Is AEO/GEO practices actually producing results today?

Lavender_Strings

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Hi everyone,

As organic traffic is fragmented, i've been working on improving my site's llm viisbility. Would like to understand what's actually working with llms visibility, especially in highly competitive markets like saas, martech and edtech.

One thing I've noticed is that some agencies now claim they can improve your ai visibility within 3-6 months. But when I ask what their strategy is, the answers are usually the same things that are already being discussed everywhere like structured content, schema, llms.txt, ai-friendly content, etc. We've already been implementing many of these ourselves.

At the same time, when I look at AI responses, I keep seeing the same well-established brands getting mentioned and cited. Most of them have spent years building their reputation through PR, software review sites, analyst reports, community discussions, reddit, podcasts, media coverage, etc. So I'm wondering what the ground reality is.

Want to know about:
- In highly competitive markets, can a company with relatively little historical PR and brand authority realistically improve its AI visibility just by implementing aeo/geo today?
- has anyone actually seen aeo/geo produce meaningful traffic (in highly competitive market)? if so, how long did it take?
- since llms don't always include clickable links, are ai mentions translating into meaningful traffic or are they mainly improving brand awareness?
- what content strategy works for