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Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a cornerstone of the digital marketing industry, offering insights for creating and optimizing content that ranks well in search engine results pages (SERPs) and provides a positive user experience. Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is a new way to optimize content that companies should start folding into their digital marketing strategies as the search landscape evolves.
What is Answer Engine Optimization?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is an alternative way to optimize content. It addresses specific user questions in a way that is easily digestible and searchable through AI tools. It can complement traditional SEO strategies to help content gain visibility in different answer engines, from Perplexity results to Alexa voice search results.
Why is Answer Engine Optimization Important for Modern Search Strategies?
User behavior is changing. Voice searches are increasing thanks to the popularity of AI chatbots and voice assistants like Alexa. Voice searches and searches in AI tools like ChatGPT are much more conversational and question-driven compared to traditional searches in Google, Bing, and other search engines. Content that answers specific questions—using the same language that searchers are using—can boost visibility for web pages featuring this type of content.
User behavior isn’t all that’s changing in the search sphere; artificial intelligence is making its way into traditional search as well. AI-generated featured snippets, for example, now top the results for many search queries in popular search platforms. Content that answers search queries can be featured in these snippets, boosting visibility.
The best way to adapt to these changes? Well-developed answer engine optimization strategies.
Top 5 AEO Strategies
1. Create FAQs
Create FAQ pages or sections that provide concise answers to common questions.
2. Use Structured Data
Structured data, especially schema markup, helps search algorithms contextualize your web pages, meaning search tools are more likely to find your content and present it to users for relevant search queries.
3. Utilize Headings
Like structured data, HTML headings, like <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> tags, help algorithms find, contextualize, and rank content.
4. Implement SEO Strategies
The best SEO strategies often overlap with the best AEO strategies. That means the following actions can all be part of an overall AEO strategy:
- High-quality content marketing
- Backlink acquisition
- Consistent social media marketing
- In-depth keyword research
5. Define User Intent
Traditional search engines as well as AI-driven tools like ChatGPT have a core purpose: providing the right experience to users. That means a core part of your AEO strategies needs to be understanding and defining search intent (what users want out of a search, like making a purchase or finding information) so that you can craft a content strategy that provides the right experience for your target audience.
FAQs
How is AEO Different From Traditional SEO?
SEO is all about optimizing content for traditional search. AEO is about crafting content that offers direct answers to hyper-specific user queries in AI-powered search engines, like Perplexity, and other AI search tools and answer engines, like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
How is AEO Different from GEO?
GEO stands for generative engine optimization. AEO means optimizing content to show up as easily digestible answers in AI-driven results; AEO content is often written in Q&A or FAQ formats. GEO centers on content optimization so sites appear in generative AI search tools, like Google AI Overviews.
AEO and GEO overlap with each other as well as with SEO.
How Can I Optimize My Content for Answer Engines like Google Assistant?
Ways to optimize content for answer engines include:
- Writing concise answers to specific questions people ask
- Using conversational language, or language that mirrors search queries
- Conducting thorough keyword research to find the right queries
- Crafting content that matches user intent
- Using structured data and headings to contextualize content
How Does Answer Engine Optimization Fit Into SEO?
As search evolves, so too must your SEO strategies. AEO strategies that prioritize answering questions concisely and matching intent can fold into overall SEO strategies that will help your site boost visibility across traditional search, voice search, featured snippets, and more.
