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Remember when ranking on Google was the dream?
You’d chase keywords, build backlinks, and crank out blog posts like you were printing cash.
That world’s done.
Today, 58% of consumers use AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini for product recommendations—twice as many as last year.
And here’s the scary part:
If AI doesn’t mention you, you don’t exist.
Welcome to AEO/GEO—AI Engine Optimization and Generative Engine Optimization.
This is the new discovery layer. The new search.
You’re no longer fighting for clicks—you’re fighting for inclusion.
The Death of Page 2
Old SEO was a numbers game.
Google looked at 100+ ranking signals, ran a complex scoring model, and rewarded consistency.
Now? That’s collapsing fast.
Google quietly broke the old &num=100 parameter (the trick SEOs used to pull the top 100 results). You can’t see past the first page anymore.
The reality: only ~10 results matter.
And with AI Overviews (GEO) taking over the top of search results, even “#1 on Google” might not mean visibility—it might mean being buried under a paragraph generated by Gemini.
The game just changed.
You’re not optimizing for search engines anymore.
You’re optimizing for answers.
The New KPI: Entity Authority
Traffic is a side effect. Authority is the signal.
“Entity authority” means: how do LLMs like ChatGPT understand your brand?
Do they know who you are, what you do, and why you matter?
AI doesn’t pull links—it pulls entities.
When someone asks “best growth tools for SaaS” or “top eco-friendly cleaners,”
AI builds an answer using the brands it trusts most.
If you’re not in that mental model, you’re invisible to the machine.
For B2B Brands: Be the Credible Citation
Goal: Appear in expert prompts like “top content automation tools” or “best B2B marketing agencies for fintech.”
How to win:
Build semantic clusters around 3–5 core themes you want to own.
Drop original data and insights worth quoting.
Optimize your schema and entity markup—make it easy for AI to “understand” you.
Proof: Gray Dot Co rebuilt its entity pages and PR footprint.
Now they’re cited in 25% of “boutique SEO” prompts—and getting inbound leads directly from AI mentions.
For DTC Brands: Be the Default Pick
Goal: Get listed in AI recommendations like “best natural skincare under $30.”
How to win:
Make product data simple and structured (AI hates messy copy).
Seed your phrasing across UGC, Reddit, and YouTube captions.
Keep customer reviews consistent with your messaging—AI reads sentiment signals.
Proof: Blueland dominates “eco-friendly cleaning” answers across ChatGPT and Gemini.
No ads. Just structured data, owned phrasing, and smart PR.
The Shift: From Optimizing for Clicks to Training the AI
While Google is shrinking the SERP, AI is expanding personalization.
Here’s what’s emerging fast:
AI Site Agents – Tools from Adobe and Shopify can now rewrite your page copy and CTAs in real time based on who’s visiting.
Smart Offers – A new model (SLM4Offer) uses contrastive learning to serve tailored bundles that convert 17% better than standard offers.
Adaptive Ads – Multimodal ad systems now adjust visuals, tone, and copy depending on audience, time, and context.
This isn’t A/B testing anymore—it’s always-on adaptation.
The marketers who win next year will build systems that think while they sleep.
The 7-Tactic Playbook to Start Winning AEO/GEO
Audit Your Entity
Ask AI: “Summarize [brand].”
If the summary sucks, fix your About page, schema, and PR presence.Feed AI Clean Data
Use Q&A format, bullet lists, and concise content. LLMs crave structure.Publish Quote-Bait
Drop unique stats and frameworks worth citing.Own the Forums
Reddit, Quora, niche Slacks—these are the AI training fields.Tie Topics to Brand
Land media mentions connecting your brand to 3–5 key ideas.Deploy Adaptive Messaging
Experiment with AI agents that rewrite copy based on visitor data.Benchmark Quarterly
Run 50 prompts (“best [your niche] tools”) and track visibility. Tools like Peec.ai or Writesonic Brand Presence can measure this.
The Bottom Line
Google used to look at 100 things.
Now it’s 10.
AI doesn’t care about backlinks—it cares about understanding.
The next wave of discovery is conversational, not clickable.
Winning means becoming the brand that AI confidently names when someone asks for help.
Not “top of search.”
Top of mind.
Start small:
Run an entity audit.
Publish one stat worth quoting.
Feed the internet something worth remembering.
Because in the AI era, visibility isn’t earned—it’s trained.
Keep building,
The Behind the CMO Team
Smarter Marketing Starts Here
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Our free ebook, Unlocking Incrementality: A Guide for Marketing Success, shows you how to measure what really moves the needle—so you can stop guessing and start scaling.
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