Answer Engine Optimisation in 2019: Why AEO Is What Comes After SEO

The closing segment of an SEO talk, uploaded to YouTube on 22 July 2019. This is the passage quoted on the receipts page: a request, three years before ChatGPT existed, to think about answer engines and where search was going. Transcribed from the original audio and lightly punctuated for reading; nothing has been added.

What should you be thinking about for the future of search?

That's hopefully a bit of an insight into how you can run a successful SEO campaign. I'd like you to think about answer engines, how search needs to have intent in it, how people are going to search in the future, and how you can drive traffic. More importantly, how you can drive traffic and engagement to your content, and make the content interesting enough that people want to stay on there and interact with it. That is what's going to give you a big advantage over your competitors.

What actually gives you the advantage?

Take a look at what your competitors are doing, or not doing. Think about some of the techniques I've told you about today: using video, playlists, deep linking into your content, having landing pages where people are almost forced to take an action, and a great user experience on your site. All of these things are going to contribute. Think about linking, and think about how much time your business can commit to producing content on a regular basis going forwards. That, in its simplest form, is SEO.

Can you commit to producing good content consistently?

Can you commit to producing really good content going forwards? If you can't, that's why people like us are here: to help you with the ideas, the implementation and the strategy behind beating your competition and being more interesting than they are. That is what's going to make people come and buy from you, and that, conversely, will make your pages rank. Good content, consistently, with the right target in mind. Get a strategy in place. Think about how much time your business can commit to doing that, and then, once you can commit to it, monitor what's happening. Implement the tracking tools that Google gives you, and at that point learn from the data.

Is there any magic behind SEO?

There's no rocket science, no smoke and mirrors, no voodoo going on behind the scenes here. Good, hard, honest work yields results. SEO is a very funny industry. There are a lot of misconceptions, and a lot of people talking about magic techniques. It has a lot to do with social media now, and it has a lot to do with paying for results, because a lot of the social channels won't give you the reach or the engagement without you committing to pay for some reach, impressions or clicks.

Where should you start?

Put a strategy in place. If you want to talk to us about it, I'll gladly have a chat with anybody for free on the phone, and talk you through where you should be and where you could be. Start with the research and set your expectations. Be a realist, and work backwards from where you want to get to, to what you need to put in place to achieve that. Hopefully some of the things I've talked about today have been interesting, opened your eyes to a few possibilities, and told you what SEO can be and should be.