Every new marketing discipline gets accused of being a rebrand. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is no exception. "Isn't this just SEO for ChatGPT?"
No. And understanding why matters for how you allocate budget and effort.
The fundamental difference
SEO optimizes pages for search engine algorithms. AEO optimizes brands for AI recommendation systems.
This isn't a semantic distinction. It changes what you prioritize:
- SEO: You can rank a single well-optimized page for a target keyword, even if your overall brand presence is weak.
- AEO: AI evaluates your brand holistically. A great landing page won't help if your reviews are mediocre, your press coverage is thin, and your positioning is vague.
The competitive format is different too. Google gives you 10 spots on page 1. AI gives you 2-4 recommendation slots. There's no page 2 to scroll through.
Different signals, different winners
SEO rewards technical optimization - keywords, backlinks, page speed, schema markup. These still matter (especially for Google AI Overviews), but they're table stakes for AEO, not differentiators.
What AI actually weighs when deciding who to recommend:
Brand authority across the web - Not just your site's domain authority, but how often and how positively your brand appears across review platforms, media, forums, and expert content.
Sentiment - AI reads context. A brand with enthusiastic reviews on G2 and favorable press gets recommended differently than one with a trail of complaints, regardless of which has better SEO.
Query-brand fit - How specifically your positioning matches how people phrase their questions. "Best CRM for startups" and "best enterprise CRM" trigger different recommendation lists. Your messaging needs to match.
Freshness - Modern AI platforms use real-time web search. Recent reviews, fresh press coverage, and current content all influence recommendations.
What this changes about your strategy
If you're a marketing team that's been SEO-first, here's what to add:
Invest in reviews. G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot reviews are among the strongest signals AI uses. This was a nice-to-have for SEO. For AEO, it's essential.
Earn media, not just links. For SEO, you want a backlink. For AEO, even an unlinked mention in a reputable publication builds brand authority that influences AI recommendations.
Sharpen your positioning. AI needs to categorize you. If your messaging is broad and vague, AI won't confidently place you in any specific recommendation list.
Monitor AI visibility separately. Your Google rankings and your AI recommendations tell different stories. Track both, because the gaps between them reveal where you're losing customers you don't know about.
Common traps
"We rank #1 on Google, so we're fine." Our research shows only 38% overlap between Google #1 and AI #1. You can dominate search and be invisible in AI.
"We'll just optimize for ChatGPT." Different AI platforms recommend different brands 67% of the time. Single-platform optimization creates blind spots.
"We did an AI audit last quarter." AI responses shift regularly. One-time audits become stale within weeks as models update and competitors optimize.
The brands winning at AEO are the ones that understand it's a distinct discipline - not SEO with a trendy name - and resource it accordingly.
See how AI actually recommends your brand - across every major platform. AEOscope tracks it daily.
