[State of AEO Call Recording] [State of AEO Slide Deck] [Entity Optimization Checklist] This session marked a critical evolution in our journey: moving from "Opening the Gates" (Indexability) to "Teaching the Machine" (Meaning). The archaic SEO notion of "Keywords" and introduced the AEO era of "Entities." We learned that before an AI can recommend you, it must fundamentally understand what you are, not just recognize the words you use. We explored the "Strings vs. Things" paradigm, the necessity of radical transparency, and the 10-step framework to map your business for the Knowledge Graph. 1. 🧠 From "Strings" to "Things" We are witnessing the death of the keyword. - The Old Way (Strings): You had to match exact letters (e.g., "House"). If a user typed "Home," search engines struggled to connect the dots without specific optimization. - The New Way (Things/Entities): AI thinks in concepts. It understands that "House" = "Home" = "Domicile." - The Lesson: We are no longer building flat pages for a search bar; we are building 3-dimensional objects for an alien intelligence. Your website must define the relationships between your brand, your products, and your industry jargon. You aren't just writing text; you are building a Knowledge Graph. 2. 🔓 The End of "Secret Sauce" (Radical Transparency) A hard truth: The era of gatekeeping information is over. - The Pricing Problem: Businesses used to hide pricing to "get the lead." - The AI Reality: If you don't provide the data (price, ingredients, process), the AI will hallucinate it for you—often incorrectly. - The Strategy: You must be the Single Source of Truth. If a user asks ChatGPT "How much is X?", the answer needs to come from your data, not a guess. Transparency is now a ranking factor.

Hey AEO Community! - 🎥 Here you'll find the latest "State Of AEO" call recordings. - ❓Also you'll be able to ask questions in advance! (Specially useful for people that cannot make it to the call!) So every week make sure to: 1️⃣ Check out the latest "State of AEO" call recording. 2️⃣ Send Us your questions to the next Call!

🚨 Want AI to actually understand your brand instead of guessing in the dark? This call is your kickoff to mastering the “Digital DNA” that makes machines recognize, trust, and recommend you—without diving into the deep-tech weeds just yet.

[State of AEO Call Recording] [State of AEO Slide Deck] [State of AEO Access and Retrieval Checklist] This session drilled down into the mechanics of Indexability, specifically focusing on how we transform our websites from human destinations into efficient data sources for silicon intelligence. Julian emphasized that before an AI can recommend you, it must be able to "afford" to retrieve your data. We explored the technical gatekeepers (Robots.txt), the future of AI documentation (LLMs.txt), and the critical concept of "Cost of Retrieval." 1. 📉 Reducing the "Cost of Retrieval" We started with a fundamental shift in how we view site performance. AI agents prioritize energy and speed. - The Inverted Pyramid: In the past, we buried conclusions to keep humans reading. For AEO, the key takeaways and data points must be at the very top. If AI has to dig through "fluff" to find the answer, the cost of retrieval is too high, and it will move to a cheaper (competitor’s) source. - Speed is Visibility: A slow site isn't just bad UX; it’s an opaque wall to a crawler. We touched on Core Web Vitals and image optimization (WebP formats) not just for loading times, but to ensure the raw HTML is served instantly to the bot. 2. 🚪 The Bouncer: Robots.txt & The Amazon Case Study Access is binary: You either let them in, or you don't. - The Amazon Experiment: Julian showcased a live example of why access matters. When asked "Who are the authors of the AEO Blueprint?" via a link to Amazon: - The Lesson: You might have the best content in the world, but if your robots.txt file is accidentally acting as a bouncer against Perplexity or GPTBot, the AI is forced to guess (and often lies) about your brand.

[State of AEO Call Recording] [State of AEO Slide Deck] [State of AEO AEO Indexability Checklist] This session introduced the first major phase of the AEO Blueprint: Indexability. Julian moved beyond general theory to the mechanics of "Machine Access." Before an AI can rank you (Optimization) or recommend you (Answer), it must be able to retrieve and understand your data. We defined Indexability not just as being found, but as the efficiency with which an AI agent can read, categorize, and utilize your business information. 1. 🔐 Access & The "Open Door" Policy We opened with the absolute foundation: If the AI cannot enter, the quality of your content is irrelevant. - The Robots.txt Reality: Many sites unknowingly block critical crawlers (like GPTBot or OAI-SearchBot) via default settings. You must audit your robots.txt file to ensure you aren't slamming the door on the very agents you want to impress. - The Cloudflare Check: For those using Cloudflare, Julian highlighted the "AI Scrape Protection" feature. While useful for blocking bad actors, you must whitelist the "Good Bots" (Perplexity, OpenAI, Anthropic) to ensure you remain visible in the generative web. - The "Energy Efficient" Bot: AI optimizes for energy and speed. If your site blocks access or loads slowly, the retrieval mechanism will skip you to save resources. 2. 🏗️ Structure as Strategy: The "Book" Analogy Website is no longer a brochure; it is a structured database (like a book) that needs a clear index. - Hierarchy is Language: AI reads H-tags (H1, H2, H3) to understand the "plot" of your business. H1 is the title, H2s are chapters. If these are used for design (e.g., using an H1 for "Welcome") rather than structure, you confuse the machine. - The Bitrix24 Case Study: We looked at Bitrix24 as a prime example of "Deep Structure." They don't just have a "Product" page; they fracture their structure into "Solutions," "Integrations," and "Comparisons" (e.g., "Bitrix vs. Monday"). This creates specific landing zones for AI to retrieve exact answers for specific user intents. - The 3-Click Rule: Information buried more than three clicks deep is "expensive" for AI to retrieve. Keep critical entity data near the surface.