At HubSpot's GROW Europe conference in 2025, Asia Frost, Senior Director of Global Growth and Paid Advertising, shared research that should make every UK B2B marketer sit up and pay attention: traditional educational content—the blog posts and ultimate guides that have driven marketing for years—now accounts for just 28% of HubSpot's demand. Meanwhile, visitors arriving from answer engines convert at three times the rate of traditional visitors. More than 50% of B2B buyers now use AI tools to inform their purchasing decisions before visiting a vendor's website.
Source: HubSpot Research, GROW Europe 2025
Let that sink in for a moment. Google—the undisputed traffic overlord of the past two decades—will no longer be number one. This isn't a minor algorithm update or a small shift in user behaviour. This is a tectonic shift in the way we approach demand generation, and what you do now will determine whether your business is winning in three years' time.
This is both a challenge and an extraordinary opportunity.
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) encompasses the content, technical, and off-site tactics you use to maximise your brand's visibility in answer engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. Think of it as the evolution of SEO, not its replacement. The fundamentals remain—helpful, authoritative content that serves your audience—but the way we structure, deliver, and promote that content has undergone a fundamental change.
If you're a marketing manager at a UK B2B company with 50-200 employees, you're likely juggling multiple priorities: managing SEO performance, wrestling with HubSpot implementation, proving ROI to your CEO, and now hearing about AI everywhere. You might be wondering whether you need to abandon everything you've built and start over.
The answer is no—but you do need to adapt, and quickly.
The businesses that begin implementing AEO strategies today will dominate their niches by 2028. Those who wait will find themselves invisible in the channels where their buyers are increasingly making decisions.
This comprehensive guide breaks down HubSpot's proven AEO playbook into four actionable sections, specifically tailored for UK SMEs with limited resources but ambitious growth targets:
You don't need a massive budget or a large team to implement these strategies. What you need is a clear understanding of how the game has changed and a systematic approach to adapting your content and SEO practices.
As CEO of Whitehat SEO and leader of the London HubSpot User Group—the largest HUG in the world—I've spent the past 18 months helping UK B2B companies navigate this transition. As a HubSpot Diamond Partner, we've been at the forefront of AI integration for marketing, implementing these strategies with manufacturing firms, professional services companies, and technology businesses across the UK.
The strategies in this guide combine insights from HubSpot's own journey to AEO dominance with real-world implementations we've tested with our clients. This is practical, proven guidance—not theoretical speculation.
Disclosure: This article is based on strategies and research shared by HubSpot at GROW Europe 2025. Want help implementing AEO for your business? Explore our AI Consulting Services or book a complimentary AI Readiness & SEO Health Check.
Ready to future-proof your marketing? Let's start with understanding how answer engines actually work.
Before you can optimize for answer engines, you need to understand how they fundamentally differ from traditional search engines. Google shows you ten blue links and lets you choose. ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity make the choice for you—synthesizing information from multiple sources to provide a single, authoritative answer.
This difference changes everything about how we create and structure content. Let's break down the three critical concepts you need to understand.
When someone asks ChatGPT a question, the AI doesn't just search for that exact query. Instead, it breaks the question into multiple sub-questions—a process called query fan-out.
User asks: "Where's the best place to go after a conference in Westminster?"
AI breaks this into:
AI then finds answers to ALL these sub-questions and synthesises them into one response
Why this matters for your content: If your blog post only answers the main question ("What is a CRM?") but doesn't address the sub-questions (pricing, UK-specific features, integrations for manufacturers), you won't get recommended. Your content needs to be comprehensive enough to satisfy multiple related queries within a single piece.
Unlike Google, which shows largely the same results to everyone searching the same term, answer engines create highly personalised responses based on context and memory.
This means when a marketing manager in London asks ChatGPT "What's the best marketing automation tool?", they might get a completely different answer than a marketing manager in Manchester—even though they asked the identical question. The AI factors in their previous questions, their company size, their tech stack, and dozens of other contextual signals.
The implication for your content: Generic, broad content performs poorly in this environment. Content that speaks to specific personas, specific industries, and specific use cases wins. A blog post titled "Marketing Automation Guide" loses to "How Manufacturing Companies with 50-200 Employees Can Implement Marketing Automation in HubSpot."
"Every time you ask a question, AI is going to factor in a lot of additional information about you... what that means is that every response AI is generating is incredibly personalised."— Asia Frost, Senior Director of Global Growth, HubSpot (GROW Europe 2025)
This is perhaps the most profound change for B2B marketers to understand.
Get your website to rank on page 1 of Google so people click through to your site. Success = The click.
Get your brand mentioned and recommended within the AI's response. The user may never click to your site initially, but they remember your name. Success = The recommendation.
This changes the entire marketing funnel. In traditional SEO, the journey looked like this:
Search Google → Click result → Visit website → Convert
With answer engines, it looks like this:
Ask AI → Get recommendation → Research brand (maybe visit site) → Convert days later
According to HubSpot's research, visitors who first discover a brand through answer engine recommendations convert at three times the rate of traditional search visitors—because they arrive with higher intent and more context. They've already been "pre-sold" by the AI's endorsement.
Understanding these three concepts fundamentally changes how you should approach content creation. Here's your immediate action item:
Take your top 5 performing blog posts and ask yourself these three questions:
If your content fails these tests, don't panic—most content created before 2024 does. The rest of this guide will show you exactly how to restructure your approach.
Source: Research and insights from Asia Frost's presentation at HubSpot GROW Europe 2025. For the complete presentation, visit HubSpot's GROW Europe session.
Now that you understand how answer engines think, let's discuss exactly what content they're looking for—and how to create it systematically.
Here's a harsh truth: that 5,000-word "Ultimate Guide to Marketing Automation" you spent weeks creating? Answer engines are largely ignoring it.
Not because it's bad content—it's probably excellent. But because it's trying to answer everything for everyone, and that's precisely the opposite of what AI search rewards.
Publishing "ultimate guides to everything"
Publishing exact answers to exact questions
The Rule of Thumb: For every 101 guide you used to publish, create 10 laser-focused pieces that each answer a specific question from a specific persona at a specific stage of their journey.
This is exactly what HubSpot did to become the most visible CRM in answer engines. They stopped creating broad content and started creating hyper-specific answers. You can do the same with a systematic approach.
