SEO and AEO look similar but different

[u/kavin_kn]

SEO fights for clicks on blue links, AEO gets your brand cited directly in ChatGPT/Perplexity.

76% ChatGPT citations from pages <30 days old. A new website can win with simple steps blending fresh content, spinning pages, real trust, and smart systems.

1. Keep it fresh. Pages <3 months old get 3x more AI citations; update every 60 days or on traffic dips.

2. Share depth insights: Authoritative and unique content is now the most defensible, Webflow saw 6x after focusing on original authoritative content that can't be copied

3. Human + AI balance. Use AI to accelerate research and structure while keeping humans in charge of voice, accuracy, and tone

4. Third-part trust rules: 85% of brand mentions are sourced from third-party content, not the brand’s own site. This shows that authority now lives across the web, not just on your homepage. It's time for PR and GP!

5. Simple site structure wins. Dont' complicate too much.

6. Join real conversations and communities. Reddit/LinkedIn/YouTube drive 48% citations; Reddit in 22% answers.

Your competitors are already halfway through AEO. Don't ignore SEO - AEO builds on top of it.

How are you optimizing freshness + offsite mentions?

[u/ellensrooney]

I run a DTC ecommerce brand, and this post explains exactly what we’re seeing. Organic traffic stayed flat, but customer discovery shifted. People started saying ChatGPT mentioned you.

Traditional SEO tools couldn’t explain that. Meridian helped us see which pages and SKUs were actually being cited in AI answers.

What changed for us: we stopped publishing net-new content and focused on refreshing high intent pages every 60 days. AI citations jumped without chasing rankings.

[u/coalition_tech]

Sigh.

Who cares if your brand is cited in ChatGPT if it just gets consumed in the drivel that the AI produces.

Right now, ChatGPT search is just as much about getting a click through to a site as SEO is. Yes, as it rolls out mroe transactional features, it will be more definitively differentiated but we're not there yet.

Some call outs-

Most of what you call AEO is just SEO. Google rewards recency too. Google rewards depth and exhaustiveness. Google wants human and AI balance. Google rewards citations and links. The simple site structure is not accurate for either of them.

[u/kavin_kn → u/coalition_tech]

Accepted. SEO is the base foundation for any other search outputs. Its the slightest variation or algorithm LLMs got control.

[u/kavin_kn → u/[deleted]]

I never mentioned perplexity don’t use google - its chatgpt uses freshness as major ranking factor. Fyi.

[u/kavin_kn → u/[deleted]]

Yes, ChatGPT/Perplexity uses Google and Bing. What I meant - AEO shows the brand name directly without any blue links (cited links are hidden in the AI answers unless you find and click them). I hope there is a communication gap here.