AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): Winning in a conversational world | Chandrasekhar Venugopal (CV) | 12 comments

This article was written by a Hotel Marketing Flipboard. Click here to read the original article

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗔𝗘𝗢 (𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻).
𝗜𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵?

I’ve been digging into Ethan Smith‘s work (CEO at Graphite) – one of the sharper minds translating SEO into the AI era. A few insights stand out:

 𝟭. 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 > 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆: Not more traffic, but better traffic.

 𝟮. 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘃𝘀 𝗧𝗮𝗶𝗹: Winning head queries (“best X”) = being mentioned in many citations across the web, not just ranking #1. Winning the tail = building owned pages that answer every follow-up question.

 𝟯. 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲: Unlike SEO (where you need domain authority), you can show up tomorrow in LLM answers through UGC (Reddit, YouTube) or citations on trusted blogs.

 𝟰. 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 / 𝗙𝗔𝗤 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗱: The long-tail of “does it work with Y?” lives in support articles. Most companies miss this. Moving from subdomain → subdirectory + filling the tail unlocks real AEO gains.

 𝟱. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸: Answers rotate, vary by model, and shift over time. What matters is your distribution across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆:
SEO isn’t dying. The pie is getting bigger. AEO is about making sure your brand is in the answers people now trust.

Compiled a hygiene AEO starter-kit (article). Please do reach out if you have seen strategies work for your brand!