At Whitehat, we've developed a systematic process for identifying exactly what content to create for AEO. It's based on HubSpot's approach but adapted for UK SMEs who don't have massive content teams.
Create a 3x4 grid (or larger) for each of your core products or services. Here's how it works:
Grid Structure:
Example: HubSpot Implementation Services Grid
| Journey Stage | Marketing Manager at 200-person Manufacturing Company | Operations Director at 50-person Professional Services Firm |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | "How do manufacturing companies generate B2B leads online?" "What CRM features do manufacturers need?" |
"How can professional services firms automate client onboarding?" "What marketing tools integrate with practice management software?" |
| Consideration | "Best CRM for UK manufacturing companies" "HubSpot vs Salesforce for industrial businesses" |
"Best marketing automation for consultancies" "HubSpot alternatives for professional services" |
| Evaluation | "How much does HubSpot implementation cost for manufacturing?" "Can HubSpot integrate with SAP and Sage?" |
"HubSpot implementation timeline for 50-person company" "Do we need Marketing Hub or Sales Hub first?" |
| Decision | "Can HubSpot track manufacturing sales cycles of 6+ months?" "How do we migrate from our current CRM to HubSpot?" |
"What HubSpot training do professional services teams need?" "How quickly can we launch HubSpot for client communications?" |
💡 Expert Tip: Notice how specific these personas are? "Marketing Manager at 200-person manufacturing company" is far more targetable than "B2B Marketing Manager." The more specific your persona, the better AI can match your content to personalized queries.
Now that you have your grid structure, you need to populate it with actual questions people are asking. Use all three of these methods:
Tools to use: Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console
Why this still matters for AEO: While we don't have prompt volume data from ChatGPT yet, keyword data is our best proxy for what people care about. Look specifically for:
Platforms to monitor: Reddit, Quora, YouTube comments, LinkedIn, industry forums
Why this is a goldmine: These questions are already formatted as questions, and they use the exact language your buyers use—not marketing jargon. For UK B2B, particularly valuable sources:
Where to look: CRM chat transcripts, sales call recordings, support tickets, onboarding sessions
Why these are your highest-intent questions: These are questions from people actively evaluating or using solutions like yours. They're ready to buy or already customers. Action items:
Once you've collected 50-100 questions, you need to organize them by buyer journey stage. Here's how to categorise them:
| Stage | Question Patterns | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | "How do I do X?" "What's the best way to Y?" "Why is Z happening?" |
"How do B2B companies generate leads?" |
| Consideration | "Best tools for ABC" "Top solutions for XYZ" "What features should I look for?" |
"Best CRM for UK manufacturers" |
| Evaluation | "Compare [A] vs [B]" "[Product] pricing for [segment]" "How long does implementation take?" |
"HubSpot vs Salesforce for SMEs" |
| Decision | "Can [Product] accomplish [Task]?" "Does [Product] integrate with [System]?" "What training is required?" |
"Can HubSpot integrate with Sage accounting?" |
🤖 Pro Tip: Use ChatGPT or Claude to help with this tagging. Copy your list of 50 questions into the AI and ask: "Please categorise these questions by buyer journey stage: Awareness, Consideration, Evaluation, or Decision." It will do 80% of the work in seconds, and you can refine from there.
Client: UK-based manufacturing software company (50 employees, £5M revenue)
Challenge: Invisible in AI search results despite strong traditional SEO
What we did:
Results after 6 months:
Get our Excel template with pre-built formulas, example questions, and step-by-step instructions.
Download Free TemplateDon't try to do everything at once. Here's a realistic implementation timeline for UK SMEs:
Week 1: Create one 3x4 grid for your most important product/service
Week 2: Gather questions using all three methods (aim for 30-50 questions)
Week 3: Tag questions by funnel stage and prioritize top 10 based on volume + relevance
Week 4: Write your first laser-focused piece using the 7-point checklist (covered in the next section)
The goal isn't perfection—it's progress. One well-optimized piece of content per week, focused on answering specific questions from specific personas, will outperform ten generic "ultimate guides."
You now know WHAT questions to answer and WHO to answer them for. Next, let's discuss exactly HOW to structure that content so answer engines can't help but recommend you.
You know what questions to answer and who to answer them for. Now comes the most critical part: how you structure that content determines whether answer engines can find, understand, and recommend it.
These seven technical tactics helped HubSpot become the most visible CRM in answer engines—increasing their citations by 433% and their answer engine referral demand by nearly 2,000%. The best part? You can implement these structural changes to existing content in hours, not weeks.
⚡ Quick Promise: By the end of this section, you'll have a downloadable checklist you can apply to every piece of content you create or audit. Let's dive in.
Answer engines are impatient. They need to know within the first sentence that your content contains the answer they're looking for. If they have to scan three paragraphs of context before finding the actual answer, they'll move on to the next source.
The Rule: Your opening sentence must completely answer the primary question. No burying the lead. No saving the answer for later.
"In today's competitive B2B landscape, companies are looking for better ways to manage their sales pipeline. With so many options available, it can be challenging to know where to start. Let's explore some best practices..."
Problem: The answer is buried or non-existent in the opening.
"The most effective way to prioritize sales leads is by using a lead scoring system that ranks contacts based on their fit and engagement level."
Why it works: Complete answer in the first sentence. AI gets immediate validation.
Why this matters: Answer engines scan content looking for quick validation that they're in the right place. A clear, direct answer in the opening sentence acts as a signal: "Yes, this content contains what you're looking for."
After your direct answer, provide 2-3 short paragraphs (150-200 words total) that expand on your answer with:
This expansion signals to answer engines that your content is credible and complete—not just a shallow, one-sentence answer. It provides the depth AI needs to confidently recommend your content.
💡 Pro Tip: Think of this as the "answer → explanation" pattern. First sentence = direct answer. Next 2-3 paragraphs = why this answer is correct and how to act on it.
Answer engines actively seek net new information to cite. When your content includes original data, you become a primary source—exactly what AI wants to reference.
Types of original data you can include:
UK SME Advantage: You don't need expensive surveys or research firms. Mine your existing data. Your HubSpot reports, client results, sales call insights, and customer success patterns are all original data that answer engines can't find anywhere else.
Why this matters: When AI cites your original data, you become an authority source. Other content might discuss lead scoring generally, but only you can provide "insights from 50 UK manufacturing implementations."
