This newsletter comes from the hosts of The Marketing Architects, a research-first show answering your biggest marketing questions. Find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!
This week, we're talking with Josh Blyskal from Profound about the seismic shift happening in search right now. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI models are changing how consumers find information, and the strategies that worked for traditional SEO won't be enough anymore.
—Elena
FAQs appear 848% more often on top-performing pages in AI search.
Most healthcare ads follow the same playbook: wide panning shots, dramatic lighting shifts, and dense medical jargon. This predictability creates a sea of sameness that consumers tune out.
What marketers need to know about answer engine optimization.
The way people search is fundamentally changing. Instead of typing keywords into Google, consumers are having conversations with AI. They're asking ChatGPT for recommendations, using Perplexity to compare products, and trusting AI-generated answers without clicking through to websites.
This shift creates new challenges and opportunities:
- Different engines, different behaviors. ChatGPT pulls from search APIs and prioritizes utility-first content. Perplexity builds its own index and caches pages aggressively. Claude uses Brave's browser. Each system has unique citation patterns.
- Structure matters more than ever. AI models prefer content that's organized for them. Listicles, FAQs, and data-driven frameworks perform exceptionally well. JavaScript-heavy pages often get ignored entirely.
- Getting cited is a two-step process. Traditional SEO (domain authority, backlinks) still gets you into the results that AI models consider. After that, only the most useful, concise, and data-forward content gets chosen to be cited.
- Product feeds are the future. Eventually, brands will feed structured data directly to AI systems instead of relying on web scraping. The brands thinking about this now will have a massive advantage.
- SEOs have a golden opportunity. This is not the death of SEO. Marketing teams that understand how to optimize for AI search will become invaluable to their organizations.
"What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?"
This guide from Profound breaks down the fundamentals of Answer Engine Optimization. It covers how AI systems surface and synthesize content, plus actionable strategies for ensuring your brand appears accurately in AI-generated responses.
Read the guide
Stay ahead of change.
"The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else."
— Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup
