The way businesses get found on the internet and gain new customers is changing. For decades, digital marketers have been focused on trying to rank for traditional Google search; now, brands need to make sure they are properly represented by AI answer engines by creating content answer engines will want to cite.
Let’s dive into how AI has changed the search landscape and how to leverage answer engine optimization (AEO) for successful marketing. With a few simple tweaks to your content structure and strategy, your brand can start being mentioned by AI search engines to high-interest buyers.
In May 2026, Google announced the biggest disruption to search since its invention. Google had already added AI Overviews and introduced an “AI Mode” to search, but in May the company announced it will now power the whole search bar through Gemini, its LLM.
Instead of the list of ten blue links we’re all used to, Google Search now leads with an AI-generated answer and a conversation with Gemini. This completely changes the way searchers receive information online. They no longer need to click a link and visit a website to find an answer.
For example, let’s say I have an upcoming trip to Holland, MI, and I want to plan some fun dinners out. I go to Google and type in the kind of phrase we’ve all been trained to search with. At this point in time, I can still choose to click the “Google Search” button below to get the classic list of blue links.
These sites that appear on the first page of search results are the ones with the best search engine optimization, or SEO, for the phrase I searched for. But notice that the Google search bar is already giving preference to searching in AI mode. If I’m not paying attention, I hit the button to the right like I always used to.
What I get when I search this way is an answer generated with AI. The top recommended restaurant when searching with Google’s AI mode is not necessarily the same as the recommendation I got through classic Google search.
At the bottom of this long answer from Gemini, I’m prompted to continue the conversation or ask an agent to secure a reservation on my behalf. This is the new search experience, and it looks a lot like ChatGPT or any of the other LLM-based answer engines people are now using to get answers to their questions.
We used to worry about optimizing for Google search, or SEO. Now we need to think about optimizing for the new way people get information.
A key thing for us all to realize is whether you like AI or not, whether you want to use it yourself or not, searching on the internet now uses AI. And AI search looks for different things than the old Google search.
A common misconception is that AEO is just like SEO, and as long as you have pretty good SEO, you’ll be fine in this new world without doing anything different. We even believed that ourselves at first, when ChatGPT first launched. But we have had the benefit of watching this play out over the last couple of years with 40+ clients, and I can confidently say today that the AEO playbook is different.
We are now living in the world of zero-click search.
A zero-click search is a search that takes place entirely on the search page and does not result in a click to a website.
To be clear, this is not a new challenge. Google has been trying to find ways for years to keep people on their property — introducing featured snippets, knowledge panels, and “people also ask” questions. AI Overviews are just the latest attempt at this, but it’s working really well, and most websites are seeing less traffic because of it. The changes Google made in May will only accelerate the shift to zero-click search; from January to April of this year, 68% of Google searches resulted in zero clicks.
From January to April of this year, 68% of Google searches resulted in zero clicks.
To adapt, our goal needs to change. Instead of using marketing content to get people to our websites, we need to be using it to feed and inform the answers people are getting from Google or their search tool of choice. With AEO, it’s all about mentions and citations.
A mention is when an AI answer engine brings up your brand or one of your products or services as part of its answer. Some mentions come with a citation in the form of a link to the brand’s website. In the world of AEO, this is gold if you can get it.
Some mentions have citations, but instead of pulling directly from the brand’s own content, the AI cites an external source.
LLMs’ top-cited domains are YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and Medium. Every industry or segment has its own top-cited domains, though. For B2B searches, you’ll often see LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, and review sites like G2 and Capterra. For questions like “What’s the best restaurant in Rockford, Illinois?” the top-cited domains might be sites like Yelp, Tripadvisor, and OpenTable, plus any local media outlets that cover food in Rockford. Going back to my question about Holland, Michigan, 4 out of 10 citations linked back to Michigan Homes and Cottages.
The first step of optimizing your content for AEO is to see how you're already performing.
Most Trekk clients use HubSpot, which means they have access to a powerful new AI search visibility tool that can tell you how you’re showing up for the prompts you care about and enable you to track your AI visibility improvement over time.
To access HubSpot’s AEO tool, go into your portal and navigate to the Marketing tab on the sidebar. Then, click AEO and begin to explore.
Your dashboard will show your current brand visibility and sentiment analysis. The prompts tab of the tool allows you to track visibility on hyper-specific prompts your business wants to target. On the citation tab is where you can track citation performance vs. competitors, your top citations, and your citation composition, which shows which content formats and distribution channels are driving the most traffic for your tracked prompts. The recommendations tab in Hubspot’s AEO tool generates content ideas — from blogs to social posts — based on what answer engines are actually citing for your tracked prompts.
