Analytics
A Step‑by‑Step Guide to Implementing an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Strategy for Your Brand

A Step‑by‑Step Guide to Implementing an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Strategy for Your Brand

8 min read · Jun 14, 2024

Executive Summary

ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Amazon Rufus—these aren’t just “cool AI tools” anymore. They’re quietly becoming the new homepage of the internet.

People don’t just search; they ask.

“Best running shoes under $150?”
“Which email tool is easiest for small teams?”
“Healthiest dog food for senior labradors?”

And instead of scrolling through ten blue links, they get one tidy answer, plus a short list of brands to consider.

In this new world, the winner isn’t just the brand that ranks on page one of Google. It’s the brand that actually gets named inside the AI‑generated answer.

That’s what Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is about:

Designing your brand, content, and digital footprint so that AI agents consistently discover, understand, and recommend you.

In this guide, we’ll walk through a practical, step‑by‑step AEO strategy—from research and measurement to content and optimization. You’ll also see how platforms like Frevana can automate huge chunks of the process so you see results in weeks, not months.

Introduction: SEO Won’t Be Enough Anymore

Picture two brands selling almost the same product.

  • Brand A is a classic SEO powerhouse: strong backlinks, years of blog content, dialed‑in ad campaigns.
  • Brand B is newer, but its product details are crystal clear, use cases are well‑defined, and its content mirrors how people actually ask AI tools for help.

Now a potential customer opens ChatGPT and types:

“What’s the best [product type] for [specific use case]?”

If answer engines have richer, clearer, more structured data about Brand B—and Brand B’s content matches the way people phrase their questions—it’s entirely possible Brand B gets recommended ahead of Brand A.

Even if Brand A is still winning on Google.

That’s the shift from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

In this article, you’ll learn:

  • How AEO differs from—but supports—traditional SEO
  • The 7 practical steps to build an AEO strategy for your brand
  • What to track so you know your AI visibility is improving
  • How an end‑to‑end AEO platform like Frevana can compress months of manual grind into a few focused weeks

Market Insights: Why AEO Is Becoming a Growth Channel in 2025–2026

Let’s zoom out for a second. Why does AEO matter now?

A few big shifts are colliding:

  1. AI is becoming the default research assistant.
    Think about the last time you were overwhelmed by options. Did you go to page 3 of Google… or just ask ChatGPT?

    More and more people are turning to AI for:
    • Product comparisons
    • “Best for me” recommendations
    • Complex B2B decisions
    • Local and marketplace suggestions
  2. Answer engines are full of purchase intent.
    The way we talk to AI is often way closer to buying language than traditional search:
    • “What’s the best…”
    • “Which tool should I use for…”
    • “Compare X vs Y for…”
    Showing up here isn’t just about “traffic”—it’s often about revenue.
  3. Recommendations are the new rankings.
    In answer engines, the user usually sees:
    • One synthesized explanation
    • A short list of recommended brands or products
    If you’re not on that shortlist, you basically don’t exist in that conversation.
  4. Traditional SEO data can’t tell you what AI is doing.
    Keyword volumes and SERP positions won’t tell you:
    • What people actually ask AI tools
    • Which brands are being named in those answers
    • Why one brand keeps getting picked over another

This is the gap—and the opportunity. Brands that move early on AEO can build a compounding advantage, just like early SEO adopters did years ago.

AEO vs SEO: Complementary, Not Competing

Think of SEO and AEO as two lenses on the same problem.

  • SEO asks:
    “How do I rank higher on Google’s results page?”
  • AEO asks:
    “How do I become the trusted recommendation inside AI answers?”

Here’s how they differ at a glance:

Dimension SEO AEO
Primary interface Search results page Conversational, AI‑generated answers
Optimization unit Keywords & web pages Prompts, scenarios, and entities (brands/products)
Outcome Clicks & sessions Brand citations & recommendations
Data sources Keyword tools, SERP, analytics Real AI user prompts, answer snapshots, citations
Time to visible impact Months (content + backlinks + ranking) Weeks (once answer engines adapt to your content)

So no, you don’t get to “drop SEO.” You still need to be discoverable in traditional search.

But if your buyers are increasingly bypassing the SERP and asking AI directly, you also need AEO so your brand keeps showing up in those conversations.

