Muckrack identified influential journalists by researching who LLMs frequently cite in their niche. They pitched original research to the top journalist, earning press coverage that led directly to their brand being mentioned in AI-generated answers for relevant industry questions.
A significant technical blocker for AEO is JavaScript-heavy websites. LLMs are not as sophisticated as Google's crawlers at executing and indexing content loaded via JavaScript. To ensure AI models can find and understand your content, serve it in the initial, plain HTML whenever possible.
LLMs are increasingly able to answer basic, top-of-funnel "what is" questions better than most brands. The strategic opportunity lies in middle and bottom-of-funnel content, such as detailed comparison pages against competitors, where you can own the narrative on differentiation.
The lowest-hanging fruit for AEO is often technical site optimization. If LLMs cannot easily crawl and understand your site's structure via things like schema.org markup, meta descriptions, and alt text, even the best content may not get included in answers.
LLMs build consensus from data and struggle with subjective claims like "we are #1." To win with comparison content, focus on discrete, verifiable facts (e.g., "Our product has X feature, competitor Y does not"). This is the type of objective data AI models can easily process and trust.
To get included in AI answers, you must answer the specific questions your customers are actually asking. Audit your customer service platform and social forums to find these real-world queries. This surfaces high-intent, long-tail questions that brands often miss when focusing on their own narrative.
Homepages often perform poorly for AEO because internal politics dilute the message. For an LLM, the homepage's critical function is entity recognition—clearly stating what your company does and for whom. If an AI can't categorize you from your homepage, it won't include you in relevant answers.
Traditional SEO aims to drive traffic to your site where you deliver an answer. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) requires a new goal: getting your brand or data included directly in the AI-generated response, as the answer engine now sits above your website as a new top-level channel.
While many AEO analytics tools are still emerging, Bing Webmaster Tools already provides free, first-party data on how users are asking questions and finding your brand via AI search in Microsoft Copilot. This is an immediate, actionable source of insight that Google doesn't yet offer.