Key takeaways
- AEO and GEO are basically two names for the same playbook now, aimed at influencing what AI engines say about your brand.
- Structured formats like key takeaways, FAQs, tables, and side-by-side comparisons are dominating generative AI platforms.
- You can finally track how often your content shows up in AI answers and make strategy adjustments accordingly.
- LLMs don’t care as much about how many backlinks you have, but very much care about if your content feels credible, fresh, and cited, which builds brand authority.
- Typical search engine optimization (SEO) optimizations like internal linking, schema markup, crawlability improvement, and clean URL structure still matter.
In 2026, ranking on page one of search engines isn’t the only goal anymore. Gone are the days of CMOs caring only about how many of the “blue links” that appear in Google Search are yours. The world of SEO has rapidly expanded into GEO/AEO over the past few years, and there’s no turning back. Nowadays, if you’re not showing up within answers for valuable prompts in LLMs (on top of appearing in the organic “blue links”), you’re virtually invisible.
That’s why answer engine optimization (AEO) is having a major moment. It’s not just another layer of SEO, but it’s where real buyer decisions are happening. In a world where people tend to take at face value what Perplexity or Google’s AI Overview tells them instead of sifting through ten blue links, your content needs to do more than just rank. It needs to speak for you. And it needs to be one of the few content pieces that AI systems pull in as a source, not added to the pile of content they skip past
This guide breaks down the biggest emerging trends in answer engine optimization for 2026, and more importantly, how to turn those trends into practical wins for your B2B organization.
Recap: What is answer engine optimization (AEO) really?
If SEO was about helping search engines find your site, AEO is about helping them say the right things about your site.
Answer engine optimization is how you get surfaced, quoted, and trusted in AI-generated answers. This includes all of the top LLM platforms (though the list is growing everyday): Google’s AI Overview/AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc. Wherever people are asking questions and expecting the answer to be neatly served up is where we want to appear.
And let’s just be honest, despite the different flashy acronyms, GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO are largely the same thing. Whether you’re tweaking content structure, tracking prompt visibility, or optimizing your brand mentions to be cited by ChatGPT, you’re playing the same game: becoming more visible in LLM platforms for prompts that matter to your business.
AEO/GEO vs. traditional SEO
| Optimization Type | Goal | Platform | Optimization Focus |
| Traditional SEO | Rank in organic results | Google (classic) | Keyword use, backlinks, crawlability |
| AEO / GEO | Be the cited or quoted answer | AI Mode, AI Overview, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Meta AI, Gemini | Semantic structure, clarity, authority, consistency |
You still need traditional search engine optimization (SEO) to get found where the vast majority of searchers are still searching (search engines). But in 2026, AEO efforts are also a non-negotiable.
Why answer engine optimization (AEO) is so valuable
AEO isn’t just another SEO trend. It’s a new lever that lets you directly influence how AI platforms talk about your brand. This is not an opportunity to take lightly, as it is a major change in online marketing as a whole! Here’s two primary reasons why this is so important today:
You can shape how LLMs describe your strengths
In traditional SEO, the best you could do was hope users landed on your page, read enough of it, and walked away with the right impression. With AEO, you get to front-load that impression directly into the answer. You can create content that helps AI models understand:
- Who your product is built for
- Why it’s best for a specific audience or use case
- For example, are you the best solution for enterprise or are you the premier product for a specific industry application?
- How it compares to alternatives
- Where it fits in the broader ecosystem
When you structure content clearly and consistently, LLMs are more likely to reuse your language, your framing, and your differentiators. Additionally, if you repeat messaging across your content, including blog content and core product/solutions pages, LLMs are more likely to associate that framing with your brand. This is how you can encourage AI platforms to describe you as the best solution for a specific company size or showcase one of your key features. Overall, it’s your chance to teach the engine how to describe you and control what narrative buyers see first.
The audience on LLMs is growing and they’re making decisions earlier
More and more people everyday are using AI tools to search. And not just to learn, but to buy (even at enterprise organizations). We’re seeing a shift, especially in B2B, where potential customers make decisions inside platforms like Perplexity or ChatGPT before they ever reach a website.
That means:
- Your first impression might happen inside a summary, not on your homepage anymore
- Buyers are forming opinions based on how you show up in generative answers
- If your competitors are present and you’re not, you’re immediately starting at a disadvantage
Again, AEO isn’t just about being found. It’s about being showcased, properly described, and well-positioned compared to competitors, long before the first click.