Product Relevance: Where Frevana Fits in an AEO Strategy

A complete AEO strategy rests on three pillars:

  1. Understand what users ask AI and which brands win
  2. Monitor how your brand appears across answer engines
  3. Create and update content that AI prefers and trusts

Frevana is built around exactly this loop.

  • User Prompt Research
    Frevana analyzes millions of real AI queries so you can see what people ask when they’re:
    • Comparing brands
    • Exploring your category
    • Close to making a purchase
  • AI Visibility Monitoring
    It tracks how often your brand (and competitors) shows up across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Amazon Rufus, and others—so AEO becomes something you can measure, not just guess at.
  • Auto Content Creation & AEO Agents
    Frevana generates and optimizes articles, landing pages, and PR content that answer engines can easily read, parse, and recommend—at scale.

You can absolutely implement everything in this guide manually. But tools like Frevana compress the research, analysis, and execution from “months of spreadsheets and screenshots” into “a few weeks with dashboards and agents”—and keep it running on autopilot.

The 7‑Step Guide to Implementing an AEO Strategy

Step 1: Define What “Winning in AI Answers” Means for You

Before you tweak a single meta tag or publish a new blog post, pause and get clear:

What does winning actually look like?

Ask yourself:

  • Which products or services matter most right now?
    • Your flagship SaaS product
    • A premium subscription tier
    • An Amazon best‑seller
    • A brand‑new SKU you’re betting big on
  • Which high‑intent scenarios actually move the revenue needle?
    • “Best social media tool for solo creators”
    • “Affordable project management software for nonprofits”
    • “Best dog food for sensitive stomachs”
    • “Top eco‑friendly cleaning products”
  • Where do your customers already go for advice?
    • ChatGPT or Gemini for research
    • Amazon Rufus or marketplace assistants to choose products
    • Perplexity or Claude for in‑depth comparisons

From here, define 5–10 priority scenarios where being consistently recommended by AI would have a tangible impact on your revenue.

Pro tip: In Frevana, these scenarios map directly to prompts and tracked products. You can start by simply watching how often your brand shows up for those core prompts.

Step 2: Research Real AI Prompts and Customer Scenarios

Most brands guess what people search for. AEO asks you to stop guessing and start listening.

You need to uncover:

  • The exact phrases people use
  • The comparisons they bring up
  • The constraints, fears, and “yeah‑but” questions they include

Here’s how that often plays out:

You assume people ask:

“best email marketing tool”

Real AI prompt data might show they ask things more like:

  • “Best email tool for a 3‑person team under $50/month”
  • “Easiest email platform for non‑technical founders”
  • “Alternative to Mailchimp with better automation”

Different questions. Different answers. Different winners.

To find the real prompts:

  1. Analyze AI user queries (the gold standard)
    • Use a prompt research tool that aggregates millions of AI interactions.
    • This is where Frevana’s User Prompt Research is powerful: it shows you actual prompts and clusters them by intent—not just keywords.
  2. Layer on qualitative inputs
    • Customer interviews
      Ask: “What did you type into ChatGPT or Google when you were looking for this?”
    • Sales & support logs
      Look at the exact words prospects and customers use in emails, tickets, and live chat.
    • Communities & social media
      See how people describe their problem in forums, Slack groups, or LinkedIn posts.
  3. Map prompts to customer scenarios
    • You can use something like Frevana’s Customer Scenario Strategist, or simply sort them manually by:
      • Use case
      • Budget or constraints
      • Alternatives they mention
      • Desired outcome

By the end of this step, you’ll have a prompt library: a bank of real, high‑intent questions people ask AI at different points in your buying journey.

Step 3: Audit Your Current AI Visibility

Now comes the moment of truth: are you even in the room when these AI conversations are happening?

You want to answer three questions:

  1. Are we mentioned at all when people ask these prompts?
  2. If yes, how are we described—accurately, vaguely, or totally off?
  3. Which competitors are being recommended more often, and what might be giving them the edge?

You can tackle this in two ways.