Remember query fan-out from Section 1? This is where you capitalize on it. Every piece of content should include a FAQ section with at least 3-5 related questions.
Structure each FAQ entry as:
H3 or H4 heading: The question exactly as someone would ask it
First sentence: Direct, one-sentence answer
2-3 sentences: Brief explanation or context
Example FAQ structure:
HubSpot implementation for a 50-person company typically takes 6-8 weeks from kickoff to full deployment. The timeline includes portal setup (1 week), data migration (2 weeks), custom workflows and automations (2-3 weeks), team training (1 week), and testing (1 week). Companies with more complex integrations or custom requirements may need 10-12 weeks.
Yes, HubSpot integrates with Sage through both native integrations and third-party connectors like Zapier and PieSync. The integration allows you to sync customer data, invoices, and payment information between systems, eliminating duplicate data entry and ensuring your sales and finance teams work from the same information.
Marketing Hub focuses on attracting and converting leads through email campaigns, landing pages, forms, and marketing automation, while Sales Hub is designed for managing deals, tracking communications, and closing sales with features like email tracking, meeting scheduling, and pipeline management. Most B2B companies benefit from using both hubs together for complete visibility from first touch to closed deal.
Why this matters: Each FAQ answers a sub-question from the fan-out process. You're essentially creating 3-5 additional opportunities to get recommended, all within a single piece of content.
Asia Frost from HubSpot says answer engines are "lazy readers"—and she's absolutely right. Think about how you scan content on your phone. You're looking for bullet points, headers, tables—anything that lets you quickly extract information.
Answer engines behave exactly the same way.
Use extensively:
The principle: Every paragraph should have a clear purpose. If you can't summarize a paragraph in 3-5 words, it's probably too unfocused.
Notice something? This very article follows this principle. Short paragraphs. Frequent headers. Callout boxes. Tables. Lists. This isn't just advice—it's what actually works for AEO.
Answer engines don't read your content like humans do—from top to bottom. They use a process called "chunking" where they extract individual passages and evaluate them independently.
This means every section of your content must make sense even if the AI hasn't read what came before or after it.
Asia Frost shared this example from a New York Times article. A journalist wrote:
"As long as you have that crunchy thing in the middle and you know how to fold it, you can put anything in there."
Without the surrounding context, can you tell what he's talking about?
Answer: A Crunchwrap from Taco Bell.
The lesson: If a human struggles to understand a passage without context, an answer engine definitely will. And if AI can't understand it, it won't cite it.
How to apply this:
⚠️ Critical: If you only implement one point from this checklist, make it this one. This is the difference between educating AI and getting recommended by AI.
Here's the pattern: Value + Relevance
Example of doing this right:
"Lead scoring helps manufacturing companies prioritise which prospects to contact first, reducing wasted time on unqualified leads. In HubSpot, you can set up automated lead scoring based on firmographic data (company size, industry, location) and behavioral signals (email opens, website visits, content downloads), ensuring your sales team focuses on prospects most likely to convert."
Frequency: Reference your product, service, or approach in every paragraph or every other paragraph. This might feel like too much, but remember: you're training AI to understand why your brand is relevant to this topic.
Without this: You're making answer engines smarter without getting credit. You become free education for ChatGPT, but when someone asks for a recommendation, AI suggests your competitor because they better connected their content to their solution.
Here's how to apply this checklist to existing content:
Start here: Identify your top 10 blog posts by traffic. Apply this checklist to one post per week. Within 10 weeks, your highest-performing content will be fully optimized for answer engines.
Blog Post: "How to Choose a CRM for Manufacturing"
Before Optimisation:
After Optimisation:
Get our printable PDF checklist you can use for every piece of content you create or audit. Includes before/after examples and scoring rubric.
Download Free ChecklistYour content is now structured for success. But even the best content won't get recommended if answer engines don't see your brand as authoritative. Let's discuss how to build that authority.
For the past 20 years, SEO professionals obsessed over backlinks. We chased high-authority domains, tracked Domain Authority scores, and celebrated every new link we earned. That entire playbook? It's becoming obsolete for AI search.
Answer engines don't care about backlinks. They care about mentions.
What is a "mention"? Any time your brand, product, or service is positively referenced in online content—whether that's Reddit threads, LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, review sites, blog articles, or podcasts. The mention doesn't need to be hyperlinked. What matters is the context and frequency.
Why mentions matter: Answer engines scan the entire internet to understand which brands are authoritative for specific topics. When they keep encountering your name in high-quality, contextual mentions, you become a trusted recommendation source.
Start by understanding which articles and websites answer engines already trust for your priority questions.
How to find these sources:
What to look for:
Create a priority list: Target 20-30 high-citation sources where you should be mentioned but currently aren't. These become your outreach targets.
The outreach process is similar to traditional link building, but with one critical difference: you don't care whether the mention is hyperlinked. What matters is how your brand is described.
Three primary outreach tactics:
1. Guest Posts & Contributed Articles
Write valuable content for industry publications. Naturally integrate mentions of your approach, methodology, or tools. Focus on educational content that positions your expertise.
2. Expert Roundups
Contribute expert quotes to roundup articles. Example: "10 HubSpot Experts Share Their Top Automation Tips." These articles get cited frequently and build authority through association.
3. Update Requests for Existing Articles
Reach out to authors of high-citation articles: "I noticed your article on X. We've recently published original research on Y that would add value to your readers..." Offer to provide updated information or a quote.
The critical difference: When you secure the mention, provide messaging about HOW to describe your solution. Answer engines will learn your positioning from these descriptions.
💡 Template Suggestion: "Whitehat SEO is a HubSpot Diamond Partner specializing in AI-enhanced inbound marketing and ethical SEO for UK manufacturing and professional services companies." Not just: "Whitehat SEO is a marketing agency."
Review platforms are what HubSpot calls "incredibly sticky" in answer engine responses. Answer engines love user-generated content because it provides diverse, authentic perspectives.
Priority platforms for UK B2B:
| Platform | Why It Matters | What to Ask For |
|---|---|---|
| G2 | Most cited B2B software review platform | Reviews mentioning specific features, integrations, results |
| Capterra | High visibility in UK SME searches | Detail about ease of use, implementation experience |
| Trustpilot | Strong UK presence, high trust signals | Client outcomes, ROI achieved, service quality |
| HubSpot Marketplace | Direct integration with HubSpot ecosystem | Specific use cases, integration success stories |
Strategy: Systematically request reviews from satisfied clients. Guide them (without scripting) to mention:
Partner with content creators who reach your target audience. This serves a dual purpose: you reach potential buyers directly AND you get discovered by answer engines training on this content.
