moreover, as AI like Google’s SGE start to update answers with current data, having fresh statistics, recent case studies, and regularly updated pages can make your content more attractive for inclusion. This is especially true for any content where numbers or specifics change over time (think: “2025 tax laws” – your 2023 article won’t be cited by a 2025-aware AI if it’s outdated).

To succeed in GEO, businesses are starting to monitor AI outputs just like they monitor search rankings. This is new: It means asking, “When someone asks ChatGPT or Bard about my product or my industry, what does it say? Is it mentioning my brand? Is the information accurate?” There are already AEO/GEO analytics tools emerging to track brand mentions and citations across AI platforms.

For instance, if an AI consistently cites your competitor as “the leading provider” in your space and not you, that’s a signal to boost your content and authority on that subject.

In summary, GEO is about feeding the AI ecosystem with the right signals so that your brand is confidently referenced by machines. It’s a bit like PR for AI – building a presence such that algorithms “know” you’re an authority. As one marketing veteran quipped, rather than “PageRank” we now have to worry about “LanguageRank” – how favorably an AI’s language model ranks your content in its vast neural network.

GEO is nascent, but it’s poised to be a critical part of digital strategy as AI assistants become mainstream gateways to information.

SEO vs AEO vs GEO: How They Compare and Complement

Let’s pause and clearly differentiate these three optimization strategies. They share the same goal – connecting people with your information – but each tackles a different layer of the search experience. The following table highlights the key differences and overlaps:

Table: Comparing SEO, AEO, and GEO – their objectives, tactics, and success measures.

As the table suggests, SEO, AEO, and GEO are deeply interconnected. You can’t do GEO without good SEO content as a base, and you can’t achieve AEO at scale without solid SEO authority to begin with (Google tends to feature content from pages it already considers high-quality). In practice, when you invest in creating a thorough, authoritative piece of content, you’re feeding all three channels:

• If it’s well-optimized and link-worthy, it will rank (SEO).

• If it’s structured to answer questions, it can grab snippets (AEO).

• If it’s truly comprehensive and trusted, AI might absorb and cite it (GEO).

Rather than view them as separate silos, many experts advocate a unified approach. Rand Fishkin, a noted search authority, even argues we should stop coining new acronyms and simply think of it all as “Search Everywhere Optimization” – meaning we want to influence audiences wherever and however they search for information. From Google to TikTok to ChatGPT, the core challenge is ensuring your brand’s knowledge is present and prominent.

In that spirit, your strategy should start with the user and the query – not the channel. Ask: “Where might my customer search for this answer? And how will the answer be delivered?” If you cover those bases, the acronyms take care of themselves.

Adapting Your Strategy: Practical Steps for the AI Era

How can organizations, especially those led by busy executives and thought leaders, adapt to this new multi-faceted search environment? Here’s a roadmap to ensure you’re not left behind:

1. Audit and Categorize Your Keywords and Queries:

Take a fresh look at the ways people search for your offerings or expertise. Break down queries into buckets:

• Traditional SEO Queries:

These are searches where users expect to click a result. Transactional or navigational queries (e.g., “Hire a CFO consultant in NYC” or “ACME Corp pricing page”) often still behave traditionally. Also, many local searches (“dentist near me”) and service queries remain “AI-immune” – Google knows people want to see options/listings, not a single AI answer. Identify which of your keywords fall here; you’ll continue optimizing these for regular search (content and traditional SEO tactics).

• AEO Opportunities:

These are typically informational queries or FAQs in your niche (the “how to, what is, why does” type) where a quick answer can be given. Mark which of your current content could target these, and find gaps where you could create new Q&A style content.

For each, think: “Can I provide the best, clearest answer for this?” If yes, plan to do so and structure it accordingly. Also consider voice search queries – e.g., longer, conversational questions. Tools like AnswerThePublic or looking at your site’s search console “Queries” can reveal question phrases users are searching.

