{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): How to Rank in AI & Capture 4\u201312x","description":"AI Marketing Podcast \u2013 AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) with Elina Panteleyeva Guest: Elina Panteleyeva, Founder of ShowUpWithAI Host: Mark Fidelman Topic: How to rank in AI answers (AEO) and capture high-intent leads from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc. Episode Overview In this episode, Mark and Elina break down Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)\u2014how to become the brand that AI agents and chatbots recommend first. Elina shares: Why AI-driven leads convert 4\u201312x better How to optimize your website, content, and off-site signals for AI What\u2019s changing from traditional SEO to AEO\/GEO Real-world case studies of brands exploding inbound leads in 15\u201360 days Why agentic commerce is the next big wave\u2014and how to get ahead of it Timestamps & Segments [0:02:46\u20130:04:52] Warm-up & context Light banter about calls and busy schedules. Mark mentions bringing a company public (Exascale Labs) and dealing with heavy legal sign-offs on marketing. Sets the stage that this is an AI + marketing focused audience. [0:04:52\u20130:08:59] Guest intro & origin story Your setup and question: 0:04:41 Mark: \u201cAll right, so we're going to talk about the AEO\u2026 I\u2019m going to be the voice of the listener and walk through it as if you were talking to me for the first time.\u201d Key points: 0:07:39 Elina\u2019s background: Founder of ShowUpWithAI Worked at an AI startup, got laid off in 2023. Bootstrapped an e\u2011commerce brand to seven figures. Noticed people using ChatGPT to choose doctors, therapists, services. Realization: \u201cThere\u2019s no page two of chat.\u201d She spent hundreds of hours studying documentation, signals, and how LLMs evaluate brands. That research became ShowUpWithAI [0:08:59\u20130:12:13] Why AEO matters now Your question: 0:08:59 Mark: \u201cOkay, so why should anyone care about AEO?\u201d Key points: People coming from AI\/chat are 4\u201312x more likely to convert. They\u2019ve already discussed their problem with an AI. They trust the model and are now ready for a solution. AI is always recommending someone\u2014you or your competitor. It\u2019s still early: Most businesses aren\u2019t optimizing for AI yet. Results can come within 30\u201360 days. Elina: AEO is \u201cthe biggest ROI you can get in 2026.\u201d Your follow-up question: 0:10:13 Mark: \u201cWhat if 1,000 plumbers are doing this? How does ChatGPT know which one to recommend?\u201d Key points: Right now, 1,000 plumbers are not doing it, which is why starting now matters. LLMs care deeply about recommendation quality: If they recommend bad options, users switch models (Claude, Perplexity, etc.). Models use specific signals different from traditional SEO: On-site: technical optimization, schema, phrasing, blogs, structure. Off-site: Reddit threads, YouTube, reviews, third\u2011party mentions. [0:12:13\u20130:15:05] Signals, platforms & AI-optimized content Your question: 0:12:13 Mark: \u201cIs that primarily how you rank\u2026 or is there something else you have to do to make sure you\u2019re top of mind, especially locally, for ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude?\u201d Key points: It\u2019s industry-dependent: Some spaces are Reddit-heavy. Others lean on YouTube, Trustpilot, or specific review sites. Local AEO: Google Business Profile + reviews are critical. Website & content structure matter a lot: Blogs should be AI-optimized, not \u201ctypical\u201d blogs. Key elements: Summary at the top FAQs at the bottom External citations to credible sources Internal linking: blogs \u2192 service pages; services \u2192 blogs There are \u201c100+ more\u201d technical and structural factors behind the scenes. Your next question: 0:13:51 Mark: \u201cSo it\u2019s no longer the link-sharing game with SEO or trying to get links in high-traffic sites?\u201d Key points: Big difference vs. traditional SEO: Backlinks still help, but\u2026 AI can infer trust from unlinked brand mentions. Example: Someone mentions your brand on Reddit without a link. If your website is properly set up, AI can: Recognize the entity Attribute that mention back to your site and brand Treat it as a credibility signal [0:15:05\u20130:18:07] Search behavior shift & Google\u2019s AI overview Your question: 0:15:05 Mark: \u201cDo you have any breakdown of how many people are doing Google searches vs AI now\u2026 it used to be like 99\/1?\u201d Key points: Tracking is tricky: People find you via chat\/AI then go Google your brand. In Google Search Console, you\u2019ll see a spike in branded searches if AEO is done right. Behavior changes: People still use Google, but: They rarely scroll far. They definitely don\u2019t hit page two. The new game: \u201cHow do you get into that Google AI overview box?\u201d That\u2019s where the real battle is now. Your commentary: You share your own behavior: You now start most product\/service discovery via ChatGPT\/Claude\/Gemini, not Google. You trust AI to synthesize reviews, source data, and filter out \u201cgamed\u201d SEO. Strategic takeaway: If you\u2019re paying 30% to Amazon vs 0% on your own site, AEO is crucial. Do \u201cwhatever you can\u201d to rank high in AI results. Your next question: 0:17:06 Mark: \u201cIs there any software that tells you where you rank in these AI systems? With SEO there\u2019s a lot\u2014what about AEO?