#aeo

#aeo

If you're still debating whether answer engine optimization (AEO) belongs in your go-to-market strategy, you are already behind the curve. From January to May 2025, website traffic from AI-powered platforms surged more than 500%. And at a recent CMO roundtable I co-hosted in Boston, leaders agreed on one thing: how your brand appears in AI-generated responses now shapes how buyers perceive your company, evaluate your executives and categorize your product or service.

The phrase 'Google it' may not hold the same weight in the age of AI-powered search engines. Increasingly, shoppers are turning to AI platforms like Google AI Overviews, Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT to discover, research and even purchase products. The shift is reshaping brand visibility. 'There's been a marked shift in awareness: brands are realizing that years of hard-earned search equity are being reshaped overnight as AI moves from search engines to answer engines,'

Marketers believe answer engine optimization (AEO) will significantly reshape their organizations' digital strategy in the next three years, but only 20% have started implementing AEO initiatives. That's according to a survey conducted by Acquia and Researchscape, which also found that 50% of both small businesses (less than 100 employees) and large enterprises (10,000 employees or more) say they are unshare of the share of their traffic is sourced by LLMs.

Ethan Smith is the CEO of Graphitethe leading SEO growth agencyand my go-to expert on SEO. After 18 years of mastering traditional SEO, Ethan has been at the forefront of what is called AEO: answer engine optimization, or, more simply, getting your product to show up in ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini/Perplexity answers. He's discovered that ChatGPT traffic converts six times better than Google searchand most companies are completely missing this opportunity.

In today's digital landscape, AI systems are primary interpreters of content, reshaping how brands are discovered and trusted.