An AEO Getting Started Guide for Creators

This article was originally published in “Vista Newsletter” No. 128: AEO Getting Started Guide for Creators (opens in a new tab). Welcome to free subscription (opens in a new tab), one letter per week, I will share with you how to make good use of writing and technological tools in the AI ​​era to create your own influence.

Hi, I’m Vista.

Last week I received a monthly report from an SEO tool. The data above is very interesting: in the past thirty days, the average ranking of my website on Google has improved by 136 positions, but there have been 58 fewer clicks, and the exposure has also declined slightly.

Well, you may be wondering: Hey, the ranking has improved, but why has the traffic decreased?

Looking at these two things together, it’s really confusing at first. I have to be honest first: the comparison benchmark in that report was an algorithm update in June, and the loss cannot be entirely attributed to AI. But this combination of “ranking forward, clicking backward” may have been encountered by many creators in the past year. When I talked about Content Dividend in the online lecture on the evening of July 27, I also briefly mentioned it.

In this e-newsletter, I would like to explain in more detail the paragraph that I only talked about for five minutes due to time constraints: What has changed from SEO to AEO? And what are some things you can do this week?

The ranking is still there, but readers have not come here.

Well, let me explain it to you first.

In the past, the search process was very simple: the user entered a keyword, saw ten blue links, and clicked on one of them… If it happened to be linked to your website, then your website would get a visit. It is conceivable that the higher the ranking, the higher the chance of being clicked, so we spend our efforts on SEO and try our best to squeeze into the first page.

SEO is the abbreviation of “Search Engine Optimization”, also called search engine optimization. This is a technology and method that allows the website to obtain better rankings in the natural search results of search engines such as Google by adjusting the website structure and content, so that more people can click to enter the website for free and actively.

However, there is one more moving line now. After the user asks the question, the AI ​​will give you a compiled answer directly above, combining statements from three or five sources and telling it to you. Although the source is attached below the answer, most people feel satisfied after reading it, and most of them will not click on it to find out more.

Yes, this is the zero-click search that has been often mentioned in the past two years. Your content is still found, read, and used, but the user stops in the answer box given by the AI ​​and does not come to your door.

Zero-Click Search refers to a search behavior in which users obtain answers directly on the search engine results page (SERP) and leave without clicking to enter any external website.

Improved rankings mean Google still recognizes the quality of your content, which is good news. Fewer clicks means that there is an extra layer of translators in the middle, which is a reality that needs to be faced. Of course, both things can be true at the same time.

So, the question changed from how to get to the first page to another: when the AI ​​is sorting out the answers, will it quote you?

There is a proper name for this problem, called AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, answer engine optimization.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO, Answer Engine Optimization) is an optimization strategy that allows website content to be directly selected by AI search tools, voice assistants or featured snippets, and presented to users as standard answers. Its core goal is to strive to be the answer, rather than simply to rank in search results.

Do a physical examination first, you will know where you stand

Before talking about the method, I would like to ask you to do something first, which will take about twenty minutes.

Open the three AI tools. I am used to using ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Use whatever you have at hand. Then type in the three questions you most want to be found one by one.

Note that it is the question, not the keyword. Don’t type “AI writing (opens in a new tab)”, but type “When writing with AI, how can I avoid writing something that sounds like AI”. Why is this? Because that’s what current users are asking.

After asking, you can look at three things:

Are the answers it gives accurate? What sources does it cite? Are you included in those sources?

The first time I did this test, I was honestly a little frustrated. Some of the questions that I had written a complete long article on myself were answered by the AI ​​in a clear and logical manner, but the answers were quoted from other people’s content. There are also some questions where AI talks about the exact points in my article, but it does not tag my name.

This test is cruel, but it is worth it. You will quickly know where you stand in this new game? After you’re done, write down the results. This will be your baseline for comparison three months later.

Later, I adjusted my strategy and at the same time cut down my website and rebuilt it. Today, overall AEO results are pretty good!

Three key differences between SEO and AEO

After the physical examination, let’s talk about the procedure. The same topic is handled differently when written to a search engine and written to an answer engine. The differences are mainly concentrated in three places.

First, the title must have a point of view, not just a description.