\u201d Key points: There are tools for AI visibility tracking. The real bottleneck: Implementation is like a 30-hour\/week job: Ongoing optimization Technical\/content updates You must define the prompts\/queries you want to rank for: Tools need a list of target prompts. If you choose the wrong prompts, the data is misleading. [0:18:07\u20130:20:30] Prompt strategy & why \u201cjust use an agent\u201d doesn\u2019t work Your clarification\/question: 0:18:07 Mark: Paraphrased \u2013 So you basically have to reverse engineer prompts back into FAQs, summaries, ranking signals, etc. And if you don\u2019t, it gets hard unless you focus on a few phrases. Key points: Elina\u2019s tip: Scrape Reddit for your industry. Use AI (e.g., Claude) to extract pain points and questions. Those questions are likely the same queries people ask AI models. This gives you a starting list of prompts to optimize for. Your provocative question: 0:18:46 Mark: \u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t I just have an AI agent do all this for me? Why wouldn\u2019t I get 100 agents to post as fake customers on Reddit?\u201d Key points: Reddit hates self\u2011promotion\u2014especially from new accounts. There\u2019s a case study: A casino tried something similar. Result: their entire domain got banned. Platforms now aggressively detect: Bot-like behavior Coordinated fake posts Beyond Reddit: You must know: How to script YouTube videos so AI will cite them. What to say, when to say it, and how to structure them. How to format blogs and web pages exactly for AI. If you simply tell an LLM: \u201cOptimize me for AEO,\u201d you\u2019ll get a basic, shallow implementation that everyone else has\u2014 not the nuanced, multi-signal strategy that actually moves the needle. [0:20:30\u20130:23:27] Case studies & ROI Your question: 0:20:30 Mark: \u201cDo you have any examples of companies or individuals you\u2019ve helped and what the results were?\u201d Key case studies: Eight-figure franchise brand Start: ~9% visibility for their target prompts. After ~15 days: 55% visibility. Lead impact: Went from 1\u20132 inbound leads per week To 3 inbound leads on a single Saturday (within ~20 days). 20\u2011year-old marketing agency Was getting ~1 lead every other day. After AEO work: 4\u20135 inbound leads per day. And from industries they\u2019d never seen inbound from before. Your follow-up question: 0:21:56 Mark: \u201cHow long did it take these companies to set things up so leads started showing up?\u201d Key timing details: Franchise: Started ~20 days before the results she cites. Saw big movement in 15\u201320 days. Agency: Saw strong inbound increases in ~35\u201340 days. Elina\u2019s positioning: She typically says 30\u201360 days to see increases. If your customer LTV is > $10k, AEO is a \u201cno\u2011brainer.\u201d AEO work builds durable assets: YouTube videos Content Brand signals Those assets pay off beyond AI search itself. [0:23:27\u20130:24:28] AEO vs SEO: where should budgets go? Your question: 0:23:27 Mark: \u201cShould people stop spending money on SEO and focus everything on AEO? What do you tell companies that hire you?\u201d Key points: Elina: Her company focuses on AEO, and good SEO is a byproduct. Contrast: traditional SEO shops slap on \u201cAEO\u201d at the end. Her thesis: AI is here to stay and expanding. Agentic commerce is coming: Personal agents that know you better than you know yourself. They\u2019ll make purchasing decisions automatically. If AI\/agents can\u2019t find you, you\u2019re not even in consideration. Therefore, primary focus should be: Optimizing to show up in AI search as the recommended option. [0:24:28\u20130:26:41] Agentic commerce & future state Your commentary: You agree agentic shopping is inevitable. Likely path: Starts from LLMs \u2192 evolves into persistent agents. They\u2019ll look at: What people like you have bought. High\u2011rating clusters. Implications for sellers: Need to provide great products and service. Need strong public signals: reviews, mentions, satisfaction. You tie this into your upcoming book: \u201cAgent Shock\u201d \u2013 coming out next month. This AEO focus is one of the core recommendations. Your question to close the AEO topic: 0:25:27 Mark: \u201cIs there anything we didn\u2019t cover that we should have?\u201d Key points: Elina reiterates: Best time to start was 3 months ago, second best time is now. This isn\u2019t fake scarcity; someone in your industry is already being recommended by AI. ROI is currently very high and very fast, like SEO in the early 2000s. [0:26:19\u20130:27:21] Future episode idea: ChatGPT ads vs AEO Your suggestion \/ question: 0:26:19 Mark: You propose a future episode on: ChatGPT ads How to take advantage of them How they interact with organic AEO Note that you\u2019re just starting to see ads and know nothing about pricing or mechanics yet. Elina: Open to coming back for that topic. [0:27:21\u20130:29:07] Post-show wrap-up You explain your goals with the podcast: Learn what\u2019s happening in your industry. Meet potential customers, especially people needing compute \/ data centers. Talk about: AI infrastructure Data center boom vs actual deployments Security topics like the Hugging Face hack Quick tangent on: Novel data center ideas (e.g., ship in the water using the ocean for cooling). The gap between announced and actually built data centers.   ","author_name":"AI Marketing","author_url":"http:\/\/www.fanaticsmedia.com","html":"