For years, search engine optimization (SEO) has been a critical component of a business’s ability to reach customers online. Now, as consumers increasingly move to integrate LLMs into their browsing habits, brand visibility in AI prompt results has become just as important. In this article, we’ll explain how to design an answer engine optimization (AEO) plan for your business, helping you reach customers wherever they are.
What Is Answer Engine Optimization?
Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is the practice of formatting content to maximize visibility in responses from AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude (as opposed to SEO, which focuses on search engine results). The main goal of AEO is for a brand to be either directly mentioned or cited in an AI response.
How to Build an AEO Strategy
Audit Your Current AI Visibility
Before starting your AEO strategy, run a few test prompts through different AI models to see where your brand appears. This identifies where your current strategy needs attention, and where it’s already succeeding.
Identify the Prompts You Want to Appear For
Consider possible user questions that are relevant to your brand and how you want to be featured in their responses. Publishing clear, specific answers to these questions will motivate AI models to feature your brand.
Map the Query Fan-Outs Behind Those Prompts
When searching for information, AI models don’t just look up a single question; they’ll also conduct related searches to deliver a more fully-formed answer to the user. This is called a query fan-out. Use tools that allow you to peek into an AI’s background logic to discover related prompts for your content to answer.
Create or Optimize Pages for Fan-Out Searches
After mapping these additional questions, factor those answers into existing pages on your website, or create new content that would appear in those results. Each time your brand appears as an optimal source to an AI, it increases your chances of appearing in a prompt response.
Build Links and Authority to Those Pages
Because the AI is still effectively searching the web on behalf of its user, many SEO principles still apply to AEO. Once you’ve created content to answer query fan-outs, build connections across those pages, as well as other internal and external content, to boost their chances of appearing as trusted sources in an AI’s search.
Measure AI Visibility, Citations, and AI Tool Traffic
Once your initial AEO strategy is in place, deploy tools that will allow you to understand its effectiveness over time. Monitor performance indicators like response mentions/citations, accuracy, and the sentiment the AI expresses about your brand.
Start With Prompt Targeting
Identify Buyer Questions, Comparisons, and Decision Prompts
It’s important to consider the full spectrum of questions that consumers might be asking involving your brand. Plan for queries outside the obvious, such as the “bests” of your industry, the pros and cons of certain use cases, sentiment surrounding your brand, or the forms and functions of your product.
Group Prompts by Service, Audience, and Buying Stage
Consumers will come to your brand in different phases, each asking different questions. Ensure your strategy provides information on product basics, comparisons to competitors, and purchasing/pricing, covering as many consumers’ needs as possible.
Prioritize Prompts With Commercial Intent
Though general awareness is still important in an AEO environment, some brand-relevant queries might not specifically indicate a customer’s looking to invest in your product. Focusing on prompts that compare different products, ask for the “best” thing to buy, or summarize online reviews will ensure your strategy is working where it matters most.
Identify Query Fan-Outs
Understand the Related Searches AI Tools May Use
Some AI models and third-party tools allow you to look at the underlying logic behind an AI response, which contains the additional information searches the model made. If your brand’s sources can answer these questions, your brand can be in control of a larger portion of the AI’s response.
Identify How Your Site Covers Fan-Out Queries
Checking your existing content against these fan-out queries will help you understand where your brand is already appearing to AI models. Strengthening these gaps will introduce more of your sources to LLMs, increasing your chance of a favorable feature in an AI response.
Map Supporting Topics, Comparisons, and Proof Points
By understanding the possible comparisons and additional questions that might come up in an AI interaction concerning your brand, you can help guide the conversation past the initial query. Mapping possible trajectories for the rest of the conversation can help identify more areas to produce AEO content.
Create or Optimize Pages for Fan-Out Searches
Strengthen Existing Pages That Are Close to Ranking
AI models don’t replace search engines; they only take the labor of conducting the search away from the user, so traditional SEO practices still apply to AEO. After identifying fan-outs, strengthen the SEO on pages that are nearly top-ranked in these queries to ensure they make the cut.
Add Specific Evidence, Examples, and Differentiation
AI models will prioritize sources that provide information quickly, clearly, and specifically. Focus on quickly providing answers to your AEO prompts in short, easily-extractable portions.
Connect Supporting Pages Into Topic Clusters
To help the AI model access more of your information for its response, connect related pages in focused one-to-many or many-to-one clusters that centralize information in legible, navigable webs.
Build Authority Around AEO Pages
Use Internal Links to Support Priority Pages
AEO isn’t just about designing pages in isolation. Structuring your site navigation so important AEO pages are prominently highlighted will increase traffic of all forms, making them more trusted by AI searches.
Build Backlinks to Fan-Out Pages
When you’ve identified where an AI will be looking during fan-out queries, you can get your brand featured in those places. Third-party mentions and externally republished content that push traffic back to your site will give the AI even more chances to mention or cite your brand’s sources.
Measure AEO Success
Track AI Visibility Percentage
After designing and implementing your AEO strategy, track metrics of brand visibility to see where it can be improved. Use third-party tools or regular prompt checks to ensure models are featuring your brand directly when responding to targeted prompts.
Track Traffic From AI Tools
Watch your web traffic to determine how many visitors are being routed through AI tool results. Many CMSes and third-party tools offer these specific metric tracking tools to keep you informed of how far your AEO strategy is reaching.