Search Marketing FAQ

SEO optimizes for search engines (Google, Bing, Amazon, Yahoo, Brave, DuckDuckGo). GEO optimizes for AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot). AEO is the umbrella program that runs both in parallel against a single keyword strategy - the same buyer searches the same intent, and AEO ensures you appear regardless of which surface they choose.

in AEO Program

Roughly 70% of the underlying work overlaps - keyword research, content rebuild, schema, technical health, third-party authority. Running them as a combined AEO program eliminates duplicate spend on shared deliverables and produces compounding results because authority signals (editorial mentions, structured content) feed both surfaces. Separate engagements pay twice for the same work.

in AEO Program

No. AEO contains traditional SEO. Search engines still drive the majority of high-intent commercial traffic and they're not going away - Google alone processes over 8.5 billion queries a day. AI channels are a fast-growing additional surface. AEO covers both because buyers use both.

in AEO Program

Buyer behavior, not platform popularity. We start with your conversion data and the queries your existing customers used. If your buyers convert from organic Google and ChatGPT but never from Bing, the engagement weights Google + ChatGPT signals. Each platform has its own quickfact card on its dedicated page that shows the audience-fit logic.

in AEO Program

Three layers. Search-engine layer: rankings, clicks, branded queries via Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster. AI-channel layer: citation tracking across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot - we monitor how often your domain is named, in what context, and against which competitors. Bottom-line layer: assisted conversions and post-visit attribution stitched in your analytics.

in AEO Program

Three structural changes: direct-answer leads (the answer in the first 100 words, not buried), explicit Q&A formatting with FAQPage schema, and primary-source claims (your own data, your own benchmarks) instead of synthesized roundups. AI rerankers extract from clean structure first; LLMs cite primary sources first.

in AEO Program

They hurt it if they read like AI-generated articles - generic, undifferentiated, unsourced. They don't hurt it if a human used AI as a drafting tool and added primary-source data, expert editorial review, and unique perspective. Google's spam policies and OpenAI's reranker both penalize the same thing: low-effort, derivative content. The format isn't the issue; the substance is.

in AEO Program

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is Google's quality framework, but the same signals matter for AI channels. Author bios with credentials, original research, transparent sourcing, and consistent editorial voice all increase both Google rankings and LLM citation odds. We treat E-E-A-T as a foundational AEO discipline, not a Google-specific task.

in AEO Program

Google AI Overviews are the AI-generated summaries that appear above the classic blue links for many informational queries. To appear in one you need to (a) rank in the top 10 organic results for the underlying query, (b) have content structured for extraction (clear headings, direct answers, schema), and (c) have authoritative citations. AEO targets all three.

in AEO Program

Yes - local AEO is a defined sub-discipline. It combines local SEO (Google Business Profile, citation consistency, local schema) with local AI presence (ensuring ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini correctly identify your service area, hours, and specialties when asked location-specific questions).

in AEO Program

AI bots are the crawlers LLMs use to gather training data and live retrieval results - GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Bingbot's chat crawler, and others. If your robots.txt blocks them, you can't be cited. We audit and configure crawler permissions on day one.

in AEO Program

Almost never, for a marketing site. Blocking AI bots removes you from LLM training and live retrieval - the equivalent of robots-disallowing Googlebot to protect your content from being indexed. The result is invisibility in AI channels, not protected content. Different calculus for paywalled news or proprietary research, but rarely for a commercial service site.

in AEO Program

Often yes. The diagnosis matters: if your traffic dropped because AI Overviews now answer the query without a click, the play is to re-target queries with commercial intent (where users still click through to convert) and to win citations inside the Overview itself. Both are core AEO deliverables.

in AEO Program

Yes - Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant pull from the same retrieval layers we optimize for, plus structured data (HowTo, FAQ, Speakable schema). Voice queries skew long-tail and conversational, which favors well-structured AEO content.

in AEO Program

Same as our other programs: priced by the number of keywords, their difficulty, and the countries you want visibility in. AEO doesn't carry a separate AI premium - because the underlying work feeds both surfaces, you pay once.

in AEO Program

No agency that respects the work guarantees rankings or citations because no agency controls Google's algorithm or OpenAI's reranker. What we guarantee is process - the deliverables, the cadence, the transparency of reporting - and the month-to-month structure so you can stop if the work isn't moving the metrics.

in AEO Program

Technical audit (search engines + AI bots), keyword research across both surfaces, content gap analysis, schema implementation plan, baseline rankings, baseline citation tracking, and a 90-day work calendar. Most clients see crawl errors close and indexed pages rise within the first 30 days.

in AEO Program

Yes - they're independent programs with different funnels. AEO compounds over months; PPC delivers same-week. Many clients run both because the data feeds back: PPC tells you which keywords convert, and AEO permanently captures those keywords organically.

in AEO Program

On-page SEO is what we control directly on your site: content, internal linking, schema, technical health, page speed, headings. Off-page SEO is what we earn from the rest of the web: backlinks, brand mentions, citations, editorial coverage. A complete SEO program runs both because Google evaluates both - content quality without authority underperforms, and authority without quality content has nothing to rank.

in SEO Program

Technical SEO covers crawlability, indexability, site speed, Core Web Vitals, mobile responsiveness, structured data, canonical management, redirect health, and sitemap hygiene. It's the first phase because the rest of the program is wasted spend if Google can't crawl, render, or index your pages reliably.

in SEO Program

Core Web Vitals are Google's user-experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (load speed), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability). Targets: LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. They're a confirmed ranking signal and a competitive tiebreaker - sites with passing CWV outrank otherwise-equal sites that fail.

in SEO Program

A backlink is a hyperlink from another site to yours, passing authority via PageRank. A citation is a mention of your business - name, address, phone - that may not link, but still counts toward local relevance and brand-entity association. Both matter; backlinks for ranking, citations for local SEO and AI-channel context.

in SEO Program

There's no algorithmic duplicate content penalty, but duplicate content suppresses rankings because Google chooses one version to index and ignores the rest. The fix is canonical management, consolidated URLs, and unique value on each page - not a penalty to fear, but a leak to close.

in SEO Program

A site audit is a full technical and content health check - crawl errors, broken links, redirect chains, missing meta data, schema validation, indexation issues, content gaps, internal-linking depth. We run a full audit at engagement start and a delta audit monthly. Most healthy sites still surface 50-200 fixable issues each cycle.

in SEO Program