ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews are changing how buyers find businesses. Here's how to make sure your company shows up when they ask.
If you asked ChatGPT to recommend a marketing agency in your city right now, would your business show up? For most companies, the answer is no - and that's a problem that's getting more expensive to ignore every month.
Search behavior is shifting. An estimated 30%+ of queries that used to go to Google are now being answered by AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google's own AI Overviews. Those tools don't send traffic to your website - they give the answer directly. If your business isn't the answer, you're invisible.
Traditional SEO is about ranking on page 1 of Google for the right keywords. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is about becoming the source AI systems cite when someone asks a question in your category.
The strategies overlap - good SEO helps AEO - but there are specific tactics that move the needle for AI visibility that don't apply to traditional search.
AI search tools pull from a combination of sources to construct their answers:
Quick Win
The fastest AEO win is FAQ schema. Take the 10 most common questions your customers ask and add structured FAQ markup to your homepage and service pages. This feeds AI systems a direct answer - attributed to your business.
Unlike paid ads, AEO is a compounding investment. Most businesses see initial AI citation appearances within 60-90 days of a full implementation. The payoff is durable - once AI systems learn to trust your business as an authoritative source, that visibility compounds over time.
The businesses that invest in AEO now will have a significant head start on competitors who wait until AI search is impossible to ignore.
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