Last month at a marketing conference I attended, a seasoned marketing leader shared how his brand, once dominating Google search results, had vanished overnight.
“We owned traditional search,” he said, “but when customers started asking ChatGPT and other AI tools about our industry, we didn’t exist.”
That moment led him down a path that every content marketer needs to understand: the fundamental shift from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
The New Reality: Why AI Changes Everything
Nearly 60% of Google searches now end without a click, with users directly checking AI overviews. This happens because AI systems are trained to synthesize answers, not just list links. Meanwhile, research from Demand Curve shows AI-referred leads are converting 3-4x better than traditional search traffic.
A recent Ahrefs study analyzing 75,000 brands revealed that brand mentions across the web show a 0.664 correlation with AI overview visibility—nearly three times stronger than traditional backlinks (0.218).
We’re witnessing a total rewiring of how information flows online.
Why Traditional SEO Isn’t Enough Anymore
Here’s what caught that marketing leader (and many of us) off guard: Large Language Models don’t just crawl your website. They synthesize answers from the entire internet—Reddit threads, YouTube transcripts, review sites, forum discussions, and social media conversations.
Think of an LLM as a human expert who has read every book, article, and forum post on a topic. When you ask it a question, it doesn’t just point you to a specific page. It gives you the most comprehensive answer it can assemble. Your website is just one book on its shelf.
In the old world, a mention in a Reddit comment was nice, but it didn’t move your SEO needle without a direct backlink. In the AI era, that same unlinked mention can influence how you appear in millions of AI-generated responses. As Ryan Law from Ahrefs explains, “Unlinked mentions have very little impact on SEO, but a much bigger impact on [AI search]… LLMs derive their understanding of a brand’s authority from words on the page, from the prevalence of particular words, the co-occurrence of different terms and topics, and the context in which those words are used.”
Brand mentions have become the new backlinks.
The Framework That’s Actually Working
After some research, I kept coming back to how to systematically approach this?
That’s where HubSpot’s “Loop Marketing” framework becomes helpful. Rather than throwing tactics at the wall, it gives you a structured way to think about AEO strategy.
It mirrors how AI systems work: they need consistent signals across multiple touchpoints to build confidence in their responses.
Here’s how the four-stage cycle works:
1. Express: Define Your Core Message
Nail down the single, consistent message you want AI crawlers to find everywhere. AI models get more confident when they see the same story repeated across multiple trusted surfaces.
For example, if you’re an AI note-taking app, don’t let your website emphasize “seamless integration” while your YouTube reviews highlight “superior transcription.” Pick one core differentiator and stick to it. Brands could lose AI visibility because their messaging was scattered.
2. Tailor: Personalize for Key Segments
Use AI to identify your key customer archetypes and create laser-focused content that speaks directly to their pain points. This makes personalization feasible for small teams where it was previously cost-prohibitive.
3. Amplify: Deploy Strategically Across High-Value Surfaces
Place your tailored content on the platforms AI models are actually crawling. Based on Ahrefs’ research, prioritize:
- Reddit discussions and forum contributions
- YouTube video content and transcripts
- Review sites and industry databases
- Social media conversations
4. Evolve: Measure and Adapt
Track what’s working through tools like HubSpot’s AEO Grader or Ahrefs Brand Radar. This feedback loop helps you decide whether to double down, pivot to new surfaces, or refine your messaging.
What’s powerful about this framework is that it forces you to think beyond your own website—exactly what AEO requires.
Your AEO Action Plan: Start Here
When there’s so much to do, where do you start? Based on my research of successful case studies, here’s how you prioritize if you were starting from scratch:
Week 1: Foundation Check (Start Here)
- Audit your brand’s digital footprint across Wikipedia, Crunchbase, G2, and industry databases
- Ensure message consistency across all platforms—this is your biggest leverage point
- Set up monitoring with Ahrefs Brand Radar or similar tools to establish your baseline
Month 1-2: Quick Wins
- Create comprehensive FAQ and glossary pages to provide structured, AI-friendly content
- Optimize existing high-performing content with better structure and entity mentions
- Launch systematic brand mention outreach targeting 2-3 high-authority forums or review sites
Month 3-6: Scale and Systematize
- Develop creator partnerships for authentic product discussions
- Build thought leadership content that gets cited and referenced by others
- Create original research that becomes an industry reference point
Don’t try to be everywhere at once. Pick 2-3 high-impact surfaces and dominate them before expanding.
The Uncomfortable Truth
If your brand sits in the bottom 50% of web mentions, you’re essentially invisible to AI systems. According to Ahrefs’ research, the top 25% of brands by web mentions earn 10x more AI overview mentions than those in the next quartile down.
This creates a “visibility cliff.” You’re either part of the conversation or you’re not. There’s little middle ground.
The Bottom Line
That marketing leader’s story had a happy ending. Six months after implementing a comprehensive AEO strategy, his brand started appearing in AI responses for their core category terms. But it required a fundamental shift in how they thought about content and online presence.
The question is no longer “if” AI will reshape search—it already has. The question is whether your brand will be part of the conversation when AI systems synthesize answers for your potential customers.
Though traditional SEO still dominates the market, the gradual shift towards AEO is already underway. As marketers say: be where your customers are.
Have you noticed changes in how customers discover your brand? What’s your experience with AI search visibility? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Sources:
- Ahrefs research study on AI Overview visibility (75,000 brands analyzed)
- HubSpot Loop Marketing framework
- Demand Curve Growth Newsletter #279
- Ryan Law, “GEO, LLMO, AEO… It’s All Just SEO” (Ahrefs)
Musings by Madhav 
Leave a comment