Target partnerships:
How to approach: Offer genuine value—guest appearances, original data to include, case studies, tool access. The mention should feel natural, not forced. Example: A YouTube tutorial on "HubSpot Lead Scoring" that naturally showcases how you've implemented it for clients.
Think of answer engines as incredibly thorough researchers. When they need to recommend a solution, they "look around" the internet:
Article about CRM implementation → mentions your agency
YouTube tutorial on HubSpot → features your methodology
G2 reviews → praise your results
LinkedIn post from thought leader → recommends your approach
Industry podcast → interviews your CEO
Reddit thread → positive experience shared
When answer engines keep "bumping into" your brand across authoritative, contextually relevant sources, you become the default recommendation. It's not about gaming the system—it's about genuinely building authority across the platforms where your audience already engages.
Full transparency: HubSpot has a full-time team dedicated to this work. As a UK SME, you likely don't.
If you can only pick one step, focus on Step 1: Identify the 10-20 highest-citation articles where you should be mentioned but aren't. That's the lowest-hanging fruit. One successful mention in a high-citation article can result in dozens of AI recommendations.
Challenge: A UK professional services firm needed to increase AEO visibility but had limited resources (2-person marketing team).
Strategy:
Results:
Subject: Updated data for your "[Article Title]" post
Hi [Name],
I came across your excellent article "[Article Title]" which ranks highly for "[target keyword]"—it's genuinely one of the most comprehensive resources I've seen on this topic.
I noticed you mentioned [Competitor A] and [Competitor B] as solutions for [specific use case]. We've recently worked with 50+ UK [industry] companies on exactly this challenge, and I thought our findings might add value to your readers.
Our analysis showed [specific insight from your data]. We've published the full research here: [link]
Would you be open to including our approach in your article? I'm happy to provide a quote, specific data points, or even a mini case study that would complement your existing content.
Either way, thanks for creating such a valuable resource.
Best,
[Your Name]
Note: Personalization is critical. Reference specific parts of their article and offer genuine value, not a generic pitch.
You're creating the right content, structuring it correctly, and building authority through mentions. But how do you know if it's working? Let's discuss measurement.
Your boss walks into your office and asks: "How's our AI search optimization going?"
If you're only tracking traditional SEO metrics—keyword rankings, organic traffic, backlinks—you're missing the full picture. Answer Engine Optimization requires a new measurement framework.
Important: Keep measuring your traditional SEO metrics. They still matter. But add these four AEO-specific metrics to get the complete view of your search performance in 2025.
Definition: For each query you care about, on the answer engines that matter to your audience, is your brand being recommended?
How to track:
What good looks like:
Definition: Of all the AI responses that mention a solution in your category, how often is your brand named compared to your competitors?
Why this matters more than visibility alone: Answer engines sometimes adjust how frequently they mention brands overall (what HubSpot calls "turning down the dial"). If you only track visibility, you might panic when it drops—but if you're tracking share of voice, you'll know whether it's an industry-wide change or if you're specifically losing ground.
Real Example: In September and October 2024, ChatGPT reduced brand visibility across the board. Companies tracking only visibility saw drops and assumed their strategy was failing. Companies tracking share of voice saw they maintained or increased their share—it was a platform change, not a performance issue.
How to calculate:
Your Share of Voice = (Your mentions / Total competitor mentions) × 100
Track monthly: Are you gaining or losing share relative to your key competitors?
Definition: How often do answer engines use YOUR website content (not just mention your brand) when answering questions?
Why it matters: When answer engines cite your content rather than a competitor's, two things happen:
It makes perfect sense: you always say the nicest things about yourself. When AI cites your article explaining your methodology, the description will be more favorable than a third-party article that only mentions you briefly.
How to track:
Definition: Visits, conversions, and revenue from people who first encountered your brand through answer engine recommendations.
The tracking challenge: Most people don't click directly from ChatGPT to your website. They might:
Tracking solutions:
1. Post-Purchase Survey
Add a simple question to your conversion forms or checkout: "How did you first hear about us?" Include "AI search tool (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.)" as an option.
2. HubSpot Answer Engine Tracking
HubSpot now includes "Answer Engines" as a referral source in analytics. If you're using HubSpot, you can track this directly in your reporting.
3. Brand Search Volume
Track Google searches for your brand name. Increases in branded search often correlate with AI recommendation visibility—people hear about you in ChatGPT, then search your name.
4. Extended Attribution Windows
AI-influenced journeys are longer. Extend your attribution lookback window from 7 days to 30-60 days to capture the full impact.
Since launching their AEO strategy, HubSpot has achieved remarkable results that validate this entire approach:
1st
Highest share of voice for CRMs in answer engines
433%
Increase in AI citations
2,000%
Growth in demand from answer engines
These results came from systematically implementing the strategies covered in this guide over 12-18 months.
You don't need HubSpot's resources to make meaningful progress. Here's a realistic implementation plan:
Month 1: Establish Baseline
Month 2-3: Track Changes
Set realistic expectations: Meaningful AEO improvement takes 6-12 months. You're building authority, not running paid ads. Track progress monthly, but evaluate success quarterly.
Based on our work with 30+ UK SME clients over the past 18 months:
| Metric | Month 0 | Month 6 | Month 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Visibility | 5-15% | 25-35% | 40-55% |
| Share of Voice | 5-10% | 15-25% | 25-40% |
| AI Citations | 0-2 | 5-10 | 15-25 |
| AI Referral Traffic | < 1% | 3-6% | 8-15% |
Note: Results vary significantly by industry, competition level, and implementation consistency. These are median results.
Get our Google Sheets template pre-configured with all four metrics, tracking schedules, and benchmark comparisons.
Download Free DashboardWe've covered a lot of ground in this guide. Let's distill it into what matters most:
Answer engines use query fan-out and personalization to create unique responses. Your content must address multiple sub-questions, not just broad topics.
Use the 3x4 grid to map specific personas × journey stages. For every ultimate guide, create 10 laser-focused pieces answering exact questions.
Structure matters: answer first, go deeper, add original data, include FAQs, maximize structure, make sections standalone, tie to your product.
