As AI-powered tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity transform how people find answers online, marketers are asking a new question: How can my brand show up when there’s only one answer?
Answer engine optimization (AEO), also known as generative engine optimization (GEO), LLM optimization (LLMO) or even just AI Search, is emerging as a solution. AEO isn’t a departure from SEO, but more a response to search’s latest evolution.
AEO requires the fundamentals of best-in-class SEO but also demands a cross-channel perspective — across everything from your website and structured content to your brand reputation, social presence, and anywhere else AI might look for answers.
But we’re still in the early days of AI search. It’s the perfect moment, and the pivotal moment, to develop the understanding and strategies that can build a sustainable roadmap of search visibility for the future.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the current AEO landscape, explore how to prepare your content and brand for LLM visibility, and share the steps forward for building discoverability in a new era of search.
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Is the AI search era already here?
Yes—but it’s still taking shape. There’s no question that adoption is accelerating:
- One in ten U.S. internet users now turn to generative AI first for online search
- 400 million people use ChatGPT every week
- Google’s AI Mode became available to all U.S. users on May 20
While these tools are widely used, they’re not yet fully embedded into consumer behavior or marketing strategies.
Put simply, the buzz is real—but the opportunity is bigger. Brands that test and learn now, while the landscape is still forming, will be better positioned to scale when the hype around generative AI plateaus.
In tandem, the excitement around AI search is surging, as its actual share of search remains relatively small—for now. Forecasts show the gap between Google Search and AI engines is closing.
However, LLM usage isn’t fully aligned with search yet. While active users continue to grow, intents and usage differ between technologies. For example, one study from Semrush found about 70% of user prompts in LLMs don’t align to the four traditional intent buckets in organic search. Instead, they are prompts seeking to create images or reports, or to analyze data or code.
What’s clear is this: while LLMs haven’t overtaken traditional engines, their influence is growing fast, and now is the time to build visibility before the next phase of user behavior shifts. Marketers embracing this brave new world are pioneering answer engine optimization.
What is answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the strategic practice of preparing your content—and your brand—to be cited, summarized, or referenced by AI-powered platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot.
You might also see it referred to as generative engine optimization (GEO), LLM optimization (LLMO), or simply AI search optimization. Whatever the label, the goal is the same: increase your visibility in tools that deliver synthesized AI answers rather than traditional lists of links.
Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on ranking within the search engine results page (SERP), AEO prioritizes discoverability within AI-generated responses—many of which don’t include clickable results at all.
AEO isn’t a replacement for SEO—it’s the evolution of SEO. Crawlability, content quality, and semantic alignment count, matter more than ever. But AEO also requires cross-channel coordination across your entire digital ecosystem.
Key Takeaway: Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the next evolution of SEO—helping your content and brand be discoverable, trusted, and cited by AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews, AI Mode.
How is answer engine optimization influencing the SEO landscape?
AEO is changing the way we define visibility in search. While traditional SEO focuses on improving rankings in the search engine results page (SERP), AEO expands that view, explaining how, where, and whether your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
Tracking LLM traffic through Google Analytics or your preferred analytics platform is key to understanding the full picture of your marketing performance. Brands must now also understand how users find them via AI searches, track their experience, and understand revenue impacts. LLM traffic is growing more significant for many businesses day-over-day, and we’re seeing the results.
- For some Amsive clients, LLMs contribute tens of thousands of website visits every month, with traffic growing by 20-25% month-after-month
- In some cases, LLM traffic is converting at an even higher rate than organic search, reaching conversion rates upwards of 4.5%
However, measuring performance is no longer just about rankings or traffic. Marketers must consider how brands are appearing in answer engines, how users are finding us in LLMs, and the accuracy level of the information within LLMs. Amsive partners with Profound to monitor visibility by platform.
Currently, AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search are causing the most disruption to traditional organic search. Increased use of AI Overviews for zero-click searches and the U.S. rollout of AI Mode in May at Google I/O have even more direct and immediate impacts on organic traffic.
As a result of these features, organic click-through rates are declining. A recent Amsive study, published by my colleague Will Guevara, found that non-branded keywords triggering Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) saw a -19.98% decline in organic CTR on average
Optimizing for AI Overviews will very likely improve visibility in other LLMs, but don’t assume optimizations to one platform will yield the same results across other platforms.
