Get discovered by AI

AI-generated answers, whether it's in chatbots like ChatGPT or directly in search engine result pages like AI overviews in Google, are "stealing" clicks from websites, providing answers where users were previously forced to visit websites. However, they also become an important referral source of traffic for brands that manage to be on the major LLMs radars. SEO, traffic sources, and lead acquisition are all changing at a rapid pace, and no industry can afford to ignore it.

AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, refers to all the strategies aimed at improving the visibility of a brand, service, or product within AI-generated results on various chatbots and in the generative answers provided by search engines.

Like SEO can influence search engine results, AEO can influence generative answers, but this requires time and effort. Some strategies are similar to SEO, some others target specifically AI tools by identifying LLMs training sources and elements contributing to a brand's visibility and reputation. 

AI is changing the digital landscape, and e-commerce is no exception. People use more and more Chatbots like ChatGPT to compare products, verify clients' sentiment about them, understand their features and evaluate their quality. Your brand's reputation, but also all the digital material available around your brand and products, will determine how your products are presented in generative answers. Regaining control over some parts of this data used as training material for LLMs is key to your AI optimization success.

Estimates differ between experts to measure how many organic clicks are lost to AI tools (AI overviews, generative answers, Chatbots), and it also varies a lot depending on the type of website and industry. However, everyone agrees that losing 10% organic traffic per year due to AI is the low estimate. However, we start seeing referral traffic from apps like ChatGPT grow for many clients, and although it is still in small volumes, it usually is an extremely valuable and engaged audience. 

There are many opportunities to format your website content in a more "AI-friendly" way. We have developed a process to identify what sort of claim and data points were used and trusted by AI tools to influence how your brand is perceived. Making sure you structure your content as much as possible, for example with advanced Schema markups, is also helping. Contact us for a quick audit and concrete recommendations!

An easy first step is to build a repetitive process with a set of queries to evaluate your positioning among your competitors. Bear in mind to navigate your preferred chatbots in private mode, so they are not influenced by your profile. It is also important to get unbiased answers by avoiding any suggestion in your queries, keeping them as objective as possible, like "what is the best provider for this service in this area?". After an initial evaluation, you can get more specific about your brand and ask for the public's sentiment about your brand or products for example. We at Digital Dominance use a range of tracking tools such as Semrush or Ziptie to get a deeper understanding of the AI sources and evolution. 

Most business owners feel they can't afford to ignore the evolution of their industry around AI, but don't know how to approach this topic. A lot of large-scale AI projects in international companies have failed or are delayed, which adds to the uncertainty. With Digital Dominance help, you can adopt a step-by-step approach to understand first how your brand and audience interact with AI tools, then to break down measurable objectives into small and manageable projects.