The $0.01 click that changed everything

A B2B SaaS company saw a $0.01 charge in analytics in 2025. Where did it come from? Perplexity.ai. They found that Perplexity citations brought in more than 2,100 visitors each month, all of whom were highly interested and converted at a rate of 4.5 times their average rate. This isn’t just luck. It’s Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), which is the skill of making content work better for AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which get over 100 million queries a week.

AEO is different from traditional SEO because it looks for citations in answers that were made by AI. If you don’t do anything about it, you lose traffic to your competitors every time ChatGPT answers a question.

Why ChatGPT and Perplexity Ask for a new way to do things:

How AI Answer Engines Work

  • ChatGPT: Uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to get data from the web in real time and combine it into answers from reliable sources. 67.
  • Perplexity: Combines AI with regular search to give you answers with direct source citations 4.

Key Differences between Traditional SEO andAEO for AI Engines vs. Traditional SEO

  • Goal: Be the first result on GoogleGet mentioned in AI answers
  • User Query: Keywords (“best CRM software”)Questions that sound like a conversation, like “What’s the best CRM for new businesses?”
  • Metrics for SuccessRankings and organic trafficMentions, how often citations are made, and AI referral traffic
  • Format of the ContentPosts on blogs and product pagesData-rich summaries and Q&A snippets Important Insight: AEO is important for visibility because 80% of searchers use “zero-click” results, and organic traffic is down 8%.

Four Parts of ChatGPT and Perplexity Optimization

1. Structure of the Content: Talk to the AI in its own language

  • AI engines put a lot of value on getting clear, short answers to specific questions. To get mentioned:
  • Answers at the front: Put direct answers in the first 50 words, like “TL;DR: AEO boosts ChatGPT visibility through structured Q&A content.” 79.
  • Use headers that ask questions: Use questions for H2s and H3s, like “How does AEO work?” instead of “AEO Mechanics.” 7.
  • Add bullet points and tables: AI pulls out lists 73% more often than paragraphs 49.

Example of Optimization:

  • ❌ Weak: “To be effective, AEO needs to know what the user wants.”
  • AI-Friendly: “Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) boosts citations in ChatGPT by:
  1. Focusing on questions that are conversational
  2. Making content into questions and answers
  3. Adding FAQ schema markup

2. Technical AEO: Give AI Crawler Access

  • Allow AI bots: Make sure robots.txt lets:

User-agent: GPTBot Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot Allow: / “` :cite[7]
Add schema markup: Use the FAQPage, HowTo, and QAPage schemas to make context 57 clearer.

  • Fix JavaScript rendering: AI crawlers have a hard time with sites that use a lot of JS. For important content, use static HTML 9.

3. Building Authority: Become AI’s Trusted Source.

Perplexity and ChatGPT put a lot of weight on E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness):

  • Cite original research: Publish studies, surveys, or case studies (for example, “2025 SaaS Pricing Data from 1,200 Companies”). 59.
  • Get backlinks from .edu and .gov sites: Links from trusted domains make it 2.7 times more likely that your work will be cited.
  • Claim local listings and reviews: AI engines check platforms like G2 and Yelp 2.

4. Tools for research on conversational keyword targeting:

  • Use AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked, or Perplexity itself to look for questions like these:
  • “How to use AEO for online shopping?”
  • “Which AEOs are the best for startups in 2025?” 710
  • Semantic richness: Add synonyms like “answer engine optimization” and “AI citation strategy.”

Phase 1: Research and Audit (Weeks 1–2)

  1. Find the questions you want to answer: Use “People Also Ask” data to find ChatGPT/Perplexity prompts 7.
  2. Look at your competitors: Use Perplexity to find out who has been cited for your most important questions, like “best CRM for SaaS.” 9.
  3. Check crawl access through Google Search Console and Screaming Frog 10 to see how well your technical health is.

Phase 2: Improving the content (Weeks 3–6)

  • Make changes to five important pages:
  • Add sections for frequently asked questions with headers that are questions
  • Add numbers from reliable sources like Forrester and Gartner.
  • Add FAQ schema markup
  • Make “citation magnets”:
  • Reports on original research
  • Charts that compare things, like “ChatGPT vs. Perplexity: AEO Performance”

Phase 3: Ongoing Promotion and Monitoring

  • Make loops of engagement: Train the AI by having employees ask ChatGPT questions about your niche, like “What’s the best AEO tool for B2B?”
  • Keep track of citations: Use tools like these:
  • OmniSEO™: Keeps track of mentions on AI platforms 2
  • Google Analytics: Filters AI referral traffic (for example, chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai) 8

Real Results: AEO at Work

A cybersecurity company used AEO strategies to target questions like:

  • “How to stop phishing attacks in 2025?”

What was done:

  • Published a study called “2025 Phishing Attack Trends: Data from 500 Companies”
  • They added a FAQ schema to their guide.
  • Staff learned how to ask ChatGPT about their report

Results in 90 days:

  • ChatGPT has been cited more than 120 times.
  • Perplexity traffic: more than 2,100 visits a month
  • Lead increase: 34% from AI referrals 89

Three things you should never do as an AEO:

  • 68% of business websites block GPTBot by mistake.
  • Over-optimizing for keywords: AI prefers semantic depth over repetition.
  • Not keeping content up to date: Update stats every three months—AI likes new data 7.

Predictions for AEO in 2025

  • Answers that are specific to you: ChatGPT will customize answers based on the user’s history, requiring very relevant content 8.
  • Multi-modal dominance: Make sure that images and videos look good on Perplexity’s visual answer cards 10.
  • AEO ads: ChatGPT might offer paid citation slots 6.
  • “AEO is not taking the place of SEO; it is changing it. If you get the citation, you get the customer.

Your 30-Day AEO Action Plan:

  • For the first 5 days, add GPTBot and PerplexityBot to the robots.txt file.
  • Day 6–15: Use FAQ schema to improve three pillar pages.
  • Day 16–25: Publish one new research report.
  • Day 26 to 30: Keep track of citations using OmniSEO™ or by hand.