When it comes to digital visibility, SEO and AEO are the two sides of a single coin serving different goals. While SEO is an age-old strategy focusing on improving website rankings on Google, AEO is a relatively new concept that focuses on optimising content to make it clear, concise, and relevant according to AI-driven search tools. With the evolution of AI chatbots and voice search, both SEO and AEO strategies are becoming essential for websites for maintaining online relevance and visibility.
Before availing of small business SEO in East Sussex, know the differences and how you can use both strategies to succeed in the field of digital marketing.
What is AEO?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on optimising website content to make it discoverable by AI search engines like ChatGPT, AI chatbots, and AI voice assistants.
The major focus on AEO is to optimise and make the content easy so that the answer engines can easily understand it. It is becoming increasingly important because AI tools nowadays prioritise clarity, simplicity, and accuracy in website content.
What is SEO?
It is a traditional and proven digital marketing strategy that helps the website get a higher rank on search engines. SEO focuses on optimising keywords, creating backlinks, and enhancing the site structure to improve the visibility of the website on search engines.
What are the differences between AEO and SEO strategies?
In layman’s language, SEO strategies help the audience to find the website, while AEO strategies help the audience to get answers to their queries. While getting services for SEO in Sussex, you can avail yourself of AEO services as well.
Before you delve into the depths, here are the differences between the two strategies.
Goal
SEO strategies aim to achieve high rankings for websites on different search engines, including SERPs, and help drive traffic to the website. On the contrary, AEO strategies help optimise the website’s content for citation in AI-generated answers, thereby increasing brand awareness and attracting high traffic to the website.
Success parameters
The success of the SEO strategy is evaluated based on the website’s high rankings and visibility across different search engines, as well as AI-powered features. If the website’s organic traffic is high, it indicates that the SEO strategy is working effectively. To measure the success of AEO strategies, the increase in the number of AI mentions, citations and AI-generated responses is checked.
User intent
SEO strategy helps in navigating to a site and allows the audience to get an instant response via SERP. SEO strategies are for users who generally browse, compare and click to learn more about the website and the content. The users, at times, ask questions to different AI platforms, and with the help of the AEO strategy, they can get relevant answers to the same.
Search behaviour
SEO strategies work best for typed searches and research-oriented users who are looking for products or services in a location. AEO strategies of a website work better for voice search and conversational questions, which AI assistants especially initiate.
How to make SEO and AEO work together?
With the SEO services, the websites build domain authority and make sure that the content is trustworthy. On the other hand, the AEO services make the content simpler and easier for AI systems to process. With strong SEO strategies and a combination of AEO strategies, you can boost your chances of the website being cited in AI results.
Rather than replacing AEO with SEO, experts blend both strategies to complement each other perfectly. Here’s how they can work together in harmony.
Also read: How To Win More Traffic By Appearing In Google Answer Boxes?
Create content for SEO and AEO
Experts are creating content, keeping SEO fundamentals in mind. They keep keyword research, user analysis and high-quality writing in mind while creating content. Further, the content is refined for AEO purposes by structuring it as answers and including concise and crisp material for the website.
Use structured data and schema markup
Answering engines and AI tools rely heavily on structured data to interpret content accurately. Adding schema markup like FAQ questions, reviews, and product details helps make the website SEO and AEO friendly.
Balance long-form and short-form content.
SEO strategies work best on long-form, in-depth and comprehensive content. On the other hand, AEO strategies work best on concise, crisp and factual content. By combining the expertise of content specialists, the team is working on strategies for the websites. The specialists combine long-form articles on the website that contain short and clear answers to specific questions. This way, they can combine both AEO and SEO strategies in a single website.
Focus on the user’s experience
Both AEO and SEO aim to deliver the best user experience. While SEO helps you find the product or the service you’re looking for, AEO helps users to trust the content that your website is offering. With fast-loading pages, mobile-optimised designs, clean formatting, engaging visuals, and simple, understandable content, both AEO and SEO have been working successfully to make a website suitable for both humans and AI tools.
Will AEO replace SEO?
AEO is a modern trend and will certainly not replace SEO strategies. However, over time, both strategies will work together to help the website rank on search engines and increase visibility in AI tools. While SEO will keep its focus on traditional strategies to drive organic website traffic, AEO will focus on optimising the content to generate AI-based answers, which may not always lead to clicks. However, without strong SEO strategies, it is impossible to achieve success with AEO strategies.
Hence, digital marketing specialists are focusing on optimising each page for both SEO and AEO by structuring the content logically and using a clear question format for topics. Moreover, the specialists are using keywords and keeping the information comprehensive and crisp.
For small business SEO in East Sussex, get in touch with Object Ad Solutions. Our team of specialists will help you get the SEO strategies that you need for your business.


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