Everyone is probably tired of hearing that people don't search on Google or click on links as much as they used to. Well, there's some truth to it. Here’s what you should be doing to optimize your content and be the first one AI cites:
Read more about each tip below and download our checklist for additional insights and practical ways to apply them to your content.
Table of content:
What is AEO and why does it matter?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of optimizing your content so that AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews can easily find, understand, and reference it when answering users’ questions.
Search behavior has changed. People no longer type two or three keywords into Google and scroll through ten blue links. They ask full questions and expect a direct answer, often without clicking anywhere. If your content isn't the source behind that answer, you're invisible to a growing share of your audience.
The good news: AEO doesn't replace good SEO or good writing. It builds on both. Below are practical tips to make your content easier for AI to read, trust and quote, without losing the human reader along the way.
Structure every section so it can stand on its own. An AI doesn't read your article the way a human does, from the first line to the last. It scans, breaks the page into chunks and pulls out the passage that best answers a specific question.
That means each paragraph should make sense even if it's lifted out of context. In practice:
A simple test: copy any paragraph into a blank page. If it still makes sense, it's AI-ready.
Download our checklist to follow all the steps to create AEO-optimized content.
Short, objective sentences are easier for AI to understand and quote accurately. Long sentences packed with clauses, jargon and qualifiers make it harder for a model to identify the actual claim.
Aim for clarity over cleverness:
This also helps your human readers. Most people skim online content, and clear sentences respect their time.
Question-based headers match the way people now search. Users ask Google and AI assistants full questions like "How do I improve my email open rates?" rather than typing "email open rates tips". When your header mirrors that question, AI can easily connect it to the user's prompt.
The key is pairing each question with a clear answer right below it:
Of course, not every header has to be a question, but your most important sections should be.
Tables and FAQs give AI structured, ready-to-use answers. They organize information into clear pairs (question and answer, item and attribute) that models can extract with very little interpretation.
Use tables for comparisons. Whenever you compare options, features, prices or processes, put them in a table instead of a long paragraph. For example:
|
SEO |
AEO |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Goal |
Rank on search results pages |
Be cited as the answer by AI tools |
|
Main platform |
Google, Bing |
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews |
|
Content focus |
Keywords and backlinks |
Clear questions and direct answers |
|
Success metric |
Rankings, clicks, traffic |
Mentions, citations, AI referral traffic |
Add an FAQ section. End your article with three to six questions your readers actually ask, each followed by a short, complete answer (two to four sentences). FAQs capture long-tail questions and are among the easiest content formats for AI to quote.
Schema markup is code you add to your page that tells search engines and AI exactly what the content is. Instead of guessing, they read a label: this is an article, this is an FAQ, this is a how-to guide, this is the author.
The most useful schema types for content marketing are:
Most CMS platforms, including HubSpot and WordPress, let you add schema through settings, plugins or a JSON-LD snippet in the page header. Once added, validate it with Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema.org validator.
Example: HubSpot
Focus on what you know. AI tools favor sources that show consistent, deep expertise on a topic, not brands that publish a little about everything.
Think of it this way: a marketing agency should write about marketing. A HubSpot partner should write about HubSpot, CRM and RevOps. A cybersecurity company should write about cybersecurity. When your content clusters around a clear area, AI starts to associate your brand with that subject and is more likely to cite you.
To build that topical authority:
Being the go-to source for one area beats being a forgettable source for ten.
Yes. Humans still matter, and they (we) make the difference. You're optimizing for AI, but the people reading, sharing and buying are still human. And AI tools are increasingly trained to favor content that shows real expertise and trustworthiness.
Before you publish, always review the content yourself:
AI can help you write faster. Only a human can make sure it's accurate, useful and on-brand.
You measure AEO by tracking how often AI tools mention and cite your brand, and how much traffic they send you. AEO isn't a one-time task; it's an ongoing cycle of publishing, measuring and improving.
What to track:
HubSpot also offers a dedicated AEO tool that you can use on its own to monitor your content’s performance and access valuable insights.
Review your top pages every few months. Update outdated stats, add new questions and restructure sections that aren't being picked up.
Optimizing for AEO comes down to one idea: make your content easy to understand, easy to extract and easy to trust. Structure it clearly, answer real questions directly, stay focused on what you know, and let humans have the final word. Do that consistently, and AI tools will start pointing your audience to you.
Sources: