I’ve been hearing a lot more talk lately about AEO, AI search, and how businesses need to start showing up in tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI results. And honestly, I can understand why a lot of business owners are a bit sceptical about it.
Every few years there seems to be a new thing that marketers latch onto. Build a website. Do SEO. Get on social media. Start making videos. Now it’s AEO. So when someone asks whether this is actually worth paying attention to, or whether it is just another shiny marketing term, I think that’s a completely fair question.
My view is pretty simple. No, I don’t think AEO is a waste of time. But I also don’t think it needs to be treated like some magical new strategy that replaces everything else. To me, it is more a reflection of the fact that the way people search is changing, and businesses need to adjust to that.
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. That sounds more technical than it really is, but the basic idea is straightforward. It means creating content that is clear, useful, and trustworthy enough to be picked up by answer-based tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and whatever else comes next.
Traditional search has mostly been about links. You typed something into Google, got a list of websites back, and then clicked around until you found what you needed. That model still exists, but it is clearly shifting. People are now asking full questions and expecting a direct answer, often before they ever visit a website.
That changes what content has to do. It is no longer enough to just rank for a phrase and hope the page does the rest. Your content needs to explain things properly. It needs to answer real questions in natural language. And it needs to make sense to both humans and the systems trying to pull meaning from it.
This is where I think some people get carried away. AEO is not a replacement for SEO. It is not some separate world where everything you have been doing suddenly stops mattering.
Good SEO still matters. Your site still needs proper structure, solid technical foundations, useful pages, relevant content, and credibility. None of that goes away just because AI is now showing up inside the search experience. If anything, those foundations matter more, because answer engines still need something reliable to work from.
What has changed is the standard content is being held to. Service pages full of vague marketing language are not enough anymore. Thin content is not enough. Pages that dance around the point instead of answering a question properly are not enough. The websites that will do better are the ones that are clearer, more useful, and more grounded in real expertise.
The main reason I take AEO seriously is because people are already changing how they search. This is not some far-off shift that might happen one day. It is already happening now.
People are using ChatGPT to research. They are seeing AI Overviews in Google. They are asking longer, more specific questions, and they are getting more comfortable with conversational search. That means businesses need to think more carefully about whether their content is actually helping answer those questions.
I do not think that means websites become less important. In some ways, the opposite is true. Strong websites become more important because they are the source material. If your content is weak, generic, or badly written, there is less there for search engines and AI tools to trust. If your content is useful and clear, you give yourself a better chance of being found in both traditional search and answer-based search.
A lot of the conversation around AEO makes it sound more complicated than it needs to be. People talk about it as if there is some hidden formula or some entirely new playbook you need to buy into. I don’t really see it that way.
Most of what helps with AEO is the same stuff that should have been on your website anyway. Clear headings. Good structure. Useful explanations. Real answers to real questions. Content written by someone who knows what they are talking about. Pages that help a potential client understand something properly, rather than just trying to sound impressive.
That is why I think a lot of businesses would be better off worrying less about the label and focusing more on the quality of what they publish. If your content is thin, generic, or written mainly to tick a box, then yes, that is going to become more of a problem. If your content is relevant, meaningful, and based on actual expertise, then you are already moving in the right direction.
Honestly, I’d do exactly what I’ve done.
I would create content that is relevant, meaningful, and based on something I actually know. I would not try to game AI search with fluff, generic trend pieces, or surface-level content written just to chase traffic. I’d focus on publishing useful content in areas where I have real experience, because that is the kind of content that tends to hold up whether someone finds it through Google, ChatGPT, or anywhere else.
A good example of that is HubSpot website development. We’re strong developers, we now do HubSpot, we’ve got real projects under our belt, and we understand the platform well enough to talk about it properly. So instead of putting out vague content that says we can help with HubSpot, I’d rather publish something deeper and more useful that answers the kinds of questions businesses actually have before they commit.
That is exactly the sort of content that gets us HubSpot website development leads. Not because it is clever for the sake of being clever, but because it is grounded in something real. It speaks to a decision someone is already trying to make. It gives them useful information. And it shows that we actually know the space, rather than just wanting to rank for a keyword.
That, to me, is the part that matters. The businesses that do well with this stuff will not be the ones chasing every new acronym. They’ll be the ones that are best at explaining what they know in a clear, useful, trustworthy way. If you want a good example of the kind of content I mean, have a read of my post on whether HubSpot is right for your business, including the benefits, limitations, and pricing.
Not neatly, no. That is one of the annoying parts.
There still is not a perfect way to measure AEO in the same way people are used to measuring traffic from organic search or paid ads. You do not get a tidy dashboard that tells you exactly which lead came from an AI-generated answer. So if someone is waiting for perfect attribution before they do anything, they may end up waiting too long.
That said, I don’t think “hard to measure” means “not worth doing”. Plenty of things in marketing show up in the real world before the reporting catches up. If your content is bringing in better-fit leads, helping people understand your expertise faster, and improving your visibility across more search environments, that has value whether the reporting is perfect or not.
Not every business needs to panic and turn this into the centre of their marketing strategy tomorrow. But if you are in an industry where clients do research before they make contact, then yes, I think this matters.
That could be professional services, manufacturing, tourism, higher-trust service businesses, or more complex B2B work. Basically, if people are comparing options, asking questions, and trying to work out who knows their stuff before they buy, then the quality of your content matters more than ever.
If your business depends on people seeing you as credible before they enquire, this is worth paying attention to. The more considered the buying process is, the more useful good content becomes.
No, I don’t think it is.
I think it is worth taking seriously, but I also think it gets overcomplicated. For me, this is not about chasing hype or pretending AI changes everything overnight. It is about recognising that search behaviour is shifting and making sure your content is actually useful in that environment.
I don’t think AEO replaces SEO. I think it builds on it. And I think the businesses that do well out of it will be the ones that stop worrying about shortcuts and start getting better at publishing content that is relevant, clear, and based on real expertise.
That is usually the less exciting answer. But in my experience, it is also the more useful one.