SEO or AEO? Why you’re not showing up in AI answers (yet)

This is a consolidation of findings from Neil Patel and Hubspot plus what we have found to work well on our own website.

Most business owners are still playing the old game.

Some aren’t playing at all.

They’re thinking in rankings, keywords, and “getting to page one.”

Meanwhile, the ground is shifting under them.

Google Search is still dominant, but even it has changed. It’s no longer just a list of blue links. It’s summarizing, interpreting, and answering.

And tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity AI aren’t ranking pages at all.

They’re answering questions.

Which creates a problem most people haven’t fully processed yet:

Users don’t need to click your website anymore to get value.

CTR is dropping.…