Backlinks are out; contextual mentions are in. Focus on high-citation articles, review platforms, and human-first channels where AI is training.
By January 2028, ChatGPT will drive more answer engine traffic than Google.
That's 37 months away. The companies implementing AEO strategies today will dominate their niches by then. Those that wait will find themselves invisible in the channels where their buyers are making decisions. This is still early days—the first-mover advantage is very real.
You have a choice: be proactive or reactive. Be the company that prospects discover through AI recommendations, or be the company scrambling to catch up in 2027.
Don't let this become another article you read and forget. Here are four immediate actions you can take in the next 48 hours:
Download the AEO Question Mapping Grid
Fill it out for your most important buyer persona. Identify 10-15 questions you should be answering.
Audit your top 5 blog posts
Run them through the 7-point checklist. Pick one to optimize this week.
Check your current AEO visibility
Use AEO Grader (free) to see where you stand today. Establish your baseline.
Identify 3 mention opportunities
Ask ChatGPT your priority questions. Note which articles it cites. Find 3 where you should be mentioned but aren't.
I know what you're thinking: "This sounds like a massive amount of work, and I'm already stretched thin."
You're right—it is a lot. But here's the critical insight: you don't need to do everything at once.
One well-optimized article per week, following the 7-point checklist, will give you 12 pieces of high-quality AEO content in 90 days. That's more than enough to start seeing results.
As a HubSpot Diamond Partner and leader of the London HubSpot User Group, we've been implementing AEO strategies for UK B2B companies for the past 18 months. We've learned what works, what doesn't, and how to get results without requiring a team of 20.
We offer three ways to support your AEO journey:
We'll analyze your current content, identify your highest-opportunity queries, and provide a prioritized 90-day action plan. No obligation, just practical recommendations.
We'll work with your team to implement the 3x4 grid, optimize your existing content using the 7-point checklist, and develop a content strategy that gets you recommended.
Comprehensive AEO strategy combined with HubSpot optimization, AI tool implementation, and ongoing mention-building campaigns. For companies serious about dominating their niche.
Book Your Free AI Readiness Check
Not sure where to start? Let's talk about your specific situation. No sales pressure, just honest guidance.
"The biggest mistake is either over-investing in every shiny new AI tool or waiting too long to start. Focus on strategy-first planning, team training, and staged, thoughtful investment."
— Michael, Digital Transformation Expert, quoted in HubSpot's AI Strategy Guide
Answer Engine Optimization isn't about gaming a new system or chasing the next algorithm update. It's about the same thing great marketing has always been about: creating genuinely helpful content and making it easy for the right people to find you.
The only difference now? Instead of optimizing for Google's algorithm, you're optimizing to help answer engines recommend you to the right people, at the right time, with the right context. The principles remain: expertise, authority, helpfulness, and trust.
The journey starts with a single piece of optimized content. Make that your focus for tomorrow.
Clwyd Probert is CEO and Founder of Whitehat SEO Ltd, a HubSpot Diamond Partner specializing in AI-enhanced inbound marketing and ethical SEO. He leads the London HubSpot User Group (the world's largest HUG) and has been helping UK B2B companies navigate the shift to AI-driven marketing since 2023.
With a background in molecular genetics and computer science, Clwyd brings a unique analytical approach to marketing strategy, combining data-driven decision-making with practical implementation for UK SMEs.
Connect: LinkedIn | Whitehat SEO | Email
Asia Frost's full presentation from GROW Europe 2025
Watch on YouTube →Check your answer engine visibility in under 2 minutes
Check Your Visibility →Let us help you implement AEO for your business
Explore Services →Question grid, 7-point checklist, metrics dashboard
Get Free Toolkit →Most UK SMEs see meaningful improvements in 6-12 months. You might notice initial visibility increases within 2-3 months for low-competition queries, but building authority and securing high-value mentions takes time. Unlike paid advertising, AEO is a compounding investment—results accelerate as you build momentum.
Absolutely not. Traditional SEO and AEO work together. Google still drives significant traffic, and many of the principles that help with Google rankings (quality content, good structure, authority) also help with answer engines. Think of AEO as an evolution of SEO, not a replacement. Continue your SEO efforts while adding AEO tactics.
No—in fact, good AEO practices improve your traditional SEO. The content structure that answer engines prefer (clear answers, comprehensive FAQs, original data) also performs well in Google. The 7-point checklist makes your content better for both AI and human readers. Implement AEO alongside your existing SEO strategy, not instead of it.
You're still early. Even if some competitors have started, the answer engine landscape is far from saturated. Focus on creating better, more specific content for your niche. Use the 3x4 grid to find questions your competitors aren't answering. Remember: answer engines can recommend multiple brands for a single query—this isn't winner-take-all like traditional search rankings.
You can absolutely implement the basics yourself using this guide. The 7-point checklist and question mapping grid are straightforward to apply. However, many companies benefit from expert guidance for strategy, prioritization, and execution—particularly for mention-building campaigns and content optimization at scale. Start with the DIY approach, and consider agency support if you need to move faster or lack internal resources.
For UK B2B companies, prioritize ChatGPT (highest usage), Google's AI Overviews (integrated into search), and Perplexity (growing rapidly with professionals). Claude and other engines are worth monitoring but focus your initial efforts where your buyers are most active. Use free tools like AEO Grader to check your visibility across all major platforms at once.
Questions about implementing AEO for your business? Want to discuss your specific situation?
Or email us directly: info@whitehat-seo.co.uk
Answer Engine Optimisation FAQ
This comprehensive FAQ addresses the technical, strategic, and implementation questions you need answered as you navigate the shift from traditional SEO to AI-powered search. We've compiled insights from leading research, real-world implementations, and our own experience helping UK SMEs adapt to this evolving landscape.
Each answer engine operates with distinct approaches to content selection and display, which means your optimisation strategy needs to account for these differences.
Knowledge cutoff: June 2024
Unique characteristics:
Knowledge cutoff: August 2024
Your CMS choice significantly impacts how easily you can implement AEO best practices. Here's what works:
WordPress powers 43% of all websites and remains the gold standard for AEO. Here's why:
Ideal for small-to-medium B2B companies, HubSpot offers:
The first "GEO-ready CMS" (launched July 2025) specifically designed for AI-powered discovery:
Best for enterprises requiring advanced control:
Structured data has evolved from a "nice to have" to a visibility multiplier for answer engines. Unlike traditional SEO where schema improves click-through rates, in AEO it often determines whether your content gets cited at all.
