The skills of an SEO team—building content for algorithms and understanding technical discovery—are perfectly positioned to lead the charge in Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). CMOs should empower and invest in this function, elevating it from a marketing silo to a core business priority.
Related Insights
Treating GEO as just an extension of the SEO team is a mistake. Because AI visibility is affected by social media, partnerships, and product data, it requires a holistic strategy. The CMO must own GEO and deploy solutions across search, social, and partnership teams.
As users shift from keywords to conversational prompts in AI browsers, SEO strategy must also evolve. The focus should be on creating 'answer-ready' content that directly and comprehensively addresses likely user questions, positioning your brand as a primary source for the AI to cite.
Following SEO, App Store Optimization, and social virality, the next major distribution channel is AI answer engines. Product teams must now strategize how to get their brand, features, and knowledge base indexed and surfaced in AI responses, making AEO a critical growth lever for the modern era.
With AI-powered search, user behavior has shifted to asking direct questions. Effective SEO now requires structuring content to directly answer the specific questions buyers are asking search engines and AI tools, rather than just ranking for keywords.
For AI models to reference your brand, content must be structured in a machine-readable format like JSON. Traditional SEO is insufficient; marketers now need technical skills to ensure content is accessible and prioritized by AI, a fundamental change in growth strategy.
The future of search isn't just about Google; it's about being found in AI tools like ChatGPT. This shift to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) requires creating helpful, Q&A-formatted content that AI models can easily parse and present as answers, ensuring your visibility in the new search landscape.
With 80-90% of AI-powered searches resulting in no clicks, traditional SEO is dying. The new key metric is "share of voice"—how often your brand is cited in AI-generated answers. This requires a fundamental strategy shift to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), focusing on becoming an authoritative source for LLMs rather than just driving website traffic.
You.com CEO Richard Socher predicts a new marketing motion where companies market directly to LLMs. As AI agents increasingly make purchasing decisions and consume information, optimizing content for AI consumption will become as critical as traditional SEO.
As users increasingly get answers from AI assistants, marketing strategy must evolve from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This means creating diverse, authoritative content across multiple platforms (podcasts, PR, articles) with the goal of being cited as a trusted source by AI models themselves.
The accessibility of AI tools means board members are now conducting their own queries to see how the company is perceived. This elevates a marketing tactic (like SEO) to a C-suite and board-level strategic imperative, demanding CMOs provide clear answers on the brand's visibility and narrative within AI models.
