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What should we do if an AI assistant describes our business incorrectly?

by Seth D Brown | Published Oct 1, 2026 Updated Oct 6, 2026 | aeo, ai, ai optimization, branding, marketing

When an AI assistant misstates facts about your company, you have to fix the underlying data it reads. Publish an unambiguous statement of the fact on your own site, update the third-party listings that contradict it, then recheck on a schedule. Brand managers control...

What is Answer Engine Optimization? A Working Definition

by Seth D Brown | Published Sep 29, 2026 Updated Oct 3, 2026 | aeo, ai, ai optimization, branding, marketing

Search traffic is plateauing while chat interfaces take over the discovery phase of the buyer journey. When your executive team asks what is answer engine optimization, the answer is practical. Answer engine optimization is the practice of publishing so AI assistants...

How should we restructure our website so AI can read it better?

by Seth D Brown | Published Sep 28, 2026 Updated Oct 3, 2026 | aeo, ai, ai optimization, branding, marketing

When you plan your website structure for ai search, you must give every distinct service its own dedicated page so models can isolate your specific capabilities. You also need to use descriptive headings to map the hierarchy of your ideas for the parser, and ensure...

How do we track traffic and leads that come from AI assistants?

by Seth D Brown | Published Sep 25, 2026 Updated Oct 3, 2026 | aeo, ai, ai optimization, marketing

You track traffic and leads from AI assistants by looking beyond standard web analytics. Some assistants pass a referrer and some don’t, so you must combine referral data with direct traffic shifts and a first-touch question on your forms. If you only look at...

Is AEO replacing SEO, can I do both?

by Seth D Brown | Published Sep 24, 2026 Updated Sep 30, 2026 | aeo, ai, ai optimization, branding, marketing

Answer engine optimization sits alongside SEO rather than replacing it. You aren’t choosing between building pages for traditional search engines and formatting data for AI platforms. Crawling and authority signals overlap heavily between both models, but the...

The Citation Layer: How AI Assistants Decide Who to Recommend

by Seth D Brown | Published Sep 23, 2026 Updated Oct 3, 2026 | aeo, ai, ai optimization, branding, marketing

Search engines give users a list of destinations, but AI platforms synthesize responses directly. Assistants don’t rank pages, they assemble answers, and knowing what gets retrieved and what gets attributed is what an AEO program is built on. This guide is the...
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