How to do AEO to Win Over Both Users and Algorithms
Currently, marketing through various search tools has evolved far beyond Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Especially in the era of the Zero Search Click phenomenon, competition in digital marketing is much more intense than in the pre-AI era. One of the interesting search marketing strategies that can effectively build credibility for your business is Answering Engine Optimization (AEO). In doing AEO, just beating the Search Engine algorithm is not enough; you must make your website page quality enough to respond to actual human users.
Key Takeaways:
- Focus on “concise answers” because the heart of doing AEO is structuring content to answer user questions directly, in the language that humans actually use, and with a clear structure for AI to extract that content for display.
- Optimize the structure to be an information hub and choose Long-Tail Keywords. From previously where SEO focused on choosing keywords that people are most likely to select, in doing AEO, the selection method changes to using question sentences for optimization instead.
- AEO is the upgraded version of SEO to match current user behavior and is considered a quality filter for website visitors. This is because people who click through are those who are genuinely interested and want to go further with the content they see. Therefore, both a good structure and E-E-A-T content remain always important.
What is AEO?
Answering Engine Optimization (AEO)
is the optimization of website structures and internal content to answer questions coming from searches by tools or bots of the Answer Search Engine type, such as Google Search Engine or various AI Chatbots that mainly use websites as their reference database. These tools will select, rank, and score content from those websites to further display to human users. Doing AEO, therefore, does not focus on making rankings but focuses on being a reference source: Citation from AI sent forward to human users.
Effective AEO, apart from appearing on the Search page using Schema Markup techniques, must also meet the needs and respond directly to the user’s true intent.
How is AEO different from SEO?
Both AEO and SEO are website optimizations to be selected from user searches, but the details show clear differences as per the table below:
| Comparison Criteria | AEO (Answering Engine Optimization) | SEO (Search Engine Optimization) |
| Keywords used for searching | * Long-Tail Keywords * Question sentences * Uses spoken language, focusing on words people actually use | * Short Keywords: short, concise, straightforward words * Broad Keywords: broad words covering multiple dimensions of what users search for |
| Search channels | * Type Search * Voice Search | * Type Search |
| Responding to user groups | * Users who want summary answers ready-made: Informational Intent * Users who want to know in-depth details or functions of products or services | * Users who want diverse information sources: Informational Intent * Users who want comparisons to make purchasing decisions: Commercial / Commercial Investigation Intent * Searching to buy: Transactional Intent |
| Goals | * Being an answer that AI selects to recommend additionally from AI Overview: AI Citation * Being an answer that AI talks about: Brand Mentioned | * Appearing on the first page of search results or being an answer in Ranking Snippet |
| Measurement | * Credibility & Mindshare: Being mentioned by AI | * Traffic & Visibility: Clicks and visibility |
| Indicators | * LLM Share of Voice * Citation Count * Sentiment Score * Brand Mentions | * Clicks * Impressions * CTR, Organic Traffic * Keyword Rankings |
(Table showing differences between doing AEO and SEO)
What do you get from doing AEO?
Doing AEO is part of Organic Marketing, which means working for long-term results rather than quick success in a short period like Paid Marketing. Correctly doing AEO should yield the following results:
Being at the very top of the search results page, even with zero clicks (Zero Search Click)
Even though AI Overview chooses to display by summarizing important content from quality websites, being the website in the very first rank of search results also gives your website visibility from users, especially the answer part that users or your potential customers see.
Brand recognition and credibility score (Brand Authority)
In addition to the overall website credibility score in the eyes of the algorithm being good—creating opportunities to be ranked in other content pages—the credibility score in the eyes of human users when seeing your website ranked frequently on topics they are interested in also makes your brand recognized and trusted as well.
Filtering high-quality user groups with future purchasing potential (Lead Nurturing):
Users who find answers by typing long questions usually have more interest (Intent) than general users. Although AEO responds to users with informational intent more than comparison for decision making, for users in the awareness and information-seeking stage, seeing your website frequently will build a bond. And when reaching the decision stage and still seeing your website in content that meets their needs, they naturally have a higher chance to choose your brand over others.
Supporting changing user behaviors in the future (Future-Proof Marketing)
From marketing research during the period when AI started to have more influence on consumers, we find that search engine usage behaviors tend to change, with Voice Search tending to increase in popularity continuously. Doing AEO to accommodate this part of behavior is therefore increasing the chance to be discovered by future customers as well.
Which indicators signify that doing AEO works?
The thing used to measure the success of doing AEO is not first-page Ranking in the same way as SEO, because the operational purposes of these 2 methods are different, with AEO giving weight to:
Receiving recommendations from the AI Overview function (some places still use SGE)
This is the position that AI Overview refers to after bringing information to summarize, which makes users who have real interest in this matter care to click through to the origin website, resulting in quality traffic.
Getting Featured Snippet: Ranked 0
Previously, the position of the Feature Snippet was the position of AI Overview at present. But the arrival of AI Overview has moved the Feature Snippet to the right side of the screen when viewed from desktops instead. This position here has credibility and results not inferior to the Brand Mentioned or Citation position from AI Overview at all.
Getting traffic from Voice Search
From changing user behaviors, there are more users coming from Voice Search channels, and this group of users usually asks in long sentences rather than short words, making it possible to focus precisely on what users entering from searches on our website want.
Which businesses are suitable for doing AEO?
The business groups suitable for doing AEO and SEO are not much different, meaning they are still business groups that focus on finding information before making decisions or businesses that require information comparison from multiple providers. However, doing AEO will give businesses with the following characteristics more advantage:
E-Commerce Business
For effective comparison, consumers tend to search for what they want straightforwardly with certain conditions such as budget, product specs, for example, “Camera with a budget not exceeding 25,000 Baht, which one should I choose?”. Doing AEO that provides answers in this part will help increase the chance of selling.
Local Business
To support user groups searching for products or services in daily life, which is a group that frequently uses Voice Search. Questions are often “Delicious restaurants around here”, “Where is the gas station”. Doing AEO to support both the website page and Google My Business to let customers find you is a method that helps promote your business better.
Travel and Hotel Business
Part of changing consumer behavior is using AI to help plan travel and trips, making hotel websites easily pulled for information to answer. Websites that can answer questions or are in good rankings will benefit from this part, not just from displaying in various features mentioned, but also displaying in each AI that has users asking that question.
Summary: Doing AI to Win Over Both Users and Algorithm
AEO: Answering Engine Optimization is website optimization to support asking questions from Search Engines and AI Chatbots by focusing on concise answers, good structure, and E-E-A-T Content, aiming for the result of being referenced by AI. It can build an advantage for businesses that need in-depth information and supports future user behaviors that tend to use Voice Search more.
AEO Frequently Asked Questions
Does doing AEO help with increasing the amount of traffic to the website?
Doing AEO does not have the direct purpose of increasing traffic or the number of website visitors, but focuses on answering questions that search engine or AI users search for instead. Once the result shows up from AI Overview, website clicking might not happen; therefore, traffic might not increase either (Zero Click Search). But AEO will help filter people who come in to be of higher quality, because if searchers genuinely have interest in the same type of product or service as ours and see the website referenced by AI, the chance of becoming a customer will be higher.
If the website already does SEO and is in a good rank, is doing AEO still necessary?
Even if the website has a good SEO ranking, supplementing it with AEO is necessary because the operations and various measurements of both types are not the same. Optimizing the website page according to AEO principles is therefore increasing the opportunity for your website to be stable and support searches and rankings from algorithms and human users in the long term.
How long does doing AEO take to see results?
For Organic Marketing, rarely do we see results in the short term. Doing AEO is the same; doing AEO well should be done alongside building a website and content with a good SEO structure. This is because if SEO is not strong, the chance for bots to come across your website or choose it for display will be almost impossible, which means at least 3 – 6 months to see full efficiency results from doing AEO.
What is the most accurate AEO indicator?
It remains Citation and Brand Mention.
Does Social Media affect doing AEO?
For doing AEO, content from Social Media that is relevant to website content is starting to gain importance because many AI Chatbots use data pulling from various platforms to answer more, which affects rankings as well.
Are Voice Search and Smart Phone things that must be focused on for doing AEO?
Since AEO gives importance to answering questions and current user behaviors have changes, optimizing websites to support voice search and usage on smartphones is therefore necessary.
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