Online business administrators are increasingly concerned with the impact that answer engine optimization, or AEO, is having on digital marketing in general and consumer behavior in specific.
But the thing is that SEO, far from being dead, will have a serious impact on a website’s AEO score.
In fact, a modern eCommerce SEO agency’s process will optimize, even indirectly, for AEO. Here’s what to know.
What Is AEO?
AEO, which is also known as answer engine optimization, is a collection of processes to optimize a domain for answer engines, such as ChatGPT, other AI models, and even Google’s People Also Ask search feature.
As more and more consumers rely on long-tail queries and answer engines to help them find products that meet their needs, eCommerce entrepreneurs are looking for ways to get their websites to show up in relevant results.
Unlike conventional SEO, which typically hinges on short-tail keywords associated with transactional and commercial search intent, AEO is all about answering questions associated with long-tail keywords.
It also hinges entirely on content; with SEO, there’s a lot of link-building and headlines, with AEO, it all boils down to the quality of copy.
The Crossover Between SEO and AEO
Here’s the thing about SEO and AEO; at least at this point in time, there is a lot of common ground between the two digital marketing channels.
Google alone crunches more than 200 ranking factors when determining what results to serve, and at this time, it’s not perfectly understood what ranking signals answer engines like ChatGPT uses, but it is known that it uses what Google uses, albeit indirectly.
ChatGPT scrapes the internet, not just at the results level, but facultatively at the page level, in order to furnish results that are relevant to the query.
Now, just what an answer engine like ChatGPT uses, specifically, before delivering results, is not that well-known, especially since the answer to the same question can differ over time. But it is known that ChatGPT uses the internet, as a data set, to find information for outputs.
Let’s just say, hypothetically, that ChatGPT specifically uses totally different ranking signals than Google to find its results; but it is still using Google for information.
Therefore, whatever ranking signals Google uses are equally important, because if it doesn’t show up on the internet, ChatGPT isn’t likely to find it (or flat-out won’t) and then won’t be able to use it for an output.
So, by optimizing for SEO, specifically by targeting long-tail queries and optimizing the quality of content as much as possible, an eCommerce SEO agency’s process will also be implicitly optimizing for AEO.
Ultimately, the factors that induce a website or its pages to show up at the tops of the search results will indirectly result in it being a candidate for optimal AEO – which is good not just for the website but for the users that are looking for answers.
Hiring a Qualified eCommerce SEO Agency
Ultimately, you’ll want to know if an eCommerce SEO agency is proficient with AEO before hiring, since those two things go hand in hand.
One thing you can do is look up some long-tail queries relevant to the agency itself. If you get results relevant to it, and you see their domain in the SERPs, you’re on the right track.
Alternatively, you could use an answer engine itself – ask one of these about the company’s reviews or process, and see if the answer engine has anything substantial to lend.
Lastly, make sure the agency has experienced, in-house copywriters; that’s the most sensitive piece to AEO since they are directly involved in content optimization.
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