Marketing evolves constantly, but occasionally, a significant shift comes along that changes how we think about reaching our customers. We’re in the midst of such a shift right now. If you’ve read our recent article about Google no longer being king of search, you’re already aware that people are increasingly turning to AI assistants and social platforms instead of traditional search engines to find information.
While Google will undoubtedly fight to regain its position (it has the resources and motivation to do so), this change signals something more fundamental: we’re moving into the era of Answer Engine Optimisation, or AEO.
What is AEO?
Answer Engine Optimisation is the process of structuring your content to directly answer the questions your target audience is asking. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on ranking for keywords, AEO concentrates on providing comprehensive, authoritative answers that AI systems can easily process and deliver to users.
This is also about preparing for tomorrow where AI assistants will increasingly mediate our information intake. And when one AI talks to another AI to gather information for us, you want your business to be the source they’re pulling from.
Think about how you use AI tools today. You don’t ask for ‘electrician Auckland residential services’, you ask, ‘What’s causing the flickering in my kitchen lights?’ or ‘How much should it cost to rewire a 1970s house?’ You want answers, not search results.
As more people adopt AI assistants, this behaviour will become the norm. We’re moving toward a world where our personal AI will search on our behalf, filtering and synthesising information before presenting it to us. In this bot-to-bot situation, only content that provides clear, authoritative answers will cut through.
Voice assistants paved the way
We’ve actually been living with answer engines longer than we might realise. When you ask Siri, ‘What’s the weather tomorrow?’ or tell Alexa to ‘Find a pizza restaurant nearby,’ you’re not getting a list of search results, you’re getting a single, definitive answer.
These voice assistants were the first mainstream answer engines, training us to expect direct responses rather than having to sort through options ourselves. Now, with ChatGPT and similar AI tools, this expectation has expanded beyond simple questions about weather and restaurants to complex queries across every industry.
This evolution means people are increasingly comfortable outsourcing their information gathering to AI systems. They’re not looking for ten different opinions—they want the answer. And if your business isn’t positioned to be that answer, you’ll become invisible.
The evolution from backlinks to answers
Backlinks (other websites linking to yours) have long been the currency of online authority. While they still matter, we’re seeing a shift towards the ‘citation economy.’ This means your brand being mentioned, quoted, or referenced, even without a direct hyperlink.
AI systems are designed to identify authoritative sources, whether they’re linked to or not. When AI tools recognise your website as providing comprehensive answers to specific questions, they’ll increasingly draw from your content when answering user queries.
For businesses, AEO presents two distinct challenges:
- Creating content that answers questions comprehensively and authoritatively
- Getting potential customers to ask the questions your content answers
Answering questions people are asking
The first step in AEO is identifying what questions your target audience is asking. These might include:
- Problem-based questions ‘Why does my circuit breaker keep tripping?’
- Comparison questions ‘Which is better, ducted or split system air conditioning?’
- Cost questions ‘How much should professional gutter cleaning cost?’
- How-to questions ‘How do I measure for new kitchen cabinets?’
- Timing questions ‘How long does it take to renovate a bathroom?’
Your website should provide clear, helpful answers to these questions. Not surface-level responses, but genuinely valuable information that establishes your expertise. This type of content builds trust with both human readers and AI systems.
Making people curious enough to ask
This is where many businesses miss the mark. Having great answers is only valuable if people are asking the questions. This is where strategic social media comes into play.
Consider our electrician client. We developed content about how lighting colour affects productivity and relaxation. Cold, blue-based lighting increases alertness, while warm, yellow-based lighting promotes relaxation. This information is valuable to homeowners, particularly those with home offices, but most people aren’t waking up thinking about lighting colours.
Therefore, we need to spark curiosity. On LinkedIn, where business professionals gather, we might post:
‘Did you know the wrong lighting could be reducing your team’s productivity by up to 15%?’
For family-focused Facebook, perhaps:
‘The simple lighting change that could improve your teenager’s homework focus.’
These posts don’t directly sell electrical services. Instead, they create a knowledge gap. Making people aware there’s something they don’t know that could benefit them. This curiosity drives them to seek answers, either through Google or by asking an AI assistant.
Social media as your shop window
When people stroll down a high street, an effective window display doesn’t just show products—it creates questions in the viewer’s mind. ‘Would that look good on me?’ ‘How much is that?’ ‘Could that solve my problem?’
Similarly, your social media shouldn’t just showcase your services or products. It should create questions that lead people to seek answers. And when they do, your website content should be there waiting with the authoritative response they need.
I see so many company that post about themselves ‘Look at this great job we completed!’ Instead, create curiosity that leads to questions like ‘I wonder if my home’s lighting is affecting my sleep quality?’.
The future of marketing is bot-to-bot
It’s increasingly likely that our first interaction with information will be mediated by AI assistants. We might ask our personal AI something like, ‘Find me options for improving my home office lighting for productivity,’ and it will gather information from various sources, including AI’s like Chat GPT, before presenting us with a summary and recommendations.
This trend will accelerate with the anticipated release of Google’s new AR glasses. Unlike their predecessor, these next-generation glasses are designed to seamlessly integrate AI assistance into your daily visual experience. Imagine looking at a restaurant and instantly receiving reviews, or examining a product and immediately getting price comparisons and specifications—all without having to type a search. In this world, being the authoritative answer source becomes even more critical, as AI will need to pull information from somewhere to display in these split-second interactions.
Putting AEO into practice
To implement an effective AEO strategy:
- Identify the questions your ideal customers are asking at each stage of their journey
- Create comprehensive, authoritative content that answers these questions
- Use social media strategically to create curiosity and prompt these questions
- Structure your content so it’s easily digestible by both humans and AI systems
- Build authority through consistent, valuable content creation
The most effective marketing has always been about creating a need and then fulfilling it. AEO takes this principle and adapts it for the AI-driven information landscape. By strategically creating curiosity through social media and providing authoritative answers through your website content, you create a complete ecosystem that guides potential customers from awareness to decision.
As we move further into this new era of search, the businesses that thrive will be those that understand both sides of the equation—making people curious enough to ask questions and being the authoritative source that answers them.
If it all sounds too hard, talk with us as I’m sure we can help.