So while AI chatbots aren’t replacing search any time soon, a growing number of search users are now using answer engines instead of or in addition to traditional search. As consumer behavior shifts to expect more immediate answers and trust answer engines more, adaptation is key for marketers to reach users where they are with the methods we have available right now.
Key Takeaway: Now is the time to test, learn, and build effective strategies to gain visibility in LLM traffic. While urgency is required, make sure you stay methodical, intentional, and scientific.
Actions You Can Take Now:
- Understand and mitigate the impact of Google AI Overviews
- Improve your understanding of your visibility in LLMs and AI Overviews
- Test and define reproduceable, scalable strategies that are broadly applicable to how AI works
Let’s dig a little deeper into improving your odds for discoverability in AI search engines.
How to be discoverable in AI search engines?
As with good SEO, there are no shortcuts for developing LLM visibility. AEO is interdisciplinary, spanning best-in-class technical SEO practices, foundational E-E-A-T principles, and the many channels your brand builds awareness, trust, and credibility including paid and social media, digital PR, forums, and more.
Amsive’s SEO team has decades of experience pioneering the field. Our experts understand the nuances of LLMs and machine learning and have a deep history of success in overcoming evolutions in search. There’s no silver bullet, and no simple formula yet. A willingness to test and learn can help early adopters succeed.
Traditional SEO is the essential foundation of AEO
A strong SEO base is mission critical for AEO and subsequent ROI. Here’s what can make the difference in your discoverability:
- Crawability: Robots.txt rules, JavaScript, and High-Value URLs
- Semantics: Copy, user intent, and user context must be aligned
- Well-Structured Content: Clear, active-voice content optimized for conversational search
- E-E-A-T: Strong brand awareness, credibility, reputation, and sentiment across the web
- User Experience: Searcher experience remains important
- Original Thought: Original perspectives, first-party data, and clear authorship and attribution
Similar to SEO, AEO also requires influence from other channels across the digital ecosystem.
Build brand authority and demand, too
Sustainable success in both search and LLM platforms require integrated, cross-channel strategies that drive search demand for your brand and experts. AEO includes strengthening your brand and social media presence, diversifying platforms and formats to ultimately be authoritative, everywhere.
Growing brand authority doesn’t happen overnight. Search ads have a unique role to play in drumming up demand and building brand awareness, especially in the AI search era. As fewer people search in a zero-click experience, brands can create recall that carries into AI interactions with paid advertising.
Beyond brand recall, managing your brand’s reputation is a key part of AEO. Invest in strategies to earn more first-party reviews, respond thoughtfully to negative feedback, and monitor forums for brand sentiment. These actions can contribute to a stronger, more trustworthy digital presence—one that AI engines are more likely to recognize and cite.
When optimizing for answer engines, look beyond your website and build consistent brand authority within the digital ecosystem, including:
- Digital PR
- Social media
- Influencer and creator content
- Review platforms
- Video and audio content
- Forums like Reddit and Quora
- Paid media
Key Takeaway: To show up in AI search, you need to nail the technical side of SEO and back it up with a powerful, consistent brand presence across the entire digital landscape.
Actions You Can Take Now
- Strengthen your technical SEO to ensure your site is crawlable, semantically aligned, and structured for LLMs
- Enhance your E-E-A-T signals and original thought leadership
- Audit your presence across key digital channels—social, PR, review platforms, and forums
- Invest in reputation-building efforts like digital PR and review generation
- Align internal teams across SEO, content, paid, and PR to support a unified, discoverable brand story across platforms
The evolution of search is underway
If your brand wants to be the one cited, the one trusted, and the one that shows up when there’s only one answer, now’s the time to start testing and learning. AEO gives you the framework—but success depends on how well you connect technical excellence with brand credibility across every digital touchpoint.
This isn’t just another SEO update. It’s a shift in how discoverability works. And brands that start building now—investing in structure, original content, and cross-channel authority—will be the ones AI engines consistently choose to feature.
At Amsive, we’re working at the forefront of this shift every day. Whether you’re just beginning to explore AEO or ready to refine and scale, we’re here to help you lead the way.
There’s so much more to know about this emerging field. Register for our webinar on June 24, Accelerate Growth with Answer Engine Optimization, and join our leaders as they break down all things AEO. Gain actionable insights to increase your visibility in the AI search age.
Learn more about AEO at Amsive or let’s talk about what it means to be the answer for your industry.
