How Answer Engine Optimization Services Work (and Why They Benefit Your Business)
Depending upon the source you trust, anywhere from 72% to as many as 98% of online shoppers read reviews before buying anything.
The takeaway? Consumers are after information and they won’t just purchase blind. This translates to answer engine use, even though the two are not exactly perfectly related.
In the olden era of traditional SEO, consumers would type something into the search engine search bar and see what came up. They’d read some reviews and perhaps some forum posts before buying anything.
Maybe if they were exceptionally interested or patient they’d read an actual drawn-out review on a blog or even read some release about a new product.
That’s why we’ve always said in digital marketing that content is king for any SEO strategy. Well, that is as much the case now, if not more, than it’s ever been, now that people are increasingly reliant on AI engines.
This is due in part to the rise of answer engines like ChatGPT – but don’t think that these are a new thing.
In fact, answer engines have sort of existed for a long time in the form of Google’s featured snippets and People Also Ask search features.
The point is this: people ask questions, and they expect succinct answers that meet their needs.
This is where answer engine optimization services come into focus.
What Are Answer Optimization Services?
In a nutshell, answer engine optimization services entail efforts to make a website or one of its pages more visible through AI-powered engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok and Gemini. Even Google operates an answer engine in the form of the AI Overview.
Answer engines operate on the following principle: users enter a question and they output a relatively succinct and easily digestible answer.
The main lift with answer engine optimization services has to do with content publication and optimization.
Now more than ever, if you can believe it, content is what distinguishes websites from each other. This has always been the case but as large language models get increasingly better at parsing it all, it becomes the primary defining factor.
Ultimately, answer engine optimization services require the insight of an experienced writer that is familiar with the given industry and can publish copy in the form of newsletters, blogs, CMS page copy, or category or product page copy that answers the questions users are looking for.
Often these queries are long-tail and structured as an actual conversational question. Providing brief and accurate answers to these in live copy is the main thing that not only gets a page off the ground and into the SERPs, but featured as an output through an answer engine.
At the end of the day, what made copy good for SEO still makes it good for answer engine optimization or an overall AEO strategy. It must satisfy search intent and provide good information. It also helps if it is structured properly, attributable to an experienced writer, and has a citation chain.
If you check all the boxes, your content will have a much higher chance of populating as an output through one of the answer engines mentioned here, which comes with a whole bunch of benefits for online businesses.
One is greater brand visibility. The more users know about your brand, the more likely you are to get a direct search and a new loyal customer.
The other is legitimacy. If potential customers hear answer engines talking about your brand or product, they will be more likely to buy from you.
Together, these things are helping to bolster the traditional benefits of SEO, which include beating out your competition. They’re not mutually exclusive, and answer engine services can simply help round out your overall digital marketing strategy and bring you new business.
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