The bad news is websites are getting less traffic. Across the board, we are hearing from both prospective and existing customers that website traffic is tailing off. Not always declining, but growth is slowing in a lot of cases, especially when content is getting stale on a site and there’s not a lot of focus on new ways of delivering valuable content.
The good news is that your customers are still using the Internet to find the places they want to go, the resources and services that they need and the products that they want to purchase. They are just finding answers without having to click to a site.
Search isn’t what it used to be. People don’t just type in keywords anymore—they ask full questions, often via a voice search on their mobile device and they expect direct answers on the spot. Increasingly, those answers don’t come from a list of links but directly and immediately from answer engines like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity.
This change leads us to an important question: what exactly are answer engines, how do they work, and — most importantly — what do they mean for you when it comes to reaching your customers? Let’s dive in!
What Is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the process of tailoring your content so that answer engines — results like Google’s AI Overviews or tools like ChatGPT — select it as the best response to a user’s question. Instead of just competing for a top search result, AEO focuses on making your content clear, trustworthy, and easy to pull into those direct answers people now rely on.
In practice, that means less bouncing between tabs on a browser and more getting straight to the point. Instead of being handed a list of options and told to figure it out, the experience feels more like someone saying, “Here’s what you need, explained simply and clearly — so you can move forward right away.”
For businesses, that shift is critical. If you’re not showing up in these direct responses, you risk being invisible at the exact moment people are making decisions. That’s why consistently optimizing for answer engines is quickly becoming essential for visibility in today’s search landscape.
Who Is This Affecting Most?
This fairly recent phenomenon is not affecting all searches equally. When the query is seeking expert information, it’s a lot more likely to receive an AI Overview than if it is, say, geographically specific. Also some industries are more affected than others.
For example, healthcare related searches are now resulting in AI Overviews as much as 23% of the time, while more product driven technical questions like searches about computers and electronics hover near 9%. All things being equal, we expect that these percentages will increase rapidly as SERPs evolve and new revenue models are attached to them.
Why Traditional SEO Alone Falls Short
For years, SEO worked because traffic flowed from clicks. Show up high in the rankings, and people would land on your site. But answer engines are reducing those clicks because they deliver the information directly.
This creates two big challenges:
- Zero-click experiences are rising. People often get the answer without ever visiting a site.
- Visibility now depends on citations. Instead of fighting for “position #1,” you’re fighting to be included in the AI’s final answer.
In other words: In many cases, SEO has evolved into AEO—Answer Engine Optimization. While SEO is about ranking, AEO is about being chosen — and that means applying the top answer engine optimization strategies that make your content clear, credible, and easy for AI to use.
How to Optimize for Answer Engines
So how do you make your content ready for this new world? Here are five practical, people-first steps you can start applying now.
1. Write for Questions, Not Just Keywords
Increasingly, people don’t just type in a couple of keywords — they ask full questions, just like they’d ask a friend. In fact, research shows that roughly 8% of Google searches are phrased as a question. Your content should reflect that shift. Try:
- Using headings that are phrased as real questions.
- Starting with a clear, direct answer up front, then adding the supporting detail.
- Building out an FAQ section to cover related questions people might ask.
The closer your content matches how people naturally search, the more likely it is that answer engines will see it as the right fit.
Here’s an exercise for you. Sit with a friend or family member that doesn’t know much about your business or area of expertise. Have them ask you questions as if they are a prospective customer or as if they have a problem that you (or your company) can solve and write these questions down, just as they posed them – in their exact words. Then, write out thoughtful answers that are directly to the point.
If you can get 10 questions and answers from this exercise, you are off to a great start!
2. Make Your Content Easy to Grasp
Answer engines don’t scan and share an entire page. They pull out the clearest, most straightforward parts. If your best insights are buried in long paragraphs, they’ll likely get skipped.
To make sure your content surfaces:
- Break it into smaller sections with simple, clear headings.
- Use lists, bullets, or tables so key details stand out.
- Keep each section focused on one main idea, so it makes sense even on its own.