Manual method (good for a quick baseline)

  • Open ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and any other answer engines that matter for your audience.
  • Paste your priority prompts one by one:
    • “Best [category] for [use case]”
    • “[Competitor] alternatives for [audience]”
    • “Top [category] brands in [region]”

Track:

  • Whether your brand appears at all
  • How it’s summarized (is it on‑brand? outdated? missing key benefits?)
  • Which brands are consistently appearing above you
  • Any sources, links, or citations the AI claims to use

This gives you a simple but surprisingly eye‑opening snapshot.

Automated method (for serious, ongoing AEO)

Using tools like Frevana’s AI Visibility Monitoring and Brand Preference Analyst, you can:

  • Track your brand mentions across multiple AI platforms over time
  • Quantify:
    • Citation rate – the % of relevant answers where you appear
    • Share of voice – your slice of the AI conversation vs competitors
    • Ranking – whether you show up in the top 3 recommendations or buried at the bottom
  • Diagnose why some brands get more love:
    • Stronger structured data
    • Better topical coverage
    • Clearer, more focused positioning

By the end of this step, you’ll have your AEO baseline:

  • Current AI citation rate: X%
  • High‑intent prompts where you’re missing completely: [list]
  • Scenarios where you’re present but misrepresented: [list]
  • Competitors currently dominating AI answers: [list]

Step 4: Fix the Fundamentals: Make Your Brand “AI‑Readable”

If AI can’t reliably understand you, it can’t confidently recommend you.

So before we talk content hacks, we need to handle the digital equivalent of brushing your teeth: technical AEO hygiene.

Your goals:

  • Make it obvious what you do
  • Tie your brand to specific use cases
  • Make your content easy for AI models to parse and summarize

Key actions:

  1. Audit your sitemap & robots.txt for AI crawlers

    Think of your sitemap and robots file as the “floor plan” for AI crawlers. If the door to your most important rooms is locked, you’re in trouble.

    Make sure:

    • Key product, pricing, and feature pages are:
      • Included in your sitemap
      • Not blocked in robots.txt or forms.txt
    • Page URLs, titles, and metadata state clearly:
      • Product names
      • Category
      • Target audience
      • Primary use cases

    Tools like Frevana’s LLMs inc. Sitemap & Robots.txt Auditor are built for this—showing what AI crawlers can’t see and suggesting fixes.

  2. Clarify your entity information

    Answer engines maintain their own internal “knowledge graphs.” You want your brand to show up there as a clean, well‑labeled node—not a messy bundle of inconsistent names and half‑baked descriptions.

    Check for:

    • Consistent brand and product names, taglines, and descriptions across:
      • Website
      • Social profiles
      • Marketplaces (like Amazon)
    • Clear “About” and product overview pages that spell out:
      • What you are
      • Who you serve
      • What makes you different
  3. Structure your content for comprehension

    On your most important pages, use:

    • Clear H1/H2 headings
    • Bullet lists for features, benefits, and use cases
    • FAQ sections that mirror your real prompts (from Step 2)
    • Schema markup where relevant (FAQ, Product, Organization, etc.)

    You’re essentially asking: If an AI model skimmed this page in a few seconds, could it confidently explain who we are and when to recommend us?

Step 5: Build an AEO Content Engine Around Real Prompts

With the foundation in place, now you build what answer engines actually love to use: content that cleanly answers real questions.

5.1 Turn prompts into content briefs

For each core prompt or scenario, create a simple content brief that covers:

  • Primary question the user is asking
  • Sub‑questions they care about but may not say out loud
  • Decision criteria, like:
    • Budget
    • Ease of use
    • Performance
    • Integrations
    • Support
  • Your brand’s POV:
    • Where your solution is a perfect fit
    • Where you’re not the right choice (yes, actually saying this builds trust)

Example:

Prompt:
“Best CRM for small B2B startups under $100/month”
  • Explain the unique needs of small B2B startups (tiny teams, big goals, little time)
  • Compare lightweight vs enterprise CRMs
  • Break down price vs features vs onboarding time
  • Show scenarios where your CRM shines—and where a different tool is better
  • Include real examples, rough setup timelines, and customer stories

Frevana’s AEO Content Advisor can assist here by scanning current AI answers, spotting content gaps, and recommending topics where your brand can credibly add value.