The title logic in the SEO era is to put keywords in it, make it neutral and complete. Titles such as “Introduction to AI Writing Tools” and “The Crucial First Step in Content Marketing” are very effective in the era of keyword comparison.

When AI sorts out answers, it looks for judgments that can be quoted directly. “Introduction to AI Writing Tools” seems to be quite satisfactory, without any clear stance, and AI will gain nothing by quoting it; “After writing with AI, the most important thing to delete is those sentences that are the same no matter who writes them” If there is a stance, AI can use the entire paragraph, and mark your source by the way.

Titles with opinions have an added value: people are more likely to click on them. This is even more obvious on social platforms. Taiwanese readers take an average of 1.8 seconds to decide whether to stop on Threads. Titles without opinions have no chance of being seen.

A practical reminder: Having an opinion does not mean exaggerating. The title is sensational, but the content cannot be fulfilled. If AI quotes you once, readers will be fooled once, and you will lose trust.

Second, the conclusion should be put forward and not laid out slowly.

It took me a long time to correct this myself.

Most people who write articles have a habit of setting out the atmosphere first, telling stories first, explaining the whole story first, leaving the conclusion in the middle and later paragraphs for readers to follow. This is a good writing technique, but in today’s environment, it will work against you.

When AI reads your article, it will prioritize the previous paragraphs. Readers are equally impatient. If your answer is buried in the eighth paragraph, the AI ​​cannot pick it up and the reader will slip away.

Therefore, what I am doing now is: within the first one or two hundred words, I must state the core judgment of this article. Story (opens in a new tab) can be kept, but it should be placed after the conclusion to support it and corroborate it, not as an entrance.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up on the fun of presentation. You can make your decision in the first paragraph and then use the entire article to argue for it, add to it, and add your case. Putting the conclusion first will not make the article boring, it will only make it easier to find.

Third, we need to give specific things that can be taken away.

This is the most critical of the three points, and it is also the one that most people do the least.

AI citation content has a clear preference: it likes passages that can be moved directly without secondary processing. Let’s take a look, what kind of paragraph meets this condition?

Paragraphs with specific numbers. “Many creators have this problem.” It cannot be removed. “I asked more than a hundred creators at the lecture, and more than half were stuck in the same place.” It cannot be removed.

Have clearly defined paragraphs. When you define a concept in an article and write it clearly in a sentence pattern such as “The so-called X refers to…”, it is very easy for AI to recognize and quote it.

Step-by-step paragraphs. The first, second and third steps are clearly listed and each step has a verb. This structure is ready-to-quote answer material for AI.

Paragraphs with first-hand experience. This item is the most important because it cannot be copied by others. What I did, how much time I spent, what the results were, and where I failed, these details make you irreplaceable. AI can synthesize a hundred general papers and write a general theory, but it cannot create the trap you stepped on last month.

On the other hand, those paragraphs that everyone writes the same are where the AI ​​needs you least. When everyone can produce content with a complete structure and smooth sentences in thirty seconds, that average thing will be completely worthless.

Being quoted is not the end, this is the second thing I want to remind you

Writing this may give people the impression: Then go all out for AEO!

Wait, I want to put the brakes on for you.

It is true that being cited by AI (opens in a new tab) is a good thing. It means that your content is regarded as a trusted source, and it also means that your name will appear in more people’s answers. But be aware that being cited itself does not directly translate into income. When users see the small source line below the answer, most of the time they will not click in, let alone subscribe (opens in a new tab) you or buy your stuff.

Therefore, AEO should be placed in the right place: it is the work of the exposure layer, not the realization layer.

What we really need to take care of are the three assets: content assets that can be searched, list assets that can build relationships, and product assets that can complete transactions. AEO helps you do the first item well, but you have to take the readers from the first item to the second item yourself.

You may ask, how to bring it? My approach is to include a reason worthy of leaving an email in every long article that has a high probability of being cited. A checklist (opens in a new tab), a template, and a set of downloadable resources. The reader sees your name in the AI ​​answer, clicks in, and finds something to take away. Only then will he leave his contact information.

Without this step, no matter how good your AEO is, you are just providing free content for other people’s answer boxes.

