Hey everyone, I was reading this article about how local businesses need to adapt to AI, and it blew my mind a bit. Apparently, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is going to replace traditional SEO by 2029.
The gist is that instead of just trying to rank high on Google with keywords, local businesses will need to be optimized so AI (like ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews) can directly recommend them as THE answer to a user's question. Think about it, instead of getting a list of links for 'best coffee shop near me,' you'll just get one direct recommendation from the AI.
What's really interesting is that traffic from AI recommendations converts up to 5 times higher than regular Google searches. So if you're a local business owner, getting picked by the AI is going to be HUGE for getting new customers.
The article breaks down some ways to do this, like making sure your Bing Places listing is perfect (since ChatGPT often uses Bing data), using structured data (that's the technical stuff that helps AI understand your business), and having really clear, concise answers to common questions on your website. They even mentioned a coffee shop that used a ChatGPT chatbot to figure out what customers preferred, then optimized their content based on that.
They had a case study about a car detailing place in Miami that got recommended by ChatGPT when someone asked for the 'best car detailers.'
It sounds like if local businesses don't get on this AEO train soon, they're going to be left behind because AI is going to totally change how people find things locally. The article even has a section predicting what AI search will look like by 2029, and it's pretty wild to think about.
Has anyone else heard about this or started thinking about how their local businesses (or businesses they support) might need to change for AI? I'm curious if this feels as urgent to others as it does to me after reading this.
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