• GEO Targets:

Consider scenarios where someone might use an AI assistant or chatbot instead of search. These might be broader research questions or multi-part tasks. For example, “Help me plan a 7-day trip to New Zealand” or “What’s the best project management tool for a small marketing team?” are the kinds of complex queries a user might pose to ChatGPT or Bing AI.

Identify topics where your expertise or product should be part of that conversation. Ensure you have deep content on those topics that an AI could draw from. Also, think about the questions behind the questions – AI often answers a big question by piecing together answers to smaller ones. Does your content cover those subtopics too? If not, fill the gaps.

By classifying keywords like this, one agency head suggests you can “double down where it counts” and not waste effort: “When resources are limited, focus on traditional SEO keywords – SEO, AEO, and GEO share many optimization actions, so there is efficiency in overlap.”. In other words, cover your base (SEO) but tweak the approach for AEO/GEO on the relevant subset of queries.

2. Optimize Content for Humans and Machines (Structure is Everything):

Revise your content creation checklist to incorporate AEO/GEO needs:

• Use logical headings and sub-headings for clear hierarchy. Every page should pass the “outline test” – an AI (or a hurried reader) should be able to glance at your H2s/H3s and grasp the flow.

  
  

• Incorporate a mini table of contents or summary for long articles. This not only aids user navigation (and can generate jump links in Google) but also gives AI a quick sense of what’s covered.

  
  

• Add an FAQ section at the bottom of key pages addressing related questions. For example, a product page might answer “How do you install this product?” or “What’s the warranty policy?” in a concise FAQ – those are prime answers for snippets or voice.

  
  

• Use semantic HTML (lists <ul>/<ol>, tables <table>, definition lists <dl>, etc.) when presenting information. This makes your content more machine-friendly. For instance, if you have a process to describe, use a numbered list; if you have data to compare, use a table. One SEO study shows that properly using such structures can boost snippet frequency and user engagement .

  
  

• Schema markup: Implement relevant structured data. At minimum, use FAQPage schema for FAQ sections, HowTo schema for instructional content, Article schema for blog posts (with author, date, etc.), and Product/Organization schema where applicable. This not only can enhance search results but also feeds the underlying knowledge graph that AI might tap into.

  
  

• Content depth and breadth: Aim for comprehensiveness in your content, but avoid fluff. Being the definitive source on a topic in terms of coverage is a competitive advantage. That said, structure the content so the answer comes first (journalists call this the inverted pyramid style). Supporting detail can follow. This way you satisfy both AEO (quick answer) and GEO (full context).

  
  

• Ensure your content is up to date. This is worth repeating – especially for anything factual or time-sensitive, review and refresh regularly. An outdated page can’t win the snippet against a fresher competitor, and AI certainly won’t trust it if it has contradictory or old info.

3. Strengthen Authority, Experience, Trust (E-E-A-T):

In the age of AI, who the information comes from is as important as what the information is. Double down on demonstrating real expertise:

• Authority via Backlinks and Mentions:

Earning backlinks from respected sites remains a top signal for Google and by extension for content that AI will view as reputable. Continue pursuing PR, thought leadership articles, or research that others will cite.

Also, increase your brand’s presence on external authoritative sources: e.g., contribute to industry reports, get listed in relevant associations or databases, etc. AI often uses content from sources like Wikipedia, official databases, or high-authority news sites – if you can’t be in them, be referenced by them.

• Showcase Experience:

If you are a subject matter expert, make sure your site highlights that first-hand experience. This could mean publishing case studies, original research data, or detailed how-I-did-it blogs. As Wisam Abdulaziz points out, “AI may rephrase content, but it can't replicate first-hand expertise.” Thus, include elements in your content that only someone with real experience could – anecdotes, results of your experiments, etc.

This not only engages readers but also signals to algorithms that your content has depth beyond what’s already on the web.

• Trust and Transparency:

Add or update author bios on content pieces, especially YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) topics. Make it clear why the author is qualified. Keep your About page, contact info, and site policies easily accessible – transparent sites tend to be favored by Google’s quality raters and algorithms.

