It’s likely no mystery to B2B marketers that AEO optimization is a critical battleground for generating traffic and leads. AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews have, no doubt, changed the game. A growing share of search attention now utilizes these tools, and the adoption rates are accelerated for software buyers.
At a basic level, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is about ensuring AI models consistently recommend your brand when users ask relevant questions.
But don’t be fooled by the similar acronyms. We wouldn’t be doing our job as a strategic content agency if we left you with the understanding that AEO was just like the SEO days.
Whereas search engines index information at certain intervals to be surfaced later for the user to choose, LLMs use a combination of training data and multiple real-time web searches to process information and generate conversational answers at the time the user prompts.
- In SEO, for many years the “hacks” like keyword stuffing and technical performance features helped sites rank for high-intent target keywords.
- In AEO, the optimization hacks will only get you so far. AI search may lean on search engines to collect information, but LLMs are unique in that they form opinions about brands.
The name of the game is ensuring AI models consistently recommend your brand when users ask relevant questions.
AEO optimization hacks include sitemaps, schema markup, crawlability. We’ve compiled a quick and dirty guide to them below and we consider this a great starting point for achieving AI search visibility.
While these fundamentals matter, they’re table stakes. The real competitive advantage comes from consistent brand storytelling across every touchpoint.
1. Optimize for Recommendations, Not Rankings
Beginning with a general mindset issue, recall that LLMs don’t rank results in a traditional SERP. Instead, they synthesize information from memory and real-time retrieval to craft recommendations from scratch each time.
What this means: Your goal isn’t to be “position #1” in a static list. Rather, it’s to achieve persistent presence—appearing frequently and consistently when AI models answer questions in your domain. Think of it as building brand recall with an AI audience.
Action: Map out 10-20 high-impact prompts your buyers actually ask (“What’s the best way to [solve problem]?” or “How does [your category] compare to [alternative]?”). Test how often your brand appears in responses across multiple AI engines. Track frequency over time, not snapshot rankings.
A good place to collect a list of realistic buyer prompts is by asking your sales team about the questions they field most often in one-on-one conversations.
2. Build an Information Architecture AI Models Can Parse
AI models look for recognizable patterns and structures. When your site follows a predictable organization schema, models can more easily extract and remember key facts about your business.
Core page types to standardize per AEO best practice:
- Homepage with clear value proposition
- Product/service pages with consistent structure (what it is, who it’s for, key benefits, proof points)
- Pricing page with transparent information
- Use cases organized by industry or job-to-be-done
- Comparison pages (“X vs Y” and “Top alternatives to X”)
- FAQ sections answering long-tail queries verbatim
- About/Company page with factual details
Action: Create page templates that follow the same order across your site. Every product page should answer: What is it? Who is it for? What problems does it solve? What are the key features? What proof do we have? Why choose us?
3. Make Your Brand Story Consistent Everywhere
Most companies optimize their website but ignore that AI models triangulate information from multiple sources—your site, third-party reviews, press coverage, documentation portals, and social profiles.
The problem: Inconsistent messaging confuses AI models. If your homepage targets enterprise teams but your G2 profile emphasizes SMB success stories, models don’t know what to believe. Inconsistency kills trust. Without trust, your AI search visibility, and likelihood of being recommended, suffer.
What works: A crisp 2-3 sentence description of what you do, for whom, and why. Plaster it verbatim across all properties to leave zero room for LLM confusion.
Action: Audit your presence across third-party referrers like G2, Trustpilot, app marketplaces, LinkedIn, and press mentions. Update descriptions to align with current positioning. As a longer tail effort, contact the owners of any listicle-type pages that mention you to ask for your preferred language.
4. Design Content for Model Memory
AI models answer either from memory (faster, more reliable) or retrieval from live web search. When models “remember” your core facts, you get recommended more often.
How to optimize:
- Create canonical “Quick Facts” sections with stable information
- Use short, clear sentences for key statements
- Repeat core messaging across multiple pages
- Don’t bury essentials behind JavaScript or sign-in walls
Action: Write one paragraph capturing your essence—what you do, who you serve, your unique value. Repeat this language in meta descriptions, social bios, and intro sections site-wide.
5. Answer Real Questions with Purpose-Built Content
Generic marketing copy doesn’t work to generate AI search visibility. Models seek content that directly answers user prompts in natural language.
