Putting AEO into Practice

You've made it! This new landscape of AI search can feel overwhelming, but as you've seen, it's not about throwing out the old playbook. It's about evolving it.

Your skills in understanding users, creating quality content, and proving E-E-A-T are more valuable than ever.

You now have the framework: AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). You have the pillars: Authority, Content, and Experience. And you have the new metrics: Mentions and Citations.

This is an opportunity, not a threat. It's a chance to move from just chasing clicks to building true, undeniable authority—and capturing the high-value, high-intent traffic that comes with it.

You have the compass. You're ready to start optimizing.

Your AEO Action Plan: What to Do This Week

You've got the knowledge. Here are three simple things you can do this week to put it into action.

✅ Run a "Prompt Audit" on One Page

Pick one of your high-performing blog posts. Review it against the "Writing for the AI" checklist. Does it have a clear summary for a "What is" prompt? Does it use a table for a "Comparison" prompt? Take 15 minutes to re-format one section. (Bonus points: Use Writing Assistant to score your content and revise sections with the help of AI.)

✅ Find One "Authority" Gap

Pick one of your most important topics. Look at it in Conductor's AI Search Performance report. Find one "cluster" of related, long-tail questions you aren't answering (i.e. prompts where you are neither mentioned nor cited). That's your next content brief.

✅ Check Your robots.txt File

Go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt and make sure you aren't accidentally blocking the very bots you're trying to impress, like ChatGPT-User or PerplexityBot. This is a crucial starting point for a strategic conversation with your team.