6 Key Highlights from a Conversation on AI Search (and Shifting What “Winning” Looks Like)

Buyers are increasingly asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI experiences to explain options, compare vendors, and summarize what matters. The search journey has changed, and your measurement and optimization strategy needs to incorporate more than Google clicks and impressions.

In December, I sat down with Head of Growth Adam Tanguay to walk through the core ideas behind the Guide to Growing AI Search Visibility, plus what a practical “start now” approach looks like.

Here are some of the highlights and takeaways.

AEO is built on SEO foundations

Crawlability and site fundamentals don’t change just because it’s AEO. You still need to nail the basics:

• Models must be able to find and access your content
• Your pages should be linked together so they can be discovered
• Your headings are clear
• Your markup is set up correctly

If that foundation is weak, it’s hard to show up consistently.

Set up measurement first, aim for perfection later

Measurement is the first place to start because AI visibility is harder to tease out than traditional search traffic. What you’re trying to understand:

• Where you’re showing up (and where competitors show up)
• What prompts or topics are driving visibility
• Where you’re getting cited
• What people do after they see you

Get to know query fan-out: when one question turns into many searches

In practice, one user prompt can trigger multiple sub-queries behind the scenes and then get stitched into a single answer. In other words, one question can effectively behave like many searches.

What that means for AEO strategy:

• You can’t optimize for one keyword and call it done
• You need to anticipate the different angles the model might explore
• You should aim to answer the broader set of questions surrounding the main topic

Why FAQs and comparisons matter so much in AI answers

When people prompt “best X” or “compare these options,” the model needs clean, structured information it can evaluate quickly.

Two formats that help you get ahead of that:

1. FAQs that answer specific questions clearly
2. Comparison content that helps the model distinguish options and features

This is one of the fastest ways to align your content with how AI answers get assembled.

Citations: are the AEO version of link building

There’s a major difference between SEO and AEO.

• In SEO, link building often means earning lots of high-quality links from many places.
• In AEO, you may see fewer sources repeated, and certain sources showing up often.

Example: Reddit and Wikipedia appear frequently in some answer sets.

The practical takeaway: make “where am I getting cited?” a regular part of your visibility check.

Build a content strategy that compounds: hub-and-spoke, but faster

Adam described modern SEO strategy as “owning a concept” and covering it from different angles that matter to your audience. His point was that LLMs accelerate this dynamic because users can explore those angles instantly through prompts.

Another key detail: models are good at chunking content, and AEO tends to reward chunk-level relevance (especially if the chunk answers the query and its fan-out), not just keyword density across a full page.

Want to hear more in real time?

Adam and I are hosting a free webinar on Thursday, Jan. 29, to share the tactics that have built AI search visibility for our clients. Register now to block your calendar and bring questions for the live Q&A.