AEO: the marketing buzzword you actually need to care about 🤖
Last week I mentioned AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — and promised to come back to it. So here we are.
If SEO (search engine optimisation) is about getting your website to show up in Google search results, AEO is about getting your business to show up in AI-generated answers. Think ChatGPT, Claude, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, and the growing list of tools people are now using to get answers without clicking on a single website.
That last bit is the important part.
The way people search has changed 🔍
Not so long ago, the customer journey looked like this: person has a question → types it into Google → clicks a few websites → makes a decision.
That journey is getting shorter. People are asking AI tools their questions and getting a neat summary back — no websites required. The AI does the browsing for them.
The businesses that get cited in those AI responses are getting free word-of-mouth from the most trusted "source" in the room. The ones that don't? Invisible — even if they have a brilliant website and do incredible work.
Let me give you an example 🔧
Say someone's just moved to Whangarei. Their car's making a noise. They don't know any local mechanics, so instead of Googling and clicking through ten websites, they ask ChatGPT: "Who's a reliable mechanic in Whangarei?"
ChatGPT doesn't browse Yellow Pages. It draws on what it's been trained on, combined with content it can access. If your mechanic's website says "Whangarei's trusted local mechanic — WOF, services, repairs" and has a Google Business Profile with good reviews and clear information, there's a real chance they get a mention. If the website just says "We fix cars" and hasn't been touched since 2019? Not so much.
That's AEO in action. Or rather, the painful absence of it.
So what actually is it? 📋
AEO is the practice of structuring your website content so AI tools can find it, understand it, and use it when answering questions related to your business.
Good old fashioned SEO helps Google rank your pages. AEO goes a step further — it's about writing content that directly answers the questions your customers are actually asking. Things like:
"What's the best cafe in Kerikeri?"
"Who has the cheapest fuel near me?" - I bet that question is getting quite the workout at the moment
"What should I look for when choosing a mortgage broker?"
If your website doesn't answer these clearly, the AI can't serve you up as the answer — even if you're genuinely the best option for miles around.
What can you actually do about it? 🛠️
The fab’ thing is a lot of AEO best practice is just good content practice - the stuff that’s written on your site and social media. You're not starting from scratch.
Write like you're answering questions, not just describing yourself. There's a real difference between "We offer comprehensive mechanical services" and "Wondering if your car needs a WOF recheck? Here's what to expect." One of these is useful. The other is mehhhh.
Be specific about where you are and what you do. AI tools are getting better at local results, but they need clear signals. Your location, services, and coverage area should be written out plainly — not just buried in your contact page footer.
Keep your Google Business Profile up to date. AI tools pull from multiple sources and your GBP is one of them. If it's incomplete or hasn't been touched in two years, you're leaving visibility on the table. Tip: when you post on Facebook, put the same post on your GBP. Easy peasy.
Think in FAQs. A Frequently Asked Questions section is one of the highest-impact, lowest-effort things you can add to your website. You're essentially pre-answering the exact prompts people are typing into AI tools.
The honest bit 📣
Most small businesses I talk to haven't heard of AEO and I get that - the whole AI space is moving so fast. That's okay — for now. But as AI-generated answers become the norm (and they will), the businesses that have made themselves easy for AI to find and cite are going to have a real edge.
You don't need to overhaul everything at once. Start with one page. Start with your FAQs. Start with your Google Business Profile.
And if you want help figuring out where your gaps are or what you need to say — that's exactly what I do.
