⭐ The State of AEO 11/20 – Establishing Your Baseline · AEO

⭐ The State of AEO 11/20 – Establishing Your Baseline

This session peeled back the curtain on the reality of AI optimization.

Before we can sprint toward ranking, we must ensure we have legs to stand on.

We moved away from abstract theory into the AEO Baseline, a "first principles" audit designed to determine exactly where your business stands in the eyes of the machine before you spend a dime on optimization.

We also explored the concept of the "Probabilistic Black Box," explaining why the deterministic SEO tactics of the past are failing and why your entity’s relationships matter more than your keywords.

Here’s your key information to get caught up:

📼- Here's your Call Recording

🖥️- Here's the Slide Deck

📃- Here's your Detailed Call Summary

Key Takeaways:

1. 🚀 Community Updates & Tool Deployment:

We opened with essential updates on how we are equipping our Pioneers and Strategists to see through the digital fog, emphasizing that in this "storm," we need direction over precision.

The "Detail" Extension: We introduced a critical browser extension (recently acquired by Ahrefs) that allows you to view your website through the "eyes" of an AI. It strips away the UI and reveals the skeletal hierarchy (H1s, H2s, Schema) that bots actually consume.
The "Compass" Approach: Julian emphasized that no one has a perfect radar for the AI era yet. We cannot pinpoint exact coordinates. Instead, we provide tools that act as a compass—giving you the correct, directionally accurate data to navigate forward.
The AEO Blueprint: The full, step-by-step guide to setting up your Google Search Console, Analytics, and technical foundations is being finalized. This will serve as the "textbook" accompaniment to these calls.

2. 🌊 The Reality Check: The Probabilistic Black Box:

Julian laid out the fundamental shift in how we must view search logic. The era of "Check Box A + Check Box B = Ranking C" is over.

Deterministic vs. Probabilistic: Traditional Google search was deterministic. AI Answer Engines are probabilistic black boxes; you can ask the same question twice and get different results. Optimization is now about increasing the probability of being the answer.
The Entity Home: Your website is no longer just a brochure; it is your Entity Home. AI distinguishes "Julian Lopez the marketer" from "Julian Lopez the actor" based on a web of connections (LinkedIn, Authorship, External Profiles), not just on-page text.
The Emotional Anchor: Referencing the Ryan Reynolds approach, we discussed that while data is king, Brand Purpose is the glue. An emotional connection (Brand Essence) ensures that even if the algorithm shifts, your human audience sticks.

3. 🗺️ The Baseline Audit: Assets & Data:

Before applying the "Brain" framework, we must audit our existing assets. If the foundation is cracked, the structure won't hold.

Asset 1: Technical "Hygiene": Do you have the basics? SSL certificates, a supported CMS, and a clear "About" page. AI checks your "About" page to fact-check your entity. If your claims there don't match your external profiles, it creates "noise" and lowers trust.
Asset 2: Brand Clarity (Story Brand): AI craves clarity over cleverness. If a bot has to "decipher" your poetic marketing copy, you lose. We recommended the Story Brand framework to help machines understand your value proposition instantly.
Asset 3: External Validation: You are who the web says you are. Appearing on podcasts, publishing a book (Amazon), or maintaining consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data across directories creates the authoritative entity nodes that AI trusts implicitly.

4. 🧠 Critical Insight: Code Over Canvas:

Answering a vital question from Kurt regarding visual design vs. machine readability, Julian revealed how AI consumes energy and processes information.

The "Energy Conscious" Reader: AI models are expensive to run. They do not read every word on your page immediately. They scan the structure—specifically Headings (H1, H2, H3) and Schema.
The Hierarchy Trap: If you use an H1 tag for a generic slogan like "Welcome Home," you are blinding the AI. Your headings must logically outline the answer to the user's query.
The Implication: While the human user needs a pretty UI, the AI agent needs a clean API-like structure. You must optimize for retrieval (Headings/Schema) first, and visual consumption second.

Your Call to Action: The 3-Step Visibility Test

We cannot optimize what we cannot measure. Since we lack perfect first-party data from AI yet, you must run this diagnostic loop this week:

The Traditional Check: Google your brand name. Do you have a Knowledge Panel? If not, Google doesn't fully understand you as an entity yet. This is your first hurdle.
The AI Interrogation: Go to ChatGPT and Perplexity and ask: "What does [My Brand Name] do?" Check for accuracy, hallucinations, or confusion with competitors.
The Solution-Aware Test: Ask 5 commercial questions your ideal client would ask without using your brand name (e.g., "Best CRM for home service businesses in Austin"). If you aren't recommended, reverse engineer the headings and profiles of the brand that is.

The Blueprint for Success

As Kasim mentioned, this information works best as a network effect. The future belongs to those who build undeniable entities.

[Link to The AEO Blueprint on Amazon]

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