Lately, everyone’s talking about AEO like it’s the next big revolution in marketing. “Answer Engine Optimization.” The buzzword of the week. Every post, video, and self-proclaimed expert is repeating the same BS:
Rewrite your titles as questions. Add schema. Add FAQs. Boom. You’re now optimized for AI.
Cool. Except none of that means a single AI tool will ever cite your brand. Because AEO isn’t a cheat code. And it’s definitely not replacing sound SEO.
What AEO Actually Is
AEO isn’t about tricking ChatGPT, Perplexity, or other AI tools into quoting you. It’s about helping AI understand your brand’s authority the same way search engines once did. But here’s the part most marketers skip over: AI doesn’t look for structure. It looks for signal. That means citations, brand mentions, backlinks, Reddit discussions, social engagement, and the overall consensus of who actually knows what they’re talking about. You can format your content perfectly and still be invisible if your brand isn’t part of the broader conversation online. This is why SEO was, and still is more complicated than writing some tags, and formatting some headers.
SEO vs AEO: They’re Not Enemies
I’ve heard this too many times, “SEO gets clicks. AEO gets cited.” SEO brings people to your site. AEO gets your brand woven into the fabric of the internet. But here’s the trick, one can’t work without the other. SEO is still how users discover you, especially when they’re ready to buy, sign up, or take action. AEO is how AI learns who you are and what you know.
If SEO is your storefront, AEO is your street-cred, and you still need both.
The Real Problem With “Quick AEO Fixes”
I’ve heard just about every AEO guru say “Format every blog title as a question, add schema across your entire site. But guess what? That’s not strategy, and it’s just a damn time suck. AI models don’t care if your blog starts with “What is” or “How to.” They care about whether other trusted sources online are mentioning, linking, or agreeing with what you’re saying. That’s how AI tools establish trust. Not through perfect markup. Through validation and recognition.
If your brand isn’t being referenced outside your site, the algorithm isn’t even aware you exist.
Where Visibility Really Comes From
AI visibility isn’t about metadata. It’s about building momentum. Brands that are part of real conversations across Reddit, YouTube, social media, and niche communities are the ones AI tools learn from first. That’s what “training data” actually means in practice, and it’s a “collection” of sources where your brand name, product, or content keeps popping up. So before you chase AEO shortcuts, make sure you’re building the kind of brand that people actually talk about.
Sound SEO Takes Care of AEO
The bottom line, stop treating AEO like a new hack, or how SEO is going to be replaced. It’s the same SEO fundamentals we’ve always known. Create content that earns trust. Be consistent. Distribute it where your audience actually hangs out. AEO isn’t replacing SEO. It’s just exposing who’s been doing real marketing all along. Because you don’t get cited by AI because of structure, and you get cited by AI tools because people already trust you.