Answer engines rely on three critical factors:
Structured data supports all three by providing machine-readable clarity about your content, authorship, and relevance.
Understanding how AI models handle information is crucial for your content strategy. Here's what you need to know:
Answer engines operate through:
Research shows 25% of the highest-quality sites in ChatGPT's dataset have excluded themselves from future training. As established authorities opt out, well-optimized new content has increased chances of selection for real-time queries.
Allow these AI crawlers:
Evergreen topics: Optimize for potential inclusion in future training cycles with strong E-E-A-T signals and authoritative backlinks.
Time-sensitive content: Ensure technical excellence for real-time retrieval systems.
Based on implementations across UK agencies and SME clients, here's what you should budget for meaningful AEO results:
Comprehensive implementation: £1,000–£2,500/month (£12,000–£30,000 annually)
Phased approach: £500–£750/month for foundational work, scaling as ROI becomes evident
These figures align with broader B2B marketing benchmarks showing UK companies allocating 9.3% of annual revenue to marketing overall. AEO should represent a portion of your digital marketing budget, not replace it entirely.
| Category | Percentage | Monthly Range | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Restructuring | 40% | £400–£1,000 | Answer-first formatting, FAQ sections, schema implementation |
| Technical Optimization | 25% | £250–£625 | Schema markup, site speed, crawlability |
| Authority Building | 20% | £200–£500 | Community engagement, expert positioning |
| Analytics & Measurement | 15% | £150–£375 | Tracking, reporting, optimization |
The short answer: Agencies deliver 3x faster results for AEO implementation, according to UK specialists. Here's why, and when in-house might work.
AEO combines:
This creates a significant knowledge gap that agencies fill through dedicated R&D and daily experimentation across multiple clients.
Investment: £997–£2,497 monthly for comprehensive services
Combine in-house content creation with agency technical implementation:
In-house team:
Agency handles:
Not all industries see equal returns from AEO. Here's where investment pays off most:
Documented case studies show:
Why it works: When prospects ask ChatGPT "best marketing automation for mid-market companies," being cited as the authoritative answer bypasses traditional top-of-funnel friction and delivers pre-qualified leads.
AEO should enhance, not replace, your existing marketing. Here's how to integrate it strategically:
This balanced approach acknowledges AEO as an enhancement layer rather than SEO replacement.
Fast page loads, clean site architecture, and authoritative backlinks remain prerequisites for AI systems to discover and trust your content. Google AI Overviews pull 70% of citations from top-10 organic results - traditional SEO success directly feeds AEO performance.
Allocate minimum 25% of PPC budgets toward SEO/AEO
| Channel | How AEO Enhances It |
|---|---|
| Traditional SEO | Drives foundational rankings and domain authority that AI platforms reference |
| Content Marketing | Provides comprehensive articles that become AI-citable assets |
| PPC | Offers rapid testing ground for high-intent questions |
| Email & Automation | Nurtures prospects who discovered your brand through AI answers |
Restructure existing content with:
Analysis of 177 million AI citations reveals clear winners. Here's what works:
Listicles are the single most effective content format for AEO because LLMs prefer extracting information from comprehensive single sources rather than aggregating from multiple pages.
Why they work:
The key is structure:
Average featured snippet length: 40-60 words. This suggests concise, direct answers perform best initially, but comprehensive depth matters for overall authority.
Platform performance:
Why video matters: Google's multimodal processing means video transcripts, descriptions, and structured content are increasingly parsed by AI engines. For B2B companies and specialized niches, video presents "major opportunities to become a primary citation where little competition exists."
Increasingly valuable as AI engines expand multimodal content processing. Podcast transcripts can be processed by AI systems, and conversational nature aligns with natural language queries.
The answer requires a "dual-approach" strategy - you need both brevity and depth.
Purpose: Featured snippets and AI extraction
Location: First 100-200 words
Why this length: Research shows Google's AI Overviews analyze 160-character text blocks to find answers. Front-load your strongest value propositions.
Purpose: Overall authority and SEO performance
Why this length: Articles surpassing 1,500 words generally achieve higher rankings, with approximately 2,500 words positioned most favorably in traditional SEO.
Critical caveat: Length alone doesn't guarantee AEO success - structure and clarity matter more.
Essential structural elements:
| Platform | Preferred Structure |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Encyclopedic, Wikipedia-style with comprehensive coverage |
| Perplexity | Fresh content with conversational formatting |
| Google AI Overviews | Structured data with clear question-answer pairs |
Question: "What is answer engine optimization?"
Direct Answer (54 words): "Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of optimizing content to appear in AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Unlike traditional SEO which focuses on ranking in search results, AEO optimises for being cited as the authoritative source when AI systems answer user questions directly."
[Then continue with detailed explanation, examples, and comprehensive coverage...]
Prioritize updating existing high-performing content first. This delivers faster ROI because established pages already have authority signals and ranking positions.
Target your top 40 pages:
Quick wins implementation:
Focus on strategic updates:
Why update vs. create new: AI systems favor established, comprehensive pages over scattered content.
Create new content for:
Citation timing reality:
Update frequency by content type:
| Content Type | Update Frequency |
|---|---|
| High-velocity topics | Monthly/quarterly reviews |
| Evergreen content | Annual updates minimum |
| Competitive content | Quarterly PAA and AI response monitoring |
| All content | Continuous market change monitoring |
70% update/refresh : 30% new content creation
Critical rule: Ruthlessly prioritize your top 40-50 pages rather than attempting to retrofit thousands. Focus creates results.
Quality consistently beats quantity in AEO. Here's what the data tells us:
HubSpot research confirms companies blogging more frequently acquire more leads, but with a crucial nuance: One well-thought-out, original blog per week outperforms five mediocre or AI-generated pieces.
| Frequency | Best For | Considerations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 post/week | Small teams | Minimum viable - difficult to build audience with less |
| 2-3 posts/week | Most brands | Optimal balance - sustainable quality with consistent presence |
| 4-7 posts/week | Large teams | Only realistic with dedicated content team |
The critical 72 hours:
What this means: Consistent publishing cadence matters more than high volume. Regular fresh content signals authority and expertise to AI systems.
