How does AI search impact you, and what is our plan?

At the end of the day, you hired us to help grow your practice through online marketing. The landscape has changed a lot, and while SEO is still part of the picture, new approaches like GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) are becoming just as important. For us, the goal is still the same and that’s to grow your practice regardless of the challenges.

In the past, we relied heavily on metrics like rankings and traffic. But those alone don’t tell the full story anymore. What really matters now are ROI-driven actions. Stats like phone calls, appointment requests, chatbot inquiries, clicks for driving directions, and tap-to-call activity from Google Business Profile. These are the true measures of growth.

In today’s world, SEO, GEO, and AEO all matter

WHAT IS GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization is the process of creating and fine-tuning online content that can be easily found, understood, and used by AI-powered search engines like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc. This is why more comprehensive content (not thin content) structured in an FAQ, listicle, or use case (case study) format, along with implemented structured data and on-page EEAT quality guidelines, is key going forward more than ever. 

WHAT IS AEO?

Answer Engine Optimization is all about making your website/practice the one that the AI chooses, cites, and recommends for different search prompts. This makes your website a credible and authoritative source while also focusing on NAP consistency, online reputation, and listing your practice on as many authoritative external websites as possible. 

To put it another way, think of building a website. However, without any on-site and off-site optimization, it won’t rank in traditional search result pages. In this analogy, GEO is like building the website. AEO is all the work that goes into off-site and on-site optimization to get the website to rank.

If you haven’t noticed, much of GEO and AEO overlap with traditional SEO best practices. NAP consistency, original content, and on-page site optimizations are all important.

So why, if we have been focusing on SEO, shouldn’t we be crushing it in this new era of AI search? 

Well, SEO as a whole looks at a much wider range of signals: user engagement, dwell time, tags, accessibility standards, and more. In fact, Google has admitted to using well over 100 different ranking factors (possibly closer to 200). In comparison, GEO and AEO are more narrowly focused. They give more weight to credibility, authority, and content quality (basically fewer signals, with a much stronger emphasis on authoritative and credibility).

WHAT IS EKWA’S PLAN FOR MY PRACTICE?

In the past few months, we have also been working on changing our internal workflows, marketing solutions, and processes so we are better aligned to meet the challenges in the new era of online marketing. As such, we have developed a multi-prong approach that looks at all aspects. These are;

Keyword Insight Report 

This report will break down rankings in traditional search and in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Yes, we understand that rankings do not yield the same results as they once did, but focusing on a ranking report such as this is still important 

  • Though the rankings reported in Google Search Console group together what’s ranking in traditional search, AI Overviews, and AI Mode, it’s still good to see what’s ranking and what’s not. 
  • There are still users out there who would scroll past the Google AI Overview and prefer the traditional search experience, but those users are few and far between.
  • AIOs are not appearing 100% of the time, so there are some searches that still generate the traditional search result page we all love to see
  • Ranking is still a good indicator of whether we are following the core principles shared by AEO, GEO, and SEO. It’s just that focusing on ranking at the top of page one for selected procedures/ treatments is no longer beneficial, as it does not yield the same results as it once did.
  • The report would help us identify new search terms we should target via new content, pages, and videos, which would be beneficial even in AI search.
  • We can identify exactly which pages appear for which search terms that users type into Google.
  • Using this report, we can also identify any technical flaws in pages that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Quarterly AI Discoverability & Visibility Report

A separate quarterly report would highlight the percentage of prompts your practice/website appears in key AIs like ChatGPT, Preplexcity, and Gemini. We picked these three AIs because of their advanced capabilities, integration with web search, API access, potential longevity, and user adoption/user base. 

Each report, we will feed the AIs selected prompts and search terms that real users are typing into Google, and review how often your website/practice name appears as a response. 

Quarterly Marketing Solution

We have officially retired all of our existing marketing solutions and replaced them with a new quarterly marketing solution process. This new process ensures that your entire website will be reviewed once every three months, regardless of ROI. 

The teams will focus their energies on reviewing every page on your website in the key areas below, with the end goal of making it more credible and authoritative. This regular review and improvement process is crucial in the new era of AI search, as it ensures your content and your website as a whole not only look good to search engines but also build trust with AI-driven systems and engage users who end up visiting those pages.

  • Thin or shallow content
  • Grammatical errors or contradictory statements
  • Plagiarism or duplicate content
  • Content–SEO tag mismatches
  • Missing EEAT elements (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
  • Missing or incorrectly structured data
  • To-dos from CRUX Vis Insights
  • Low engagement opportunities (e.g., lack of interactive or user-focused elements)

A More Aggressive Off-Site Focus 

We’ve also restructured our team’s routines to focus on :

  • Authoritative listings: Getting your practice cited and listed across as many trusted external websites as possible.
  • When possible, publish content on reputable third-party sites.
  • NAP consistency & reputation management: Keeping your business name, address, and phone number uniform across all platforms, while actively strengthening your online reputation.

These steps are crucial for traditional SEO and even more vital for GEO and AEO, where credibility and trust determine whether your practice is seen in AI search and AI responses. Seen more in different platforms is whats going to drive your ROI in the future.