Manage your online reviews and reputation actively, because AI models ingest that information. For instance, if all reviews peg your product as poor quality, an AI might summarize “Brand X has generally negative reviews regarding quality.”

That’s not an outcome you want. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on major platforms. According to one SEO expert, “Online reviews – volume, sentiment, recency – are often used by both traditional search engines and AI tools to assess legitimacy” (searchenginepeople.com).

• Consistency across the web:

Ensure your business information (Name, Address, Phone, hours, descriptions) is consistent on your website, Google Business Profile, and directories. Even voice assistants and AI pull from these sources for queries like “Is this store open now?”.

Also, consistent branding (same tagline, messaging) across your site, social media, and press helps reinforce your identity to AI. If an AI scrapes info about your company, you want it to get a clear, unified picture.

4. Monitor and Adapt:

Start treating AI engines as additional “search engines” to monitor. This is new territory, but some steps you can take:

• Regularly do test queries on AI platforms (ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google’s SGE, Siri, Alexa) that relate to your business. See what answers come up. Document whether your content is mentioned or if there are glaring gaps/inaccuracies.

  
  

• If you find incorrect information (say, an AI says your product costs $X when it’s really $Y), that’s an insight to correct or emphasize that information on your official channels. While you can’t directly correct an AI like you would a Wikipedia entry (at least not yet), you can publish clarifications or ensure the correct info is more prominently available online, which future AI training or retrieval might catch.

  
  

• Keep an eye on your web analytics for traffic from new sources. For example, if you suddenly see referrals from Bing (which might be from Bing’s integrated chat) or from an AI app, investigate what content is driving it.

  
  

• Look into emerging AEO/GEO tools. There are startups and SEO tool providers building features to track brand mentions in AI answers. Some names mentioned in industry circles include tools like Profound, Peec AI, Otterly, WAIKAY, and ZipTie that focus on AI-era SEO. Established platforms like Semrush and Ahrefs are also adding features to analyze AI visibility. While it’s early days, being an early adopter of these tools could give you an edge in understanding the landscape.

5. Educate and Align Your Team:

Finally, ensure that your marketing/content/SEO team isn’t working in old silos. Educate writers and content strategists about AEO – for instance, how phrasing a headline as a question and immediately answering it can win a snippet. Train your SEO specialists on how to use AI (even ChatGPT itself) for research – e.g., using it to generate a list of common questions on a topic (with caution to verify accuracy).

Brainstorm cross-functionally: your PR team might have ideas for earning the kinds of mentions that will feed GEO, your customer support team might know top questions to create AEO content for, etc.

One powerful exercise is to put yourself in the user’s shoes across platforms: What would they ask Google vs. Alexa vs. ChatGPT? Do we have a presence in each of those answers?

This can highlight where to focus efforts. For example, a hotel chain might realize: On Google, they need to rank in local SEO; on voice assistants, they need to be integrated with voice booking services; on AI chat, they need content that establishes them as a top recommendation for travel itineraries. Each requires a slightly different optimization, but all should be part of the strategy.

Thought Leader Perspectives: Embrace Evolution, Don’t Panic

It’s worth noting that while the terminology may be new, the underlying principle isn’t: meet your audience where they are, with the information they need, delivered in the format they prefer. Search experts who’ve watched trends come and go urge a balanced approach.

Google’s Danny Sullivan (now Public Liaison for Search) often reminds people that every few years someone declares “SEO is dead” and yet SEO adapts and survives. The rise of AI is perhaps the biggest shift yet, but as we saw with mobile search, voice search, etc., those who adapt early reap benefits.

Google’s own CEO, Sundar Pichai, remains optimistic. “In a world inundated with content… search becomes more valuable,” Pichai said, because people will need help finding trustworthy information amidst the noise. In his view, AI innovations will ultimately enhance search, not destroy it – as long as quality content exists to be found.

