AEO Best Practices in 2025: Lessons from Industry Leaders like Hubspot

“Traditional SEO isn’t enough anymore—58% of Google searches now result in zero clicks as AI overviews dominate results.” –HubSpot

If you’ve felt your organic traffic flatten even while interest in your category rises, you’re not imagining it. People are asking more questions than ever, but they’re getting answers inside AI summaries and experiences like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. The result is fewer clicks to traditional pages and more decisions made before anyone lands on your site. 

Earlier this year, Hubspot went viral for its organic traffic drop—they lost 80% of their blog traffic, and are considered by many to be the gold standard of B2B vendor blogs. Growing search traffic looks a bit different now in an AI-powered search ecosystem, and it’s not just about getting all of those clicks anymore. 

So, is SEO really dead? Or did it just rebrand itself as AEO? 

Key Takeaways:

• Zero-click is becoming the default experience (58-60% of searches are now zero-click – Ahrefs). People are searching more now than ever, but they’re finding their answers in AI tools like summaries rather than clicking directly on your website. 
• The best time to implement AEO practices is NOW! (Organizations report 27% conversion rates from AI-driven traffic to sales qualified leads, with 30% higher time-on-site compared to traditional search visitors)
• It’s not AEO vs SEO. AEO best practices are actually similar to SEO best practices, and they should both be working together (AI search visibility starts with strong, traditional SEO. AI systems still source from high-ranking trusted domains first).
• How to create content that AI loves? Build consensus, provide information gain, use clear semantic structure, and don’t forget about EEAT principles.
• SEO cares about content while AEO cares about how the content is structured. Create content for humans but package it for AI.

What AEO Means Right Now

In digital marketing, we love our acronyms. AEO, SEO…what do they really mean? While SEO is Search Engine Optimization, AEO is AI Engine Optimization (or sometimes referred to as Answer Engine Optimization). 

AEO is the practice of structuring your brand’s information so AI systems can find it, trust it, and quote it in their responses. It’s related to SEO but not identical. Where SEO focuses on ranking a page, AEO focuses on making your facts and perspective reusable by machines across chat-style results and AI overviews. 

HubSpot frames AEO around three pillars that map neatly to how engines compile answers: build consensus, provide information gain, and use clear semantic structure so claims are easy to cite.

1. Build Consensus

What is consensus? 

Building consensus means reinforcing consistent facts, statistics, and positioning across all your owned and earned media. AI engines look for agreement across multiple credible sources before citing something as factual. 

Why build consensus?

Consistency signals reliability. When multiple high-authority sources (including your own site, guest posts and citations) repeat the same core facts, AI models see your information as verified and are more likely to quote it in responses. As Neil Patel notes, “Reputation and trust signals now matter as much as ranking—being cited in AI outputs builds credibility with buyers.” – SEO 2.0 

How to build consensus:

• Publish unified messaging across your blog, PR and Linkedin content.
• Get cited in multiple credible domains (Digital PR!).
• Use schema markup (Organization, Person, FAQ) to connect claims about your brand across pages. 
• Ensure your facts like pricing, team size, and awards match across all third-party listings.

2. Provide Information Gain

What is information gain?

Information gain means adding something new such as data, insights or perspective, beyond what’s already out there. Although AI seems to just summarize, it actually looks for unique value that improves its answer quality. 

Why provide information gain?

AI overviews prioritize freshness and originality. If your content introduces unique data or an innovative perspective, it stands out. “AI gravitates towards natural, expert explanations and fresh information gain over repetition.” – SEO 2.0

How to provide information gain: 

• Add first-hand data, case studies or unique frameworks.
• Share quotes from founders or internal experts for human insight.
• Publish research-driven posts that include your own statistics or survey findings.
• Use visuals, tables and examples. AI likes to parse and reuse structured data. 
• Repurpose your data across multiple platforms to expand your digital footprint.

3. Use Semantic Structure

What is semantic structure?

Semantic structure is how your content communicates relationships between entities (people, brands, products and ideas) in ways AI can easily understand. 

Why implement semantic structure? 

AI engines can scan for clean, predictable structure. The easier your content is to parse, the higher chance you have of being cited. Schema markup, clear H2s, and FAQ formats tell models exactly what you’re discussing and how concepts connect (Surfer Academy). 

How to implement semantic structure:

• Use schema markup like Article, FAQ and HowTo to give machines context.
• Write short paragraphs (3-4 lines) with clear headings and summaries up front. 
• Use lists, tables, and entity names clearly
• Interlink your pillar pages and subtopics to establish topical authority 
• Ensure crawlability: keep core content in HTML, not hidden behind scripts or images. 

From SEO to AEO: Earning Presence Inside AI Answers 

In the Marketing Against the Grain episode on AEO in 2025, senior marketing executives Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan explain how agentic search in Chrome and Gemini changes behavior. Users can ask complex, follow-up questions, reference multiple tabs, and get synthesized answers without clicking through. 

That raises total search questions but lowers the need to visit individual pages. The play is not “abandon SEO.” The new play is to evolve it so your brand is present inside AI summaries, where people are now going to find answers. 

Ranking #1 doesn’t guarantee visibility anymore, but being cited inside an AI overview does!

How to Structure Content for AI Overviews

AI overviews provide an answer summary to users by pulling from multiple sources. Your goal: to be one of the sources that it cites. 

But how exactly do you structure your content so that AI chooses you to pull its answers from? We talked about how to build consensus, provide information gain, and use semantic structure. Let’s go even deeper and talk about EEAT principles. This is a great framework to follow when creating content to provide a greater chance at getting cited in an AI summary. 

Experience

Show that you’ve lived what you’re teaching. Share first-hand accounts, client stories, or original experiments. AI models prefer sources that sound like real people with lived experience.

• Example: include a “what we learned” section or add behind-the-scenes insights to humanize your authority.  

Expertise

Show you know your craft. Include credentials, years of experience. Or domain-specific knowledge.

• Authors should have bios with titles and backgrounds 
• Link to thought leadership on Linkedin 
• Embed relevant data or visuals for depth 

Authoritativeness

Prove that others recognize your credibility. 

• Gain mentions in trusted industry outlets or lists (Example: Your agency gets mentioned in a “Best Digital PR Agencies in 2025” list)
• Earn backlinks and digital PR citations (see typical PR pricing & packages here) 
• Maintain consistent facts about your brand across web profiles

Trustworthiness

Reinforce transparency and consistency 

• Use accurate citations and clear disclaimers
• Reference reliable sources 
• Add reviews and testimonials

When AI models browse, they simulate user trust. EEAT provides the framework that helps them decide whose answer to surface.

How Does AEO Impact My Business? 

AEO will surely impact your business. Staying up-to-date on the latest AEO practices is vital so that you can make informed decisions when it comes to your marketing efforts. We’ve learned that you will likely see fewer clicks per impression, especially on informational queries. HubSpot positions this shift as a decoupling of discovery from traffic and urges brands to shape what engines say about them, not just where they rank.

But, this isn’t bad news. Those who do click are arriving with higher intent. Each click is actually now generating more revenue because the user is already informed and educated before landing on your page (SEO 2.0). 

Conversions from AI-influenced visits can be strong when the landing experience matches the question that brought the visitor there. HubSpot highlights early adopters of AEO reporting 27% conversion rates from AI-driven traffic to sales qualified leads, with 30% higher time-on-site compared to traditional search visitors.

PR is evolving and is more important now than ever. NP digital reported Digital PR as the biggest strategy people are leveraging for AI SEO. “Ranking on these LLM’s in this zero-click world requires a lot more digital PR than it used to” (SEO 2.0).

Traffic isn’t disappearing, it’s being rerouted. To win, you must be visible across both human and machine channels.