Equally important as new content:
| Content Type | Review Frequency |
|---|---|
| High-velocity topics | Monthly or quarterly |
| Evergreen content | Annual minimum |
| Competitive content | Quarterly PAA and AI response monitoring |
| All content | Continuous market change monitoring |
| Timeframe | Expected Results |
|---|---|
| First month | Map questions, implement schema on priority pages |
| Weeks 6-8 | Early wins with featured snippets |
| 3-6 months | Compounding effects - more AI citations, branded search increases |
| 6-12 months | Measurable business impact - conversion improvements, market share gains |
AEO follows a distinctly different timeline from traditional SEO, with compressed cycles that offer faster initial results but require patience for substantial gains.
Industry analysis reveals initial visibility signals appearing within 2-4 weeks, with some organizations seeing citations in ChatGPT within 10 days of publishing optimized content.
However, substantial improvements typically materialize after 60-90 days, with significant visibility gains requiring 6-12 months of consistent effort.
Companies with strong existing SEO foundations and domain authority often see results faster - sometimes within 30-60 days.
Success depends on:
| Channel | Typical Results Timeline |
|---|---|
| Traditional SEO | 6-12 months minimum |
| AEO | Ranking flips possible in under 30 days on well-structured, authoritative content |
Key differentiator: AEO achieves results through authority building, content quality, and technical optimization rather than just keyword targeting.
Initial commitment: Set quarterly timelines to provide actionable insights and bolster stakeholder support.
Critical advantage: AEO's compressed timeline allows faster validation and iteration, making it more agile for testing and optimization than traditional SEO.
AEO ROI calculation is fundamentally different from traditional SEO because the conversion path is indirect and often involves zero-click experiences.
AEO ROI = (Value of AI-Driven Conversions + Value of Brand Lift - AEO Investment) ÷ AEO Investment
Tracking methods:
Attribution formula:
AI-Referred Revenue × Conversion Rate × Customer Lifetime Value
Quantifiable brand metrics:
A 10% increase can be assigned monetary value based on equivalent cost of achieving that market share through paid advertising.
Valued based on customer LTV from trusted referral sources.
20-40% uplift following AI citations - valued at equivalent PPC costs.
Quantified by comparing cost avoided to PR crisis or reputation management campaign costs.
Translate AI exposure into CPC-based estimates:
1,000 AI answer impressions in a £6 CPC category = approximately £6,000 in media value
| Metric Category | Data Source |
|---|---|
| Direct conversions | GA4 tracking |
| Citation value | SEMrush/Ahrefs visibility data + CPC benchmarks |
| Brand lift | Branded search growth + direct traffic increases |
| Engagement metrics | Improved bounce rates and time on site |
| Pipeline influence (B2B) | CRM attribution showing AEO contribution to sales opportunities |
Executives need a strategic framework organized into three measurement pillars with essential KPIs that demonstrate business impact.
| KPI | What It Measures | Target/Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| AI Mentions | Raw count of brand mentions in AI-generated answers | Baseline presence indicator |
| Cross-Platform Coverage | Consistency across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude | Presence on 3+ platforms |
| AI Visibility Rate | How efficiently AI crawlers access and index content | 90%+ crawlability |
| Entity Recognition Success | Whether AI systems correctly identify your brand | 95%+ accuracy |
| Structured Data Coverage | Percentage of pages with valid Schema markup | 95%+ for priority pages |
| AI Overview Appearances | Times content appears in Google AI Overviews | 5-10% monthly growth |
| KPI | What It Measures | Target/Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| AI Citations | Number of times content is explicitly referenced/linked as source | Strongest authority indicator |
| AI Share of Voice | Your brand's percentage share vs. competitors | Brand Mentions ÷ Total Category Mentions × 100 |
| AI Recommendation Rate | Rate at which AI directly recommends your brand | Track monthly trend |
| High-Value Context Score | Percentage appearing as recommendation vs. incidental mention | 60%+ target |
| Answer Visibility Rate | Frequency appearing in actual AI answer vs. just being available | Track improvement trend |
| AI Response Sentiment | Positive/neutral/negative tone in brand mentions | 90%+ positive/neutral |
| KPI | What It Measures | Why Executives Care |
|---|---|---|
| AI-Driven Conversion Rate | % of users exposed to AI answer citing your brand who convert | Direct revenue impact |
| Branded Search Lift | Increase in branded queries following AI visibility | 20-40% increases = market demand signal |
| Referral Traffic from AI | Direct visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai (UTM tracked) | New traffic channel |
| Engagement Quality | Bounce rate, time on site, pages per session from AI-referred visitors | Visitor quality indicator |
| Pipeline Influence (B2B) | How AEO contributes to sales opportunities | Revenue pipeline impact |
| Revenue Attribution | Direct revenue from AI-referred traffic (tracked in GA4) | Bottom-line impact |
Successfully translating AEO performance requires building bridges between familiar metrics and new measurement paradigms.
Map AEO metrics to SEO equivalents:
| Traditional SEO Metric | AEO Equivalent | How to Explain It |
|---|---|---|
| SEO Ranking | AEO Citation Position | "Instead of ranking #1 in Google, we're being cited first in ChatGPT answers" |
| Organic Traffic | AI Visibility Impressions | "Our brand appears in 31% of AI-driven answers - equivalent to owning top market share" |
| Backlinks | AI Mentions | "Citations from AI platforms function like high-authority backlinks" |
| Click-Through Rate | Answer Share | "Our content influences 30% of relevant AI responses" |
| Domain Authority | Entity Recognition | "AI systems now recognize our brand as authoritative entity" |
Present both traditional SEO and AEO metrics together to show complementary nature:
The story: "Visibility expanded through non-click surfaces, explaining why traditional traffic may plateau while overall influence grows."
Don't say: "We improved our entity recognition success rate by implementing advanced Schema markup."
Instead say: "We positioned our brand as the trusted authority that AI platforms recommend, increasing qualified lead flow by 28%."
Key messaging: "The underlying strategy - creating authoritative, helpful content - remains the same. We're ensuring our content performs well across more search platforms."
Examples of effective stakeholder messaging:
Answer: "Nearly 60% of searches now end without clicks because users get answers directly. However, our visitors show 40% higher engagement and convert at 22% higher rates - we're capturing quality over quantity."
