Search rankings down? It might be time for Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
The rise of AEO and how to effectively optimise your content for answer engines and LLMs.
Key Takeaways:
Traditional search rankings are down as more and more users turn to AI-powered answer engines and LLMs for web queries
Understanding answer engines is key to creating an effective AEO strategy and content creation workflow
Answer engine usage is projected to continue to grow
New metrics are needed to effectively measure your AEO efforts
Introduction
If you haven’t heard about AEO yet, that’s OK – but take note: AEO is quickly becoming a key term in digital strategy circles.
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. Sound familiar? That’s because this is similar to SEO – search engine optimisation – a methodology which has been a tried and tested approach for ensuring that your business appears in search results accordingly.
Or it was – several of our clients have already raised the fact that they are not getting SEO cut-through in the way that they did previously, and they are getting concerned. The answer – excuse the pun – is clear: more and more web users are moving their web searches to answer engines and language models. This includes ChatGPT, Gemini and LLMs with access to the web, as well as AI-created summaries which appear in search results, such as Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE).
It is becoming increasingly critical to consider AEO in your content workflows and strategies. Yes, it is early days – but this area is set for substantial growth and it will pay to build the foundation now.
About AEO
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is an emerging field aligning website content with modern search behaviour. Its goal is to ensure that accurate, valuable and relevant business information is surfaced in responses to questions and prompts when using AI-powered web tools.
AEO sits apart from SEO, which optimises content specifically for search engines. Understanding answer engines is key to creating an effective AEO strategy and content creation workflow. Answer engines are designed to understand user intent, the context surrounding a query and the semantic meaning of the words used. They can discern nuances in language, differentiate between queries that use similar words but have different meanings and grasp the underlying information need – even when not explicitly stated.
Answer engine usage is projected to continue to grow as a key source for information, supplanting traditional search behaviour and becoming increasingly influential. That means not just optimising your own website, but also ensuring your content appears in the sources answer engines pull from – such as industry directories, review platforms and thought leadership content.
AEO Strategy Creation
We recommend a phased approach to AEO strategy creation, monitoring and ongoing continuous improvement (CI) efforts. This allows for methodical development, testing and refinement of approach, ensuring that your activity is aligned with the organisation’s AI strategy as well as broader business goals.
Here's an example: if you’re not consistently appearing in LLM results, systematic testing of simple tweaks to on-page content – such as following a question-based structure, ensuring you have a robust FAQ and creating clear content hierarchies – can be very effective. Gaining control of your content on third-party sites such as Wikipedia is also important – LLMs often lift content straight from these sources.
Here is our recommended framework at a high level:
Phase 1 —Discovery, research and analysis
Phase 2 —Strategic content optimisation
Phase 3 — Technical AEO foundations
Phase 4 —Building authority and ensuring content distribution
Phase 5 — Performance monitoring, iteration and continuous improvement
As with SEO, it is critical to be aware that AEO is not a one-off project but an ongoing, iterative process that should be deeply integrated into the overall content lifecycle and digital marketing strategy.
User queries and behaviour evolves, AI algorithms are constantly being updated and new answer engine platforms emerge, all necessitating continuous attention and adaptation. As such, a CI model and corresponding calendar should be set.
AEO Tools
For effective monitoring, a combination of AEO tools is typically required.
But – it is important to note that the current AEO tracking landscape is much less mature than that for traditional SEO and so expectations must be geared accordingly.
Standard analytics: Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC) or equivalent
SEO platforms: Still useful but AEO-specific capabilities are still developing
Specialised AEO tracking tools: New category! These tools address the challenges of tracking visibility in AI engines. They have features like AI citation tracking, brand sentiment analysis in AI and competitor monitoring across various AI platforms.
These tools can be effectively combined with platforms like Google Keyword Planner – this can be a high value source of real user questions – and other AI (or non-AI!) content creation platforms.
Measuring Success
AEO represents a substantial shift away from traditional SEO-aligned thinking and metrics for success.
“Success” in AEO isn't always a click. Providing a definitive and accurate answer directly within an AI response can be a win for brand visibility and authority. At this time, it is essential to understand that "zero-click engagement" and positive "brand sentiment in AI responses" are more appropriate success metrics.