Example: Say we search for “What is Answer Engine Optimization?” in Google. The AI Overview doesn’t display a full article. Instead, it pulls out a short definition and a scannable bullet list of key aspects.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Right next to it, Google highlights trusted sources like Ahrefs and Surfer SEO, all of which present their content in structured, easy-to-digest formats.
This shows exactly how answer engines prioritize clarity and structure — they reward content that can be quickly scanned, both by users and by AI.
3. Show That You’re Trustworthy
Answer engines don’t just look for information — they look for information that comes from a credible source. It’s not enough to sound knowledgeable. You need to show it.
Here are a few ways to build that trust:
- Add an author bio that highlights real experience and expertise. For example:
- Bill Sedgwick – Founder & President, Thunderbolt Group
Pioneer in digital marketing, strategy creator, connected leader, ad tech and AI enthusiast.
- John Carpenter – Co-Founder & Operations Director, Thunderbolt Group
Expert in geographic targeting strategies and multi-location digital orchestration.
- Share original insights, case studies, or examples from your own work.
- Back up your points by linking to reliable sources
When your content reflects genuine knowledge and experience, it rises above the surface-level material that gets overlooked. Trust is what makes your answer stand out.
4. Speak the Language of Machines
Great writing appeals to people. Great formatting helps machines understand it too. To serve both:
- Add schema markup (FAQ, HowTo, Article).
- Use alt text for images.
- Keep your site clean, fast, and crawlable.
- Link internally to show relationships between topics.
Think of it like writing subtitles for your content—so search engines and answer engines both know exactly what you mean. That’s the heart of optimizing for answer engines — creating content that’s both people-friendly and machine-readable.
This is an area where Thunderbolt can really help out. Click here to book an appointment with an expert.
5. Keep Your Content Alive
Information goes out of date quickly, and stale content doesn’t get much attention. If you want your work to keep showing up, it has to stay fresh and relevant.
That means making a habit of checking in on your content and giving it a refresh when needed:
- Update statistics, examples, and references so they’re current.
- Add new insights or cover fresh questions your audience is asking.
- Adjust sections to reflect new trends and changing needs.
Case in Point: According to Semrush, more than 30% of bloggers audit their content twice a year, and 24% do it once a year. Regular audits keep content competitive and increase the chances of surfacing in answer engines.
When you treat your content as something living — not one-and-done — you give it the best chance to stay visible.
These are some of the best answer engine optimization tactics for enhancing AI visibility, making sure your brand isn’t just present, but the one people trust to deliver the clearest answer. If people trust you, so will the AI search engine bots!
What This Means for Businesses
This shift may feel like a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity. Answer engines reward the very qualities that make content genuinely valuable: clarity, depth, and trustworthiness. This isn’t all new. A credible content strategy has been a staple of SEO optimization for a long time. The sophistication of the crawlers has accelerated dramatically with the advent of AI, but if you still think adding a ton of keywords to your site copy is a good strategy, you are woefully behind the times. Properly and thoughtfully including keywords is important, but it is time to shift to a more conversational way of publishing information.
Instead of asking, “How do I beat the algorithm?” The better question is, “How can I be the most useful, trustworthy answer to my audience’s questions?” That’s the essence of optimizing for answer engines in today’s search-first world.
If you can do that consistently, answer engines will do the amplification for you.
Optimize for AEO — Be the Business People Find First
The shift from SEO to AEO isn’t about throwing away the old playbook, (SERP) Search Engine Results Page importance will always be there — it’s about keeping up with how people search today. When someone asks a question, they’re not looking for a list of links. They’re looking for clarity, trust, and a direct answer they can act on.
That’s where the real opportunity is. The businesses that win won’t be the ones chasing every click — they’ll be the ones people trust to show up with the right answer at the right time. The key is putting the best practices for answer engine optimization into play and staying consistent.
At Thunderbolt Group, that’s what we do best. We partner with you to strengthen your digital presence so your business isn’t just another option online — it becomes the answer people are looking for.
Don’t just rank. Be chosen. Click here to learn more about our services.