5.2 Create AEO‑optimized assets

You’ll likely want a mix of content types:

  • AEO articles and guides
    These are deep, educational pieces laser‑focused on your priority prompts.
    With Frevana’s AEO Article Writer, you can generate drafts using:
    • Your blog structure and style
    • Product pages
    • Target keywords
    • Custom brand guidelines
  • Scenario‑driven landing pages
    Think pages like:
    “For [audience] who need [outcome] with [constraint], here’s why [Product] fits.”
    These are especially effective for:
    • Specific verticals (“project management for creative agencies”)
    • Budget ranges (“under $50/month”)
    Frevana’s Product Landing Page Maker can even pull product details (e.g., from Amazon) and build AI‑friendly pages that stay tightly tied to real use cases.
  • AEO‑aligned PR and thought leadership
    Answer engines frequently draw from:
    • News articles
    • Thought leadership pieces
    • High‑authority sites
    An AEO PR Strategist workflow helps you:
    • Decide which story angles reinforce the use cases you want to own
    • Pitch outlets whose content is more likely to appear in AI answers

5.3 Make content AI‑friendly (not just human‑friendly)

You still write for humans—but you structure for AI.

  • Explicit, not cryptic
    Instead of burying your positioning in clever metaphors, say things like:
    “Our software is designed for 1–20‑person teams who need simple automation.”
  • Structured like a great answer
    Think how a helpful AI would respond:
    • Clear thesis
    • Transparent criteria
    • Pros and cons
    • When to choose option A vs option B
    • Concrete conclusion
  • Rich in signals, not fluff
    Alongside the narrative:
    • Add clear lists and tables
    • Include real examples and short case studies
    • Use Q&A sections that mirror common prompts directly

In other words, write the kind of page an AI could almost copy‑paste into a high‑quality answer (even if it never literally does).

Step 6: Measure Your AEO Performance and Iterate

AEO shouldn’t live in the land of “brand vibes” and wishful thinking. Treat it like any other growth channel—with clear metrics and tight feedback loops.

Here are the key ones:

  1. AI Citation Rate
    The % of relevant AI answers that mention your brand.
    Example: “In just over half of prompts about ‘best email tool for small teams,’ we’re now cited.”
  2. Share of Voice vs Competitors
    For a given cluster of prompts, how much of the AI conversation do you own compared to others?
  3. Ranking Within Recommendations
    Are you landing in the coveted top 3 in AI‑generated lists?
    Are you framed as:
    • The default option
    • A niche/best‑for‑X option
    • A backup or “also‑ran”?
  4. Traffic & conversion impact
    A few ways to see the downstream effects:
    • Ask new users how they found you—more will start saying “via ChatGPT/Gemini.”
    • Tag pages you know AI tools are citing with UTM parameters.
    • Watch for changes in:
      • Direct traffic
      • Branded search volume
      • Signups or revenue from regions/segments where your AI visibility increased

Platforms like Frevana give you dashboards that show:

  • AI visibility over time across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and more
  • Changes in citation rate after content or technical updates
  • How fast answer engines adapt (many brands see a lift in 2–4 weeks)

From there, you can run simple A/B style experiments:

  • Publish new AEO articles → track citation changes
  • Fix robots/sitemap issues → see if answers start pulling fresher data
  • Launch PR on specific angles → watch how AI descriptions of your brand evolve

Step 7: Operationalize AEO as an Ongoing Program

AEO is not a “launch it and leave it” play. It’s a continuous loop that becomes part of how you grow.

Here’s the rhythm:

  1. Discover new prompts & opportunities
    User language shifts. New competitors pop up. New features change buying criteria.
    Keep your prompt library fresh using tools like Frevana’s User Prompt Research and Search Intent Classifier.
  2. Monitor and respond to AI answer changes
    AI models get updated. New answer formats roll out. The list of “top tools” can change overnight.
    Your job is to notice and respond quickly—not six months later during a random strategy offsite.
  3. Automate the repetitive work
    You don’t want your team spending hours every week copy‑pasting prompts into chatbots.
    Instead, use agents to handle:
    • Ongoing visibility tracking across platforms
    • Content gap analysis
    • Drafting AEO‑aligned articles and landing pages
    • Suggesting PR themes based on what AI engines currently surface

Frevana essentially offers an end‑to‑end AEO agent team, covering:

  • Research and monitoring
  • Data science and reporting
  • Content ideation
  • Article and landing page creation
  • PR planning and angles

The result: marketing and growth teams can fold AEO into their core strategy, instead of treating it like a side experiment someone remembers once a quarter.

