AEO (Ask Engine Optimization): what you need to know about optimising for AI search

Google's monopoly on search may slowly be coming to an end. ChatGPT now lets users search the web in real time. What does that mean for companies, and how can they benefit?

3 key ideas for companies and entrepreneurs

• AI brings new ways of discovering content: recommendations that match users' exact questions.
• Relevance will beat ranking: more important than the first page will be your content "credit", which AI builds its recommendations on.
• The future is here: start thinking about AEO today and you'll leave the competition behind tomorrow.

What is AEO?

AEO (Ask Engine Optimization) is optimisation for AI-powered search. The goal is to create website content that AI treats as a trustworthy source and can build its answers on. For example, with our client EcoBamboo we now appear among the top 3 companies in the field in AI answers.

What might the near future of search look like?

• Google will focus on fast, up-to-date answers.
• ChatGPT will be used for deeper, personalised and contextual answers.

Where things stand

On 31 October 2024, OpenAI launched real-time search in ChatGPT. At that time, ChatGPT took the data for its results from the Bing search index, whose usage in the Czech Republic is estimated at roughly 9%.

What's the difference between SEO and AEO?

SEO makes you visible in classic search engines (Google, Seznam, Bing). AEO goes further: your content serves as a source and "credit" for the answer AI creates for the user.

Another big difference is that Google has ad placements and ChatGPT does not. ChatGPT goes straight to the core of the answer and the summary, while Google expects the user to keep clicking and searching.

The main tip for succeeding with AEO: think about structure

Create good informational, hub and sales content, but above all, structure it. The goal is the widest possible content coverage and a good reputation with AI, so that it shows you for many different queries:

• simple ones, such as "How do I choose a bike?",
• more complex ones, such as "How do I choose a pink bike for a small child under CZK 10,000?",
• and very complex ones, such as "Find 7 companies in the Czech Republic that sell bikes and put their average ratings in a table."

The source shown in AI answers will be whoever takes the trouble to create structured content.

7 practical tips for changing your approach to content

1. Create a customer persona for more effective texts and video content.
2. E-shops: use AI for product comparisons and category texts. The ideal converting category has a banner for a top product, an orientation description, a link to a buying guide, product and orientation videos and anchor navigation.
3. Find URLs in Collabim or Search Console with many impressions and few clicks. When you structure such content and improve it for conversion, wonders can happen.
4. Start creating video content: it will play a big role both for Google and for AEO.
5. Check what search results look like in ChatGPT.
6. Think about connecting AI models more deeply via API and about training on your own, well-secured data.
7. Measure the time saved. When creating category content with an AI tool, our work dropped from roughly 21 hours to 5 hours.