My coach asked me a while back, what moves the needle the most with your business, do you reckon? I answered straight away. It's speaking. But it's also people who have come through AI.
So speaking on stage is something that I enjoy. Not everybody's into that, and that's cool. But what I've noticed is that not only speaking bookings, but advisory enquiries as well, are coming through Claude.
So it's worth thinking about what that means for your firm. AI already has a list of firms it recommends for the exact type of work you do. You may not realise this, or you may not know which firms it's recommending to whom, but it is certainly recommending firms to the people who are enquiring. So you want to be on that list. That's what answer engine optimisation, or AEO, is for, and most of the work happens on your own web pages.
Why are people asking AI instead of Google?
These days people are less likely to go to Google and much more likely to turn to their phone with ChatGPT or Claude running on it. When they want the best accountant, or the best commercial lawyer, or the best vet, or whatever it is, they ask the robots.
Why can't I just check ChatGPT myself?
Now, it's worth checking, of course. Go to your ChatGPT or your Claude and actually ask it who it would recommend for the work you do.
But you've got to bear in mind that you are not your ideal client. The results you get on your search with AI are going to be different to what your target market gets searching that exact same thing.
Now, the reason for this is context. Claude or ChatGPT learns a lot about you and your business from your conversations and from how you train it. And the same is true of your clients. Claude is learning a lot about them too. So when they type in who is the best accountant, or who is the best commercial lawyer, it's going to factor their answer through the lens of that particular user.
So that's a long way of saying we need to be conscious of what the robots say about our business.
What does AI need to know before it will recommend you?
Now, what we need to do is make sure that Claude, or ChatGPT, or Gemini, or Copilot, knows enough about us as a practitioner or a consultant or an expert, and enough about our business, that it is confident recommending us to our ideal client.
So it's not about being visible to the wrong people. You don't want tyre kicker enquiries. You just want the good quality clients reaching out to you when they are ready.
The beauty of AEO is that it will recommend you if you tell it the right information you want it to know about you.
How do you actually do AEO on your own pages?
In my program I've got a whole bunch of different AI agents, or co-workers, essentially skills if you're in the Claude language, that will do this for you. But if you haven't got one pre-programmed, you can just say to it:
You are my AEO expert. I want to be showing up in Claude and ChatGPT and Gemini and Copilot when people ask for the best lawyer in Brisbane, or the best mortgage broker in whatever suburb you operate out of.
And then let the AI guide you in terms of what to put on those pages. It can analyse what you've already got on your web pages and make recommendations. And it can also help you create brand new pages that will meet the requirements for what people are actually searching for.
Why does every web page have FAQs at the bottom now?
Usually it takes the form of those frequently asked questions you now see at the bottom of most web pages.
The reason they are there, aside from the humans reading the page, is for the robots. The algorithms of those AIs are trying to match things up. Somebody searches for who's the best family lawyer in Brisbane, and the AI algorithm has to go, okay, he's asking that question, who's answering that question out of all those websites? Ah, this law firm is. And this lawyer is. So it feeds that answer back to the person who searched for it.
That is, in my experience, the best way to be visible to the right types of people right at the moment when they are making those types of enquiries.
Do you still need to post on LinkedIn every day?
The great news about this is you don't need to be everywhere. You don't need to be knocking on strangers' doors. You don't need to be emailing people or messaging people or any of that. You just need to have the AEO sorted on your web pages.
The other good thing is that content is still important, yes, because it's the content on your page. But it's less important, in my opinion, to be out there publishing on LinkedIn as often, or YouTube as often. They are still nice to have and very effective if you're into that.
However, if you're a bit more reserved and understated and don't want to be out there, then doing the AEO correctly is the right way to be showing up at just the right time for just the right clients.
Where to start this week
Pick the one page that matters most, the service page for the work you actually want more of. Ask AI what questions your ideal client would be typing before they were ready to enquire, then answer those questions on that page in plain language, in your own words.
Want help getting AI recommending you? It's what we do in my private program. Take a look at Leverage Yourself, or book a quick chat when you're ready. And even if you're not part of my program, just get Claude to help you do this and it will guide you through it step by step.
Frequently asked questions
What is answer engine optimisation (AEO)?
Answer engine optimisation, or AI engine optimisation depending on who you ask, is the work of making sure AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot know enough about you and your business to recommend you when someone asks them for a firm like yours. Most of it happens on your own web pages rather than anywhere else.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO gets your page ranked in a list that someone then reads through. With AEO, the AI just names the firm when it answers the question. There is plenty of overlap, because both reward clear, specific content on your own site.
How do I find out whether AI recommends my business?
Ask it directly in ChatGPT or Claude, but treat the answer with caution. Your AI account has a lot of context about you and your business, so it will give you a different answer to the one your ideal client gets. A better test is asking somebody outside your business to run the same question from their own account.
Why does AI give different recommendations to different people?
It comes down to context. These tools learn a lot about each user from their conversations and how they train them. So when two people type the same question, the answer is filtered through the lens of that particular user. You are not your ideal client, and your search result will not match theirs.
Why do websites have FAQ sections at the bottom of the page?
It's partly for the humans reading the page, and partly for the robots. When someone asks an AI who the best family lawyer in Brisbane is, the algorithm has to work out which websites are answering that question. A page that answers the question directly is far easier to match than one that does not.
Do I still need to post on LinkedIn and YouTube if I do AEO?
They are still nice to have and very effective if you're into that. But if you're a bit more reserved and would rather not be out there publishing constantly, getting the AEO right on your web pages is the way to show up at just the right time for just the right clients.
How do I get started with AEO without buying another tool?
Tell your AI it is your AEO expert, name the searches you want to show up for, and let it analyse the pages you've already got. It will make recommendations on what to add and it can help you build new pages for the questions people are searching.
