How AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) works?

Published 01/11/2022 by Ingenuity & Solutions in SEO Consulting - Last updated on February 13, 2022

How AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) works?

What is Answer Engine Optimization?

It is known as Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to the strategy focused on optimizing the "response engines" after the rise of virtual assistants and voice searches. We show you two important points to mention.

1) Voice search on mobile devices

If you use Siri and ask it, for example, how to make a digital marketing strategy, what happens is that it will show you pages that have the best answer for your query. This condition implies that there must be good SEO optimization.

2) Voice searches on non-screen devices

It's different when you do a voice search on a non-screen device like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, which gives you a single response read by a digital assistant. It is in these cases that the AEO strategy becomes more relevant.

You may also want to read our article Voice search for marketing.

If you work in the digital marketing environment, you will surely know what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) positioning is. SEO helps us improve our website's visibility in the organic results of the different search engines. In other words: it allows us to make our website appear first in the search results of search engines such as Google or Yahoo!

However, you may not be familiar with AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). AEO arose as a result of the boom in voice searches, and it works practically the same as SEO, only that, instead of being affected by what we type when we search for something on the network, it is affected by what we say to assistants of voice like Siri or Cortana. We no longer only look at what users type when they search through Google or another search engine. Now we also focus on the searches they perform verbally.

Importance of SEO

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is an optimization technique for voice searches.

Ask the Google Assistant to book a flight for the next vacation. Let Alexa buy the new running shoes or let Cortana coordinate with Starbucks the store pickup of your favorite coffee.

Voice commerce looked further away than expected, but are companies ready to face this new challenge?

Until now, companies have focused their efforts on improving the user experience, especially on their websites, and raising their search engine positioning to get more quality traffic, increase the business's profitability, and, therefore, meet the objectives set.

Thus, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has been one of the great allies of companies for over a decade, whose marketing teams have understood the importance of keywords, quality content, image optimization, HTML heading tags, and more.

You may be interested in reading our article Why teamwork in digital marketing?

From SEO to AEO

A new sound identity and new voice content that add value to customers. One of the changes that most worry companies whether they are big or small is how AEO affects the organic positioning of their companies. This change forces you to become familiar with how AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) works as part of our SEO strategy. With this new way of positioning brands, the way sentences are built determinates the searching engine. Also, the questions' context is relevant.

We have different ways to search when we speak and when we write. Now, our language is different as well as searchers. Companies are working to provide short and precise answers to those questions. One change that we have seen, for example, is the recovery of the FAQS on the webs. Questions and answers are again included thinking about the content associated with voice searches, with concrete questions and clear solutions, using a little technical language to be part of a moment of conversation rather than a specialized reading.

We are facing more focused searches on semantics, more conversational, and, in general, more detailed. We use both long-tail keywords and short-tail queries. Some short-tail keywords would be: What is sushi? And the wizard knows you require a definition. Some long-tail keywords would be: What is the best sushi restaurant in London? By adding more keywords and qualitative terms like "best," Google ranks the restaurants. And the local search term "London" gives Google a pointer to show results only in this area.

AEO vs. SEO

At the height of SEO positioning, companies are increasingly taking care of and dedicating more resources, the trend and the way users search on the Internet continue to change at great speed. The ongoing battle to position a website in the top positions of the search engines is one of the significant concerns of many companies, aware that coming out at the top of the search engine can be synonymous with success for their businesses. But the way of doing searches on the Internet no longer only includes those that are done in writing. Still, those made through voice are making their way into the digital ecosystem, where the AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) positioning arises.

The AEO is not going to replace SEO. Still, it is essential since now it is relevant to optimize content so that they are positioned in the search engine, but they also have to be optimized for response systems. Google is optimizing its logarithm to keep track of the rise of AEO, and this must be as accurate as possible to know what each website offers.

For instance, if we ask a virtual assistant, "What is the nearest Italian restaurant in New York?" The engine will take into account some factors. Depending on factors such as distance and type of food, it will show answers. As if the user asks, "What is the best Italian restaurant in New York?" You will get an answer based on scores and comments which will represent the best option.

That is why now the contents have to be more optimized than ever to ensure that both search engines and response engines can choose our option as the best. And specializing in AEO will be as important as SEO in the future.

At Ingenuity and Solutions, we help you with your company's digital presence. We can also advise you on the best strategies for positioning your brand through understanding tools such as SEO and AEO. If you need help with digital marketing, contact us. If you are interested in more content, do not forget to visit our blog.

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