Example AEO Playbooks by Business Type

Let’s bring this down to earth with a few real‑world style scenarios.

E‑Commerce Brand

  • Priority scenario:
    “Best eco‑friendly cleaning products for families with pets”
  • AEO actions:
    • Use prompt research to see how people actually phrase it:
      “eco‑friendly,” “pet‑safe,” “non‑toxic,” “safe for babies and dogs,” etc.
    • Monitor how your brand appears in ChatGPT and Amazon Rufus when users ask those questions.
    • Create dedicated landing pages like:
      • “Eco‑friendly cleaning products for pet owners”
      • “Non‑toxic cleaners safe for babies and pets”
    • Support it with PR and blog content about your testing standards, certifications, and safety practices.
    • Track how your AI citation rate and sales move together over time.

SaaS Startup

  • Priority scenario:
    “Affordable project management tools for small agencies”
  • AEO actions:
    • Identify prompts containing phrases like “affordable,” “client work,” “retainers,” “agency tools.”
    • Publish scenario‑driven content such as:
      “How 5‑person agencies can manage client projects without enterprise tools.”
    • Make sure your pricing page and core product pages clearly state:
      • Who you’re for
      • Typical team sizes
      • Common agency workflows you support
    • Use AI visibility monitoring to see when you start appearing alongside incumbent tools in answers.

Amazon Seller

  • Priority scenario:
    “Best [product] on Amazon for [use case]”
  • AEO actions:
    • Rewrite your Amazon listing copy in clear, AI‑readable language tied to use cases (for example “for back pain,” “for tall people,” “for small apartments”).
    • Build external landing pages that explain your product in depth—these are pages ChatGPT and other tools can reference.
    • Use prompt research to find how shoppers describe their problems in their own words.
    • Watch how changes in AI citation rate line up with shifts in Amazon sales velocity.

Conclusion: The Brands That Win in AI Answers Will Own the Next Era of Organic Growth

The ground is already shifting under our feet:

  • People are offloading research and decision‑making to AI assistants.
  • Answer engines are acting like trusted friends, handing over curated shortlists.
  • Brands that show up clearly, consistently, and credibly in those answers will win—often even in crowded, hyper‑competitive markets.

To recap, implementing an AEO strategy looks like:

  1. Defining the scenarios where AI recommendations would truly move the needle
  2. Researching real prompts and customer language (not just keyword guesses)
  3. Auditing and fixing your AI‑readiness—from crawlability to positioning
  4. Creating scenario‑driven, AI‑friendly content and landing pages
  5. Measuring AI visibility like a real growth channel and iterating
  6. Operationalizing the whole loop with automation and specialized agents

You can piece this together manually. But as the number of prompts, platforms, and content assets grows, it quickly becomes hard to manage without help.

That’s where platforms like Frevana come in, combining:

  • Real AI prompt research
  • Cross‑platform visibility tracking
  • Automated AEO‑optimized content creation
  • A suite of agents to handle the data, analysis, and execution behind the scenes

If you want your brand to be recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Amazon Rufus—not just “found somewhere on Google”—it’s time to treat AEO as a core growth channel, not a side project.

Call to Action: Turn AEO from Idea into Results

Here’s a simple way to get started this week:

  1. Write down 5–10 prompts you’d love to see your brand recommended for in AI answers.
  2. Check your current visibility manually in ChatGPT and Gemini—no tools, just curiosity. Are you there? How are you described?
  3. If you’re ready for a faster, more data‑driven path, get an AI Visibility Report and trial an AEO platform.

Tools like Frevana typically offer:

  • A free AI visibility report
  • A 7‑day trial (no credit card needed)
  • A realistic shot at seeing uplift in 2–4 weeks

You don’t have to overhaul everything overnight. Just start with one or two key scenarios, get your first wins, and build from there.

Your future customers are already asking AI what to buy.
Make sure, when they do, your brand is part of the answer.