Just when you thought you had finally got your head around SEO, along comes another acronym.
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation, and if you run a business with a website, it is something you’re probably going to hear a lot more about over the next couple of years. You might also hear people talking about GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) or AIO (AI Optimisation). There are differences between them, but for the average business owner the important bit is much simpler: people aren’t only using Google to find businesses anymore.
They’re asking AI.
Think about how you might search for something yourself now. You could still type “web designer Leeds” into Google, but you might just as easily ask ChatGPT, “Can you recommend a web design company in Leeds that works with small businesses?”
That’s quite a big change.
For years, SEO has largely been about getting your website as high as possible in Google’s search results. That’s still important, but now we also need to think about whether AI can actually work out who you are, what you do and whether your business is relevant when somebody asks a question.
That’s essentially what AEO is about.
Is AEO Replacing SEO?
No. And I wouldn’t stop doing your SEO because somebody has told you that AI has changed everything.
We’ve worked in SEO for years at Arctic Bee and the fundamentals haven’t suddenly disappeared. You still need a decent website, useful content, good service pages, relevant keywords, internal links, backlinks, reviews and all the other things that help establish what your business actually does.
The difference is that we’re now thinking beyond Google rankings.
If we’ve got a window company in Leeds, for example, we obviously want them appearing when somebody searches for conservatories or replacement windows in Leeds. But we’re also thinking about all the questions somebody might ask before they’re ready to buy.
Why is my conservatory freezing in winter?
Can I put a solid roof on my existing conservatory?
Do conservatory roof blinds actually keep it cool?
Can I have skylights in a solid conservatory roof?
Those are real questions from people who potentially need the service. If a website has properly answered them, it has done something much more useful than simply repeating “conservatory company Leeds” twenty times across a page.
And that has always been good SEO anyway.
So What’s Actually Changed?
The way we’re searching.
Google trained us to search in fairly unnatural little phrases because we knew how search engines worked. If I wanted somebody to fix my boiler, I’d probably type something like “boiler repair Leeds”.
With ChatGPT and other AI tools, we don’t need to do that. We can explain what we actually want.
“I’ve got an old boiler that’s making a banging noise and losing pressure. Is it worth repairing it or should I replace it, and can you recommend somebody in Leeds?”
That’s much closer to how we’d speak to another person.
For businesses, that means there are potentially hundreds of questions around your products and services that people could be asking. Your website needs to contain enough useful information for search engines and other systems to understand where you fit into those conversations.
Stop Writing Blogs Just Because Someone Told You That You Need Blogs
This has been one of my bugbears for years.
There is absolutely no point having a blog page containing 300-word articles nobody would ever voluntarily read.
If you’re going to write content, answer something.
Go through your emails. Ask your sales team. Look at the questions clients ask during meetings. Think about the objections people have before buying from you.
Those are your articles.
If five customers have asked you the same question this month, there are probably hundreds of other people typing or asking exactly the same thing online.
Answer it properly.
That’s useful for SEO, useful for AEO and, more importantly, useful to the person who might eventually become your customer.
Your Website Needs to Make It Obvious What You Do
This sounds ridiculously simple, but you’d be amazed how many websites don’t.
I regularly land on websites full of things like:
Innovative solutions for tomorrow’s businesses.
Lovely.
What do you actually do?
If you’re an accountant in Bradford specialising in small businesses and limited companies, say that. If you install replacement conservatory roofs across West Yorkshire, say that. If you’re a commercial solicitor specialising in employment law, make it obvious.
Don’t make your potential customers work it out and don’t make search engines or AI systems work it out either.
Clear content isn’t boring content. It’s useful content.
Build Proper Service Pages
This is another thing we regularly find when we take over SEO accounts.
A company offers ten different services and somebody has put all ten on one page with a paragraph about each.
That’s not enough.
If a service is important enough for you to sell, it is usually important enough to have its own page.
Explain what it is, who it’s for, what problems it solves, where you provide it and answer the questions people regularly ask about it. Then link that page to relevant blogs, case studies and other information on your website.
Over time you’re building a proper bank of information around that subject rather than relying on one page to do everything.
FAQs Are Actually Useful Now
FAQs used to get shoved at the bottom of pages largely because somebody had read that Google liked them.
Used properly, they’re genuinely helpful.
The trick is to use real questions.
Not:
Why is Arctic Bee the best digital marketing agency?
Nobody is asking that.
Something like:
How much should a small business spend on SEO each month?
That’s a genuine question.
Answer it honestly.
You don’t need every answer to become a sales pitch either. Sometimes giving somebody a straightforward answer is exactly what demonstrates that you know what you’re talking about.
What About Reviews and Everything Outside Your Website?
This matters too.
You can write anything you like about yourself on your own website. Obviously we’re all going to say we’re brilliant.
What exists elsewhere online helps back that up.
Reviews, relevant directories, social media, industry websites, PR, links and mentions of your company all contribute to your overall online presence.
If your website says you’re an established Leeds company but there is virtually no other evidence online that your business exists, that’s not particularly convincing to humans either.
This is another area where traditional SEO and AEO overlap considerably.
Can Arctic Bee Get My Business Recommended by ChatGPT?
We can work on improving your visibility, but I’m not going to promise that we can make ChatGPT recommend you every time somebody asks a particular question.
Nobody can sensibly guarantee that.
What we can do is look at how clearly your business is represented online, what questions your potential customers are asking, where the gaps are in your content and whether your website actually demonstrates your expertise.
We can also look at whether you’re appearing for the right traditional searches because, despite all the excitement around AI, Google hasn’t disappeared.
The sensible approach isn’t SEO or AEO.
It’s both.
Don’t Panic About Another Acronym
If you’re already doing SEO properly, you probably don’t need to completely rethink your digital marketing strategy.
You might, however, need to rethink your content.
Instead of asking, “What keyword do we want to rank for?”, start asking, “What does somebody need to know before they buy this?”
Then answer it.
Look at the questions customers ask you every week and turn those into useful content. Make sure your service pages actually explain your services. Build case studies around work you’ve genuinely done. Keep your business information consistent across the internet and continue building the authority of your website.
That’s essentially where SEO is heading anyway.
At Arctic Bee, we’re now considering AEO alongside SEO when we’re planning content for clients because we’d be daft not to. The way people find information is changing and our job is to make sure our clients can still be found.
We don’t need to throw everything we’ve learned about SEO in the bin.
We just need to adapt it.
If you’d like us to look at how visible your business currently is across traditional and AI search, speak to Arctic Bee about SEO and AEO.