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

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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.