What We Learned: Building Green Flag Digital’s AEO Framework

At Green Flag Digital, our next move isn’t abandoning SEO, it’s building that bridge to AEO. Here’s how we’re implementing that practice:

• Adding fresh, original insights that engines want to cite.
• Reinforcing consistent facts (consensus) across multiple channels 
• Using schema and structured content for clarity and quotability. 
• Applying EEAT principles on every page. 
• Balancing distribution between traditional SEO, Digital PR and AI search visibility. 

The future of SEO isn’t just clicks anymore. It’s about earning presence inside answers. 

Sources: 

Marketing Against The Grain podcast episode on AEO in 2025 (Spotify)

HubSpot AEO Guide

How to Master marketing in 2025 COMPLETE GUIDE Neil Patell 

How to dominate AI search results in 2025 (ChatGPT,  AI overviews & more) 

SEO 2.0 – Adapting to AI Overviews and Zero-Click Experiences 

Navigating the AI SEO Shift: Latest Market Intelligence & Landscape Analysis – Five Percent 

Did HubSpot Really Lose 80% of Blog Traffic? Here’s What Actually Happened — and What It Means for Marketers 

FAQ’s: Frequently Asked Questions About AEO and SEO

What is Ai Engine Optimization (AEO)?

AI Engine Optimization (AEO), sometimes called Answer Engine Optimization, is the process of structuring your content and brand information so that AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity can find, trust, and cite your insights in their responses. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on ranking high on a search results page, AEO ensures your brand shows up inside AI-generated summaries and answer experiences—where many users are now getting their information.

At Green Flag Digital, we integrate AEO practices into every content and PR strategy to help clients earn visibility both in traditional search results and in AI-driven environments.

What is the difference between AEO and SEO?

While AEO and SEO are closely related, they serve different goals:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) focuses on ranking web pages higher in Google’s search results by improving keywords, backlinks, and content quality.
• AEO (AI Engine Optimization) focuses on making your content understandable and quotable by AI systems, which summarize, synthesize, and cite trustworthy sources.

In short: SEO helps people find your website; AEO helps AI find and feature your content. Both should work together—strong SEO is still the foundation of effective AEO.

Is AEO replacing SEO? 

No—AEO isn’t replacing SEO, it’s expanding it. SEO remains critical for discoverability, but the search landscape is shifting. As AI overviews and zero-click searches become the norm, the new challenge is earning presence inside AI answers, not just ranking #1 on a page.

AEO is essentially SEO evolved for the AI era. At Green Flag Digital, we bridge the two by optimizing both for human readers and for AI systems that curate and summarize information.

What are AEO best practices?

Effective AEO follows three main pillars (popularized by HubSpot and leading SEO voices):

1. Build Consensus – Reinforce consistent facts, stats, and brand messages across all platforms and publications so AI engines trust your information.
2. Provide Information Gain – Offer unique data, original insights, or expert opinions that add value beyond what’s already online.
3. Use Semantic Structure – Organize your content clearly with schema markup, headings, lists, and FAQs so AI models can easily parse and cite it.

At Green Flag Digital, we also layer in EEAT principles (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) to strengthen credibility—a key factor in whether AI tools choose your brand as a source.

Do I need to implement AEO in my business strategy? 

Yes—especially if your business relies on search visibility or content-driven lead generation.
AI overviews and answer engines are changing how people discover information. Even if fewer users are clicking through, those who do click arrive with higher intent and stronger purchase readiness.

By integrating AEO, you ensure your brand remains visible, credible, and quotable within these AI-generated experiences. Businesses that start early gain a competitive edge in shaping how AI systems describe their expertise.

Where can I get AEO services? 

At Green Flag Digital, we’re already implementing AEO practices across our client campaigns. Our approach includes:

• Structuring on-site content with semantic markup
• Reinforcing brand consistency across web and PR channels
• Creating research-driven content with unique data and insights
• Optimizing for both traditional SEO and AI search visibility

If you’re ready to evolve from SEO to AEO and earn presence inside AI-generated answers, our team at Green Flag Digital can help you build that bridge.