Answer Engine Optimization: 6 Best Practices to Follow

When someone enters a query into Google or other search engines, they typically have one of four goals (also known as their search intent):

Today, we’re focusing on that last intent, as answer engine optimization (AEO) is now a pivotal component of the modern Organic Search strategy.

If you’ve Googled anything in the past 10 years, you know that SERPs are no longer just a list of links and ads. SERPs are full of dynamic features intended to best serve the user’s intent, including informational intent.

While some marketers are burying their heads in the sand and proclaiming SEO is dead, there are actual benefits to pursuing answer engine optimization in addition to your other Organic Search efforts.

With both strategies working together, you can become a trusted resource for shoppers, leading to increased conversions and revenue.

Here are our recommended answer engine optimization best practices to help improve your brand’s reach wherever users ask questions.

Before we discuss AEO best practices, it’s crucial to understand the purpose behind these strategies. AEO requires additional work, so you might wonder if it's even worth it.

As SEO and AI become more intertwined, brands can’t afford to ignore the shifts in the search landscape. We must adapt to think beyond 10 blue links and consider where people are searching, what they’re searching, and why they’re searching.

That’s why AEO presents a valuable opportunity for all brands, whether you sell workout supplements or baby clothes.

Users are increasingly using tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and voice assistants to learn new information, solve problems, answer questions, or discover products and services. Why shouldn’t your brand be in consideration as these tools compile the data to deliver answers?

AEO targets these questions and provides real, honest answers that genuinely help users.

It’s extra work and won’t always lead to instant conversions, but it’s a long game, and can help build your brand’s authority and expand your reach, both of which can have tangible dollars-and-cents implications.

Here are a few answer engine optimization best practices to get you started.

To leverage this channel further, work with VELOX, an Organic Search and AEO agency that takes an omnichannel approach to help clients achieve better visibility and exponential revenue growth.

No matter how Organic Search evolves, content is still King. The first, and most obvious step, in AEO is creating content that directly answers user questions.

Search engines are evolving, and users are changing their search habits too. It’s not enough to go after keywords alone (although keywords are still important; your content needs to provide value.

Don’t beat around the bush: Your content should clearly answer a specific question.

While you should definitely target long-tail, information queries, focus more on the value your content provides rather than how many times you can use a specific keyword.

Additionally, consider using user-friendly formatting, such as Q&A sections, bullet points, tables, or term definitions, to make your answer easy to grasp.

This ensures both users on the webpage and AI tools can quickly find the answer to the specific question. It’s a win for users all around, whether they’re browsing on the web or having an AI tool answer the question for them.

Understanding user intent and effectively satisfying it is crucial to Organic Search success. It’s no longer just about keywords, but the intent behind each one.

Google and AI engines now have an advanced understanding of user intent and the context behind each query, which benefits them, as they can serve better, more relevant results.

Satisfying user intent helps you improve your Organic Search rankings and improves your odds of appearing in answer-driven SERP features and in AI tools like ChatGPT.

As you create new content and optimize old content, keep the user’s intent in the forefront.

If you’re writing fresh content based on a set of keywords, write the content with that intent in mind. Many keyword tools provide intent information behind each keyword, but it’s typically evident by the keyword alone (terms like “how to” or “what is”) or by scanning the top results in the SERP.

If you’re optimizing an existing page, consider what intent it serves: commercial, navigational, transactional, or informational.

With an honest understanding of your page’s content, you can more effectively target keywords that match the intent, leading to a better user experience while also making your content more relevant in answer engines.

Ideally, your site should target all the different intent types, so you shouldn’t feel forced to make a commercial product page more informational. Instead, create a buying guide with detailed information and answers to common questions, making it more relevant for informational searches.

For much of Google’s history, people would often input simple, sometimes awkwardly phrased queries into the search bar. Nowadays, searches are becoming more conversational and complex, utilizing natural language.

AI engines are becoming quite good at understanding these natural language queries through advanced natural language processing (NLP), and your content should evolve to match this conversational tone.

Think beyond simple keywords like “buy running shoes men marathon” and write content that aligns with long-tail, conversational queries like, “What type of running shoes should I buy for an upcoming marathon?”

The intent behind this example is informational, as the user wants to know the types of features to look for and other important considerations before comparing their options.

As such, your content should clearly answer this question, providing users with valuable information they can use in the next steps of their buying journey rather than a list of your running shoes (better serving commercial intent).

Lead with value first and foremost, and use easy-to-understand language throughout the content.

Siri and other voice assistants are for more than setting alarms or reminders. People use their voice to search for information about everything from recipes to local businesses.

As Siri, Alexa, and other AI-driven voice assistants get smarter, people will use them for increasingly complex queries, typically spoken in full, conversational sentences, rather than specific keywords.

This is another reason to optimize your content for natural, conversational language. You should answer questions concisely and directly, making it easy for the voice assistant to pull information from your site and deliver it to users.

Local SEO is also a factor here, as many people use voice assistants for information about local businesses. Whether they’re looking for a place to eat tonight or a contractor for their kitchen remodel, people might first discover your business from a voice assistant, so make sure to integrate voice search optimization with your local SEO efforts.

Structured data is crucial for classifying your site’s content and providing important context for Google and other search engines. It’s long been a staple in Organic Search optimization, helping to improve a page’s relevancy and CTRs, and it isn’t going anywhere soon.

In fact, it’s among the most powerful tools in your AEO toolkit.

Search engines and AI chat tools rely heavily on structured data to identify the most relevant answers to a user’s query. This is especially true in AI-powered SERP features like Google’s AI Overviews.

Proper schema markup helps AI better interpret your content, so it can easily pull information from your site when answering a question.

Ideally, you apply schema markup to all of your webpages, but start by marking up answer-based pages like FAQs, product information pages, reviews, and company information pages to improve your brand’s visibility.

Google and other search engines are always changing, and the integration of AI has only accelerated the the evolution of Search.

It’s always been crucial to stay up to date on Google algorithm updates, and it’s especially important if AEO will be a part of your marketing strategy.

We’ve already seen SERPs change significantly since ChatGPT first made its big debut in 2022, and Google is constantly tinkering with new ways to integrate AI into SERPs with new features, and even using it to organize search results.

Like Organic Search optimization, AEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. You need to regularly audit content performance and track how it ranks in answer engines. Specifically, see how your content ranks in things like featured snippets and answer boxes.

You should also evaluate your content strategy and how it aligns with AEO. What might have worked just two years ago might not be enough to grow your brand’s online presence with the rise of zero-click searches and improved answer-driven features directly in SERPs.

The bottom line: Your brand can’t afford to stand still with AEO taking a more central role in Organic Search marketing. Follow these best practices, stay up to date on the latest updates, and partner with trusted experts to help you navigate this new and exciting time in Organic Search.

Although AEO might seem like an existential threat to Organic Search marketing, it’s just the latest in a long line of changes and developments. Those who adapt and embrace change stand the best chance of capitalizing on these new opportunities.

VELOX remains at the forefront of Organic Search innovation and is the AEO agency that can help your brand achieve meaningful growth.

As an ROI-focused digital marketing agency, VELOX leverages proven techniques to help brands achieve 400 to 800% ROI. We’re also a Google Partner, recognized as one of the top agencies globally for our results and quality of service.

Contact us today to learn more about our AEO strategies and how we can help your brand prepare for the future of Search.