How To Master Answer Engine Optimization

Before ChatGPT forced Google to fully commit to zero-click search, search engine optimization (SEO) was devoid of hype. It was in the weeds of log files, sitemaps, and schema — about as far as a marketing channel can get from brand and digital marketing. Marketers spent hundreds of millions of dollars a year on paid search but just a couple million on SEO, where the immediate impact on sales was notoriously hard to prove.

Now the tables have turned. Paid search is commodified by predictive and generative AI, dissolving paid search management vendors like Marin Software and inducing agencies born in paid search, such as Tinuiti and Wpromote, to become full-funnel, omnichannel service providers. Meanwhile, the market for answer engine optimization (AEO) is flush with venture capital and brimming with buzzwords.

AEO Demands New Content, Technical, And Measurement Best Practices

AEO — also known as generative engine optimization, AI optimization, and large language model optimization — is fundamentally like SEO. Both are defined and confined by Google’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) framework and Googlebot’s behavior. Both demand deep, distinctive customer understanding and extensive cross-functional buy-in that spans marketing and IT stakeholders. AEO and SEO thrive on clear, concise content and logical paths for crawlers.

But consumers’ rapid shift to natural language and adoption of multimodal search, the voracity of answer engines’ bots, and answer engines’ ability to fill the top of the funnel require marketers to significantly adapt content, technical, and measurement practices.

To help you adapt, here are answers to three frequently asked questions I get from clients:

1. How can I make my content more visible in answer engines?

To develop highly visible content, model the questions various personas ask answer engines at different phases of buyers’ journeys. Then, proactively address FAQs. Format content in short, simple answers full of unique quotes and stats. Identify primary topics and related subtopics and generate unique pieces of content per topic that satisfy semantically similar prompts. Answer engines recognize and reward content that answers several questions and anticipates follow-ups.

2. How can I make my content indexable by answer engines’ crawlers?

Unlike Googlebot, answer engines’ crawlers struggle with JavaScript. They pull information in real time, so they get overloaded if they have to do that and render JavaScript. Minimize JavaScript rendering to maximize visibility across engines. In addition, structured data such as schema markup remains necessary to help crawlers accurately interpret, contextualize, and index content. Structured data helps crawlers identify topical authority, which in turn helps brands cultivate semantic richness and grow authority.

3. How should I measure organic authority without ranked blue links?

Instead of focusing on traffic, ranking, and average position, look at indicators of brand visibility — like share of search and answer engine results page saturation. Measuring and identifying opportunities to grow visibility across engines sets up brands to grow market share. Score visibility for topics you want your brand to be associated with and hook stakeholders across content, IT, social, and paid media on making content and technical fixes that increase visibility.

Check out my latest report for more content, technical, and measurement best practices, and stay tuned for my upcoming research about what commerce on answer engines means for marketers. Schedule a guidance session to discuss strategizing and implementing AEO.