6 emerging trends shaping answer engine optimization in 2026
The pace of change in the AI world is only accelerating, and it’s becoming increasingly important for B2B leaders to stay on this cutting edge of trends to survive and thrive. With a bird’s eye view of our client portfolio and major industry shifts, agencies like Directive are better positioned to spot these major trends. Here are six emerging trends we are observing and how your B2B team can capitalize on them.
1. Lists and comparison formats are outperforming
Let’s not overcomplicate it: LLMs like structure. And right now, comparison-style content and “best of” lists are their comfort food. It makes sense: it’s predictable, easy to parse, and easy to repackage.
If your product page is buried in paragraph copy with no headings, no callouts, and no punchy claims, good luck getting quoted or cited.
We’ve seen it firsthand: when your content is clearly structured for H2s/H3s and utilizes “best for X” descriptors beside your solution, those pages get picked up way more often in LLMs and AI Overviews. Specifically, listicle style content and comparison pages (even those that are inherently biased toward your solution) are driving major visibility improvements in LLMs.
Tips that work:
- Use consistent structure: H3 with product name + 2–3 sentence blurb
- Describe your solution how you want AI systems to describe it, using “best for x” or “industry leader in…”
- Include real information for LLMs to use review scores from relevant platforms, pricing, or integrations
- Use structured formats like HTML comparison tables comparing key features or solutions
Reminder: you’re not just writing for Google anymore, or even the user for that matter. You’re writing for the AI that’s building the summary. Make their job easy.
2. Zero-click searches are becoming more common
As mentioned previously, we are increasingly seeing potential customers ask questions, read the AI summary, and bounce, without ever clicking a result. That’s becoming the new normal.
And if your content isn’t embedded in that summary? You’re invisible to them. It doesn’t matter to these zero-click users even if you rank #2.
But here’s the opportunity: if your content is featured, even without the click, you’re driving awareness, brand familiarity, and even preference. Buyers are still making mental notes. They’re still forming opinions, before eventually visiting the websites of individual solutions to make their final purchase decision.
So treat the AI response as your landing page:
- Bake your brand name into blurbs
- Mention your use case strength (“best for fast-growing finance teams”)
- Pull in as many stats or credentials as possible to build credibility fast
- Don’t save the good stuff for the bottom – lead with it
We’ve seen even for Directive’s own site many cases where Perplexity or ChatGPT didn’t lead to a direct visit or conversion, but did lead to later branded conversions later in which users self-reported that they heard about us on these AI platforms. That’s the new funnel.
3. Content creation is now essential to brand visibility
Your content strategy isn’t just about getting found anymore. It’s about building a reputation with AI engines. That means consistency, structure, and topical authority.
LLMs want to pull from:
- Web pages that cover topics in depth from multiple angles (not just one blog)
- Pages that have predictable formatting and schema markup/structured data
- Domains that refresh old content regularly
- Brands that speak clearly and directly to their ICP
You can’t fake authority in 2026. If your site has one product page you’re trying to rank for “sales forecasting tools” and it’s two years old, you’re not going to win that answer. But if you’ve got a hub with:
- A great high-quality product page structured for LLMs and organic search
- A “What is sales forecasting?” pillar blog page
- A “best tools” roundup designed for LLMs
- A “how to build a forecasting strategy” guide
- A “forecasting vs. planning” comparison page
…and they’re all linked together with clean internal link anchors and high-quality external references? You’ve got a shot.
And this isn’t theory either. We’re seeing clients unlock visibility in AI-powered search for their core prompts within weeks of refreshing and designing new content. It really works.
4. AI visibility metrics are now trackable
We’re already past the era of gut-feel AEO. Now you can see what content is being cited, how often, and where.
Tools like Scrunch and Profound let you:
- Track how many of your URLs appear in AI answers
- Benchmark competitors’ presence in generative platforms
- Spot which formats (FAQ, list, guide) get picked up most
- Monitor drops in visibility as content goes stale, better informing your content strategy
This changes how we plan, test, and optimize content. You can double down on what works and flag what’s underperforming before it starts to tank. You can also identify what we call “prompt gaps”, or prompts that you want to appear for but have no current content on. From this, you can create valuable content built for these specific prompts and capture that visibility.
If you’re still flying blind with AEO, you’re missing a major opportunity! It’s now nearly as measurable as keyword rankings and just as important.
5. Sourcing reputation is replacing traditional domain authority
AI doesn’t necessarily care if you have 1,000 backlinks from random sites. It wants to cite content that feels legit – fresh content with a name on it, a purpose behind it, and references to prove it.