The prompt inventory approach:
- Compile 50-200 actual questions from sales calls, support tickets, and competitive research
- Map each to your best page (or create one)
- Write to exact question language—don’t make AI models infer from vague brand speak
High-impact prompts:
- “What are the best [your solution]s”
- “How does [your product] work?”
- “What’s implementation time?”
- “How much does it cost?”
- “[Your product] vs [competitor]?”
- “What integrations are supported?”
Action: Start with 10 high-priority prompts. Ensure you have a page answering each directly, factually, and completely.
6. Nail the Technical Fundamentals
Technical hygiene is the foundation, not the strategy.
Must-haves:
- Working XML sitemap
- Clean robots.txt (don’t block AI crawlers)
- Canonical URLs and hreflang tags
- JSON-LD structured data (Organization, Product, FAQ)
- Titles 15-70 characters
- Fact-rich meta descriptions
- Open Graph and Twitter card tags
Common mistakes: Hiding core information behind paywalls, heavy JavaScript delays, mixing languages without proper markup, outdated sitemaps.
Action: Run a technical audit. Fix blocking issues first, then address schema and metadata gaps.
7. Create Comparison Content AI Models Rely On
When buyers evaluate options, they ask AI engines for comparisons. If you haven’t published factual comparison pages, models synthesize answers from competitor content or reviews—neither of which you control.
We get it: these pages are awkward to create. Even mentioning your competitors feels sinful. But the fact is that comparison pages get disproportionate weight in AI responses. Publishing your own lets you frame the narrative.
Action: Create “[Your Product] vs [Competitor]” pages for your top 3-5 competitors. Be genuinely fair, and highlight what competitors do well alongside your differentiation. Add a “Top alternatives to [Your Product]” page.
8. Measure What Actually Matters
Traditional SEO metrics don’t capture AEO success. You need new KPIs that reflect how AI engines recommend brands.
Key metrics to track:
Exposure metrics:
- Mention frequency: How often you appear in responses to target prompts
- Citation share: Percentage of answers that cite your preferred URLs
- Model consensus: Agreement across engines on your positioning
Business impact metrics:
- AI referral traffic (imperfect in GA, but directional)
- Engagement rate from AI landing pages vs. other channels
- Conversion rate and demo requests from AI-sourced sessions
- Movement of prompts from low to high-impact presence zones over time
Action: Run quarterly prompt tests across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Track how often and how consistently your brand appears. Connect this to traffic and conversion data to prove business impact.
9. Think Long-Term: Content Quality Beats Hacks
Every week brings a new “AI search optimization hack.” Most die quickly. What persists? Unique, genuinely useful content that serves both humans and AI models.
The reality: AI search is non-deterministic. Answers vary each time. A single prompt test is a snapshot, not a strategy. What compounds is consistent brand presence built on quality content, stable messaging, and authoritative proof.
The differentiation insight: As technical optimization becomes commoditized, the lasting edge comes from creative, distinctive storytelling that helps AI models understand not just what you do, but why you matter.
Action: Invest in anchor content demonstrating thought leadership—original research, comprehensive guides, case studies with specific metrics. This content gets remembered and recommended over generic alternatives.
10. Focus on Deep Funnel
Importantly, the best investment for AI search visibility is deep funnel prompting. This is because LLMs increasingly pull context from training (stored) data. As more and more of the internet’s content is absorbed as training data, it will cite external websites less often.
However, in deeper funnel prompting, the user is directly requesting mentions of solutions. Brands will be part of the response, and it’s your job to make sure you show up among them.
The New Reality: Best Story Wins
Your brand is the sum of what people believe about you and increasingly, AI models are impacting your target audiences’ beliefs.
Much as we wish it was a series of “weird tricks” alone, AI search visibility isn’t about gaming an algorithm. It’s about teaching machines to accurately understand and represent your brand story. That requires consistency, clarity, and quality at scale.
The checklist of optimizations we’ve shared here is your starting line. But, the brands that dominate AI search visibility will combine technical excellence with distinctive, consistent storytelling across every property.
LLMs should be seen as a diagnostic revealing how clearly you’re telling your brand story across the web. Use it to refine positioning, strengthen proof points, and ensure every piece of content reinforces the same narrative.
Looking to understand your current AI search visibility? Column Five helps B2B SaaS brands audit their presence across AI engines, identify storytelling gaps, and build content strategies that drive both AI recommendations and business results. Get in touch here.
Let's upgrade your marketing game
Get fresh tips, how-tos, and expert marketing advice every week. (15,000 people already are.)