Industry veteran Rand Fishkin encourages marketers not to get caught up in chasing every shiny new acronym but to expand the horizons of SEO strategically. He notes that good SEO professionals already have the skill set to tackle these new challenges – it’s about applying those skills to new platforms and formats.

His advice: keep the core “SEO” mindset of optimizing for discovery, but think “Search Everywhere” – whether it’s Google, YouTube, Reddit, or ChatGPT, the fundamental task is making sure your brand’s content can be discovered and trusted there. That might mean learning some new tools or metrics, but it doesn’t require reinventing your entire philosophy.

There’s also a reminder not to put the cart before the horse. As analyst Glenn Gabe found, traffic from AI search is minuscule right now (sub-1%). It would be foolish to neglect your core SEO and content strategy (which drives the other 99%) in a blind rush to optimize for AI bots. Traditional search isn’t going away overnight.

The smarter play is a gradual integration: start optimizing for AEO/GEO now so you build an early advantage, but do so as an extension of your SEO, not at the expense of it. Gabe even cautioned that sites which sacrifice quality in favor of chasing AI hacks could suffer badly with Google’s updates. So, quality first, then new tactics second.

Finally, consider that user experience is still king. All these algorithms – whether Google’s ranking or GPT-4’s answer construction – ultimately aim to satisfy the end-user. If you keep your focus on delivering exceptional value to users (fast websites, clear and accurate information, useful insights, genuine solutions), you will be aligned with the direction search is heading.

AI just raises the bar: it will reward those who truly know their stuff and can convey it well. It will also make it harder to cheat – you can’t easily game an AI that reads all your content and many others. In a sense, success in AEO and GEO demands an even more user-centric, quality-centric approach than SEO did, which is a good thing.

Conclusion: Navigating the Future of Search

The world of search is experiencing its most dramatic shift since the advent of Google itself. We are transitioning from an era of “search engines” to an era of “answer engines” and AI assistants, where the line between querying a database and having a conversation is blurring.

For business leaders and marketers, this can feel like a whirlwind of new concepts – SEO, AEO, GEO, and whatever acronym comes next. But at its heart, this shift is an opportunity to get closer to your audience than ever before. If someone can receive an instant answer from an AI, think about how delighted they’ll be if your insight is part of that answer.

Success will come from a proactive, not reactive stance. As one SEO VP put it, “sitting on your hands is not an option” in the face of these changes. Start laying the groundwork now: fortify your SEO foundation, transform your content into answer-friendly formats, and ensure your brand’s voice resonates in the halls of AI models. Many of your competitors will move slowly or get distracted – that’s your opening to sprint ahead.

It’s also crucial to maintain perspective. While generative AI is a game-changer, it hasn’t rewritten the entire rulebook yet. SEO isn’t dead; it’s evolving. Think of AEO and GEO as new chapters in the SEO playbook – ones that allow you to reach users in more places and more ways.

Use the data and tools at your disposal (some of which we cited here) to inform your strategy, but also trust in principles that have always worked: know your audience, speak their language, provide genuine value, and build trust.

As we approach this new horizon, we might recall the early days of SEO when marketers learned to dance with Google’s algorithms. Now, we must learn to converse with AI. Those who treat the AI not as an adversary but as another user – a super-user that reads everything – will thrive. Optimize for that super-user by being the best source in your domain.

In the end, the organizations that master the trifecta of SEO + AEO + GEO will enjoy unmatched visibility. They’ll be the ones leaders turn to for insight, whether it’s via a Google result, a featured snippet, or an AI assistant’s advice.

By investing in this “triple threat” optimization strategy, you ensure your message is heard loud and clear, everywhere and every way people are seeking it. And that is the ultimate goal: to connect with your audience, no matter how the medium transforms.

Remember:

The search landscape may be driven by algorithms and AI, but it’s always centered on people’s quest for knowledge. If you become the trusted guide in that quest – across search engines, answer engines, and generative engines – you will not only future-proof your SEO strategy, you will also cement your brand’s reputation as an authority for years to come. In a world of change, that is one constant worth optimizing for.