Here’s what moves the needle now:
- Freshness of content
- Author bios with expertise (yes, even short ones)
- Mentions in trusted third-party sites, directories, or thought leadership lists
- Links to your own customer data, benchmarks, or case studies
- Clarity and structure – short sentences, structured layouts, clean copy
In other words: if your content reads like it was written by someone who knows what they’re talking about, it’s more likely to get pulled. AI platforms want to make sure they are providing accurate answers to give their users a great experience, which keeps them coming back to the platform. Make their job easy by producing high-quality, authoritative content.
While having more high-quality backlinks will, of course, always be a positive thing, we’ve seen newer domains outperform traditional “high-authority” incumbents in AI results just because their content was clearer, fresher, and better structured.
6. Traditional SEO optimizations are more important than ever
Here’s the irony: while AI changes so much in search, the fundamentals still win. If your technical SEO is a mess and you aren’t leveraging SEO optimizations, you won’t get picked up.
Make sure:
- Your content is crawlable and loads quickly
- Your URLs make sense and reflect your hierarchy
- You are using traditional SEO optimizations like internal linking, meta tags, keyword implementation, etc.
- You’ve got schema (Organization, FAQ, HowTo, and Article) applied correctly
We’ve seen SEO optimizations like internal linking and URL structure make major improvements in AI visibility, even for already “AI-optimized” content pieces. AEO truly works best when your house is in order.
How to apply 2026 AEO trends to your content strategy
Leverage content for AEO
Your content isn’t just an answer. It’s an argument. You’re making a case to the AI engine about why your brand deserves to be mentioned and what it should say about you.
To do that well:
- Start every page with a tight summary that sounds like something Perplexity would use in its response
- Give AI easily quotable insights about your solution and your brand for use in its answers
- Phrase H2s and H3s like questions and answers
- Include 2–3 proof points high up on the page (logos, stats, differentiators)
- Reinforce your positioning (“best for enterprise,” “used by the Fortune 500,” “built for security-conscious teams”)
You’re not just informing AI, you’re training the engine on your narrative.
Explore digital PR opportunities
Every third-party site that mentions you is another chance to earn credibility. In 2026, we’re seeing LLMs pull not just from your site but from anywhere you’re referenced. These external sources add to your credibility, even for sites that don’t directly link to yours.
So widen your footprint:
- Pitch to editors creating “best X tools” articles
- Collaborate with external partners on guest posting or co-branded thought leadership content
- Get your first-party data cited in reports, summaries, newsletters, and Substacks
- Look for industry forums or review platforms where AI scrapes for input, which you can improve your presence on
Even if those pages don’t drive traffic, they influence which brands show up when a potential buyer asks, “What’s the best option for us?”
Use LLM tracking platforms to inform content plans
Want to know what content formats get pulled into AI results most often? Look at the data.
Use tools like Scrunch to:
- Track AI citations for your brand compared to competitors
- Spot clusters or queries where your brand is underrepresented
- Analyze which types of your content are being cited the most
Then build your content strategy accordingly by including addressing immediate content visibility gaps, where competitors may have more visibility than your brand does. 90% of the battle is having content present for a specific prompt. By creating specific, valuable content around these prompts, you can see major growth quickly.
This isn’t about reinventing your content strategy. It’s about evolving it based on real data from LLM platforms.
Double-down on SEO optimizations
As we mentioned previously, your AEO strategy won’t perform if your traditional SEO strategy isn’t strong.
So revisit the basics:
- Are your top-performing blogs linked to your key product pages?
- Are you using clear, keyword-rich internal links?
- Are your main pages aligned with their target keywords (in meta content, URL, and content)?
- Are your headers clean, readable, and helpful?
If you’ve already invested in SEO, AEO is your chance to expand that foundation into visibility in all the new places your buyers are searching.
Let Directive’s GEO team elevate your brand to the top of answers
If this all feels like a lot, that’s because it is. The landscape is shifting fast. But the good news? You don’t have to figure it out alone.
At Directive, our AEO/GEO teams are working at the edge of this every single day. We’re testing frameworks across dozens of B2B brands, running experiments, and learning in real-time what works and what doesn’t. And because we share insights across our client portfolio, you benefit from that scale.
When one brand gets cited more often in LLMs, we share and apply those insights everywhere. You don’t just get a team, you get a hive mind focused on better client results.
If you want to:
- Turn your existing content into answer-ready assets
- Build visibility in AI-powered search
- Actually measure where you stand in LLMs
…we’re here to help.
Book a call with our team today. Let’s make your brand the answer.
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Ben Glass-Liu
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