SEO in the age of AI

2026 is bringing about the biggest shift in SEO for 25 years. Google is ditching it’s traditional search bar and rolling out a new era of AI search. 

If AEO isn’t already part of your content strategy, it needs to be.

What is AEO?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. Like traditional SEO, it involves tailoring your content so that AI powered search engines can find, understand and cite your information as a direct response to a user’s query. 

Being successful in AI-powered Search means your product, brand or service needs to show up within an AI's answer itself. 

How is AI search different from traditional search?

Back in the day (okay, more like three years ago) users were accustomed to using search engines as a directory. Google gave directions on where look, but it was still up to us to find the answer. Today, users don’t want results. They want information that’s already been synthesized.

Search queries are also changing:

• AI search queries are longer: AI prompts average 23 words, compared to 4.2 words for traditional searches.
• AI search engagement is deeper: AI sessions are around 2.3 minutes longer than traditional search.
• AI search content is higher: Users are educating themselves with AI and if directed to your website are converting at higher rates.

How to nail your AEO strategy

To be successful at AEO, your need to make it as easy as possible for AI to crawl your site, read your content, and verify that you’re a credible source of information. 

Start with your site’s technical health

If your site is hard to crawl, improving your content won’t help you appear in Search of any kind. Make your site speed is fast, your design is responsive, and your content is using schema markups correctly. 

Done that? Now you can move onto improving your content for AEO.

Use Google’s EEAT framework

A great place to start is by using Google’s E-E-A-T framework. These define what both search engines and AI models are looking for:

• Experience: Does your content show first-hand experience in solving a problem?
• Expertise: Does the author have the specific knowledge, skills, or credentials to be an expert?
• Authoritativeness:  Do others recognise your website as a reliable source of knowledge?
• Trustworthiness: Is your content accurate, safe, and honest?

Optimise your content structure for AEO

Making these changes to the structure of your content will make it easier for LLMs to find helpful content across your site.

• Use question-based headings: Structure your content around natural language questions (Who, What, When, Why, How).
• Provide answers directly and immediately: Include a concise answer of 40–60 words after each heading. Then you can dive into more detail.
• Keep your content scannable: Use lists, tables, and bullets to make information as digestible as possible.
• Include FAQs your Site: LLMs love FAQs (and an acronym apparently) as they incorporate all of the criteria above. Plus, FAQs allow you to get more granular in your responses — which is something AI’s love.

Build your online credibility with AI

You might have noticed that Google’s E-E-A-T framework is largely centred around credibility. This is because the internet is rife with answers. What AI is really looking for is a sign that your content is credible enough to share. 

Here’s how to build credibility with AI-powered search:

• Write Content Based on Your Experience: Write about industry-specific problems your organisation has actually solved.  
• Highlight Your Authors: Leverage the specialists on your staff by publishing articles with a name and bio of the author. This is a great way to build authority.
• Prioritise Novelty: Write on fresh, original topics rather than simply rehashing high-volume keywords and angles that have been done to death.
• Add Reviews: Add more testimonials and reviews to your website or include quotes from happy customers in your Case Studies and Articles. 
• Diversify Your Assets: Blogs are excellent, but whitepapers, case studies, and video testimonials provide the deep data AI needs to verify your claims.

Your Off-Site Presence Matters To AI Search

Your website is only one way AI assesses your credibility. What the wider web says about you is equally relevant. Reddit forums, niche communities, and third-party mentions are now part of the citations that AI uses to decide if you are worth recommending.

How to Improve Your AEO Off-Site

• Build Reviews Across the Web: Ask your clients to add a review on Google My Business or an industry-specific review website.
• Keep Your Details Updated: From Google My Business to any industry-specific platforms, publishing your contact details (including a physical address, phone number and opening hours) is a must. Make sure these are current wherever they are published. 
• Respond On Reddit: Where appropriate, your SEO strategy can include responding to industry-specific questions on Reddit or other industry forums. Just make sure you’re responding from a business account or profile and are providing answers in a non-spammy way.
• Build a Reputable Brand: Across all your media channels, you need to be building a reputable brand. One that responds to customers, hears what they have to say and is open to customer feedback.
• Turn Customer Feedback into Content: If people are asking questions about your product or service across the web, you can use this as a starting point for content. Turn questions and queries into How to videos on YouTube or across short form social content.
• Leverage User Generated Content: Share what people are saying about you. UGC is great, free exposure. It also makes your community, and your product loyalists feel seen. 

Key Takeaways For Optimising For AEO

Write these points down and stick to them across all your online content.

• Give Answers Early On. 

         Users want answers not options. In every piece of content, consider how you can give the reader something valuable straight away.

• Be Specific. 

         Niche content is effective because the people searching for it have high intent. They’re not looking to browse, users want a specific solution or answer for a                  problem. 

• Be Human.

         Make sure your content is written by a human. One that works at your company and holds a title and a bio that matters. You know, like ‘Written by: Mike Jones.            Specialist Diesel Mechanic. Certificate in Heavy Automotive Engineering.’

• Sound Human.

  Write with your demographic in mind. Your readers probably aren’t particle physicists. They’re probably the general public who might need an idea broken down into plain English.

   

• Do Good Work

  Then ask for a review.