Answer: "Absolutely. AEO builds on strong SEO foundations. Google AI Overviews pull 70% of citations from top-10 organic results, so traditional SEO directly feeds AEO performance."
Answer: "Gartner predicts traditional search volume will drop 25% by 2026. AI Overviews now appear in 16% of Google searches. This isn't replacing our SEO strategy - it's ensuring we remain visible as search behavior evolves."
This FAQ is built on rigorous research from authoritative sources including official platform documentation, peer-reviewed academic research, leading analyst firms, and established industry publications. All URLs have been verified as accessible and authoritative.
Organization: Google (Search Engine Developer)
URL: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/05/succeeding-in-ai-search
Date: May 21, 2025
Content: Official guidance from Google on optimizing content for AI Overviews and AI Mode, covering unique content creation, page experience requirements, technical requirements, structured data implementation, and multimodal content optimization.
Authority: Primary source documentation directly from Google for AI Overviews optimization.
Organization: HubSpot (Major Marketing Technology Company)
URL: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/answer-engine-optimization-best-practices
Date: 2024-2025 (regularly updated)
Content: Comprehensive practitioner-focused guide covering AEO implementation strategies including content structuring, schema markup, featured snippets, voice optimization, and local AEO. Reports that AEO-optimized content converts 27% of AI traffic to leads.
Authority: HubSpot is a leading marketing technology platform with 32,000+ customers, representing their official tested approach with real implementation data.
Organization: HubSpot
URL: https://www.hubspot.com/products/marketing/aeo-guide
Date: 2024-2025 (current)
Content: Official product documentation explaining HubSpot's AEO toolkit, including their AEO Grader tool for analyzing brand visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Cites Semrush July 2025 study projecting AI search traffic could surpass traditional search within 2-4 years.
Authority: Direct from HubSpot as a product offering with integrated measurement tools representing commercial implementation at enterprise scale.
Organization: Gartner, Inc. (Leading Technology Research & Advisory Firm)
Date: February 19, 2024
Content: Major analyst report predicting traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026, with search marketing losing market share to AI chatbots and virtual agents. States that generative AI solutions are becoming substitute answer engines.
Authority: Gartner is the world's largest technology research firm (USD 3.6B in 2022 revenues) with over 1,700 analyst experts. Widely cited across the industry as authoritative market prediction.
Organization: Forrester Research (Major Technology & Business Research Firm)
URL: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2025/07/11/forrester-ai-search-reshaping-b2b-marketing/
Date: July 2025
Content: Coverage of Forrester report "Measuring and Growing Your Brand's AI Visibility" finding that B2B buyers are adopting AI-powered search at three times the rate of consumers, with 90% of organizations using generative AI in purchasing processes. AI-generated traffic represents 2-6% of total organic traffic and is growing at 40%+ per month.
Authority: Forrester is one of the world's three largest technology research firms with nearly 600 analysts. Based on their 2024 Buyers' Journey Survey representing authoritative market analysis.
Organization: Princeton University, Georgia Tech, Allen Institute for AI, IIT Delhi
URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735
Date: November 2023 (published), Updated June 2024
Content: Peer-reviewed academic research paper introducing the formal framework for Generative Engine Optimization. Researchers tested nine optimization tactics across 10,000 queries and introduced GEO-bench benchmark. Found that content including citations, quotes, and statistics is 30-40% more visible in AI search results. Published in Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD '24).
Authority: Foundational academic research from leading universities (Princeton, Georgia Tech) and research institutions. Peer-reviewed, published at top-tier computer science conference, widely cited as the first rigorous scientific research on generative engine optimization.
Organization: Search Engine Journal (Leading SEO/Search Marketing Publication)
URL: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/aeo-guide-seo-visibility-tac-spa/559880/
Date: November 2025
Content: Comprehensive technical guide on discovering what content AI engines value through AI crawler behavior analysis. Covers tracking GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, and Google crawlers through log file analysis and automated tools. Includes reverse engineering prompts, content analysis strategies, and building optimization blueprints.
Authority: Search Engine Journal is one of the three most respected publications in the SEO industry (alongside Search Engine Land and Moz), representing current industry best practices with technical implementation details.
Organization: Search Engine Land (Leading Search Marketing Publication)
URL: https://searchengineland.com/search-engine-traffic-2026-prediction-437650
Date: February 2024
Content: Industry analysis and coverage of Gartner's major prediction that search engine traffic will drop 25% by 2026 due to AI chatbots. Provides context on implications for SEO and PPC strategies, discusses the rise of ChatGPT as search alternative, includes expert commentary. Notes Gartner's extended prediction that by 2028, organic search traffic will decrease by 50% or more.
Authority: Search Engine Land (owned by Semrush) is one of the most respected publications in search marketing, providing authoritative industry analysis and news with professional commentary on major analyst firm predictions.
Organization: Semrush (Leading SEO/Marketing Platform)
URL: https://www.semrush.com/blog/perplexity-ai-optimization/
Date: 2024-2025
Content: Research-backed guide on ranking in Perplexity AI based on analysis by Metehan Yeşilyurt (AEO Vision Co-Founder). Reveals Perplexity's three-layer (L3) reranking system for entity-related searches, domain authority preferences, and user engagement patterns. Includes five specific strategies and case study where SEO consultant Ross Kernez tripled Perplexity citations.
Authority: Semrush is one of the leading SEO and marketing technology platforms widely used by professionals worldwide. Represents proprietary research into Perplexity's ranking system with documented real-world implementation results.
Organization: HubSpot
URL: https://offers.hubspot.com/aeo-guide-early-signs
Date: 2024-2025
Content: Downloadable comprehensive implementation guide revealing HubSpot's internal AEO strategies and early findings. Covers writing AI-ready content using semantic triples, building trust signals, topic prioritisation, and measurement using the AEO Grader. Reports that 58% of Google searches now result in zero clicks as AI overviews dominate results.
Authority: Represents HubSpot's complete playbook based on their pioneering work in AEO, shared publicly as thought leadership from a major marketing technology company with extensive testing and implementation experience.
At Whitehat, we've helped dozens of UK SMEs navigate the shift from traditional SEO to AI-powered search. Our approach combines technical excellence with practical, ethical implementation that delivers measurable results.
Want to know where you stand? We offer a free AI Readiness & SEO Health Check to assess your current visibility in answer engines and identify quick wins.