For people who don’t have access to an AEO tool, the very quick and simplified way to do this is to open up the LLM in incognito mode or private browsing and type in the prompts where you hope to be mentioned. AI results are influenced by any history you may have with the tool, so using an incognito window ensures your answers are as accurate to the general user experience as possible.
You can also ask things like “What do you know about [company name]?” or “What are the pros and cons of [company name]?” Seeing what the AI search tool says and what it’s citing will give you an idea of information that might be missing or wrong about your business. You should then publish content to fill in any blanks or correct inaccurate information regarding your brand.
Keep in mind: You may find you need to remove content rather than add new content. Answer engines can easily serve up outdated product specs if they’re on your website, so now is a good time to do a content audit.
Once you know where you already stand with AI visibility, you can begin leveraging your owned channels.
Owned channels include your website, your Google Business profile, your social media profiles (including YouTube), and any listing or review sites where you have a profile. Claim those listings, make sure they’re accurate and consistent, and flesh out every profile with the story you want to be telling.
Don’t let zero-click search make you think your website doesn’t matter. Your website is one of the sources LLMs will check when people ask questions about your brand, so in some ways it’s even more important now to make sure the content there is clear, complete, and up-to-date.
Take the prompts you want to show up for and use them as topics to write about on your site. Create content based on your prompts so that content can start to get cited. When scanning your site, answer engines prefer it when the “answer” to the question your content covers is clearly stated. LLMs love a Q&A format, like an FAQ.
AI search engines also favor listicles. Throughout your blog, try identifying key nuggets of information you think an LLM would want to use as an answer and break it into a bulleted list with an H2 or H3 heading — like the “Key aspects of SEO” and “Key aspects of AEO” sections earlier in this blog. Having content that is easily digestible helps make sure other content doesn’t get cited over your own simply because it is easier to read for the LLM.
Website content creation is an area where, if you are looking to use AI tools to make your marketing more efficient, you could, but one word of caution: we do NOT recommend publishing straight-up AI-generated content on your website.
First off, people can tell. Second, the content will not be as specific to your unique POV as you need it to be — it’s going to be similar to what an LLM would give any of your competitors. Instead of asking Claude for a blog post on a topic, try asking Claude to interview you on a topic. That interview Q&A, with your own human answers, will perform much better than a Claude-written post.
What sets you apart from your competitors is your unique story, perspective, and creativity. AI pulls from existing content and information to create responses, so while using AI might make your content just as good as your competitor’s, it won’t differentiate you.
With the era of AEO, now is the time for PR.
A good AEO strategy will not only include owned media but earned media. Public relations is an artform, and it’s not something we specialize in. Many of our clients also work with a dedicated PR agency. If you don’t have the budget for that, that’s okay — this can be as simple as sending a good news communication to local or industry media channels when you have something to share.
Ratings and review sites are also given a lot of weight in AI search, so this could simply be focusing on generating more online reviews. The main thing to know is that AEO favors third-party credible sources over keywords.
In your initial AEO content audit, make sure all of your listings on review sites are up to date. For example, if your company has changed locations, make sure your office address is up to date across every platform. Any outdated information about your business online can be picked up by AI search engines and deliver an inaccurate view of your brand to your audience.
AEO optimization and website content is just one facet of digital marketing today — there's also search advertising, email marketing, and all the other fun things that happen in the digital realm — but don’t forget that there are physical ways to market to people, and they are having a major moment.
We’re seeing people moving their newsletters from online to print, getting creative with catalogs or magazines or zines, and getting really good results from good old-fashioned direct mail. At the end of the day, our brands are about human-to-human connection, and especially at this time when we’re all bombarded by AI everything, a human touchpoint in your marketing mix can be particularly powerful.
It doesn’t have to be either/or. You can go after AEO and analog. Both are larger pieces of the marketing puzzle that can improve your sales and overall brand image.
Pivoting from focusing on SEO to focusing on both SEO and AEO may seem daunting, but Hubspot’s AEO tool simplifies AEO optimization and takes the guess work out of prompt tracking.
As a Platinum Hubspot Solutions Partner, Trekk helps clients deploy content marketing and marketing automation solutions using HubSpot. If you need help getting started with the new AEO tool, reach out.