One more thing, I would like to remind everyone: home games and away games must be clearly distinguished. The official website is the home field, and the e-newsletter is the home field. But fan pages, Instagram and Threads are all away games. The away games are crowded, but you don’t set the rules of the game. All AEO efforts are best directed back to the home page, otherwise you will be spending your energy on cultivating content for other platforms.

Three misunderstandings that I have seen most criticized by people

I have talked with many creators about AEO this year, and there are three misunderstandings that appear particularly frequently.

The first misunderstanding is to regard AEO as the new version of keyword fill-in-the-blank. After some people listened, they began to insert a large number of subscripts in the form of questions into the article, such as “what is XX” and “how to do XX”. There were more than a dozen in one article. The result reads like an encyclopedia entry, devoid of humanity and perspective. AI does like clearly structured content, but what it needs more is meaningful judgment. If the form is full but the content is empty, neither party will be pleased.

The second misunderstanding is writing for AI and forgetting about people. I have seen someone change the article to look like a technical document, with each paragraph being a definition and a column, and the reader will have no feeling after reading it. Think about it upside down: the reason why AI cites you is because it judges that your content is useful to people. If you serve people well, machines will naturally keep up. If you do it in reverse, you will usually lose both ends.

The third misunderstanding is that if you do it, it will be effective immediately. It takes time for content to be included in the citation range by AI. The model has its update cycle. The article you just revised usually will not appear in other people’s answers this week. My own observation is that this matter should be viewed in terms of seasons, not weeks. If you revise two articles and then give up after waiting ten days for nothing to happen, then probably nothing can help you.

Well, by the way, I would like to share a pitfall that I have stepped on myself. I once spent a lot of effort chasing a certain popular topic and wrote a long article with complete information, thinking that this kind of topic would be highly searched and would have a high chance of being cited. As a result, the performance of that article was always mediocre. Instead, it was a practical record I wrote casually, telling how I split a long article into six outputs and what went wrong in the middle. It was cited much more times.

I later figured it out: Information on popular topics is available everywhere, and AI is not lacking for you. But your implementation process, the pitfalls you have stepped on, and the time you spent therefore are something others do not have.

Four things to do this week

Having said so much, let us condense it into four actions that can be started immediately. First, complete the previous twenty-minute physical examination. Three questions, three AI tools, write down the results in a notebook and mark today’s date. If you don’t have a baseline, you won’t know later if you’ve made progress?

Second, pick an old article that you are most confident about and move the conclusion to the front. No need to rewrite, just mention the core judgment buried in the middle and back paragraphs in the first two hundred words. This is the modification with the highest reporting rate.

Third, add a paragraph to the article that can be taken away. It might be three steps, a set of specific numbers, or a record of your own practice. After finishing it, look back and see if that section is something that others can’t copy.

Fourth, make sure there is a reason for leaving the email in that article. If not, get one.

All four things together, I think it should be done in an afternoon or evening.

##Finally

My judgment on this matter is this: starting from this year, whether content can be cited by AI may be more important than Google’s ranking.

However, there is something more fundamental underneath this judgment. AI isn’t destroying content creation, it’s destroying mediocrity. When output becomes extremely easy, the level of work that can be easily replaced is depreciating, while your judgment and taste are appreciating.

I have to warn everyone that AEO techniques will become outdated. How to write a title, where to put the conclusion, whether to add columns, these rules will probably be a different set of rules in two years! But “write something that only you can write” will never go out of style. It works in the era of keywords, and it is even more effective in the era of answer engines.

So, if you only want to do one thing this week, I suggest you go back to that old article and ask yourself a question: Is there any paragraph in this article that others cannot copy?

If the answer is no, it doesn’t matter, then go make up a paragraph!

Let’s do our best together.

Sincerely, Vista

[Extended reading and tools]

In my lecture (opens in a new tab) last night, I completely talked about the three levels of capabilities: copywriting power, content power, and brand power. Later, I compiled it into a long article “The content bonus is not over yet, but the admission ticket price has become higher”. Interested readers can go there and read it.

If you want to set up the entire writing pipeline, from personal style files, inspiration collection, in-depth research to removing the AI ​​smell, I will take you step by step in the AI Content Production System Workshop.

In addition, more than forty creator gadgets that I developed myself are placed in Vista’s AI Lab (opens in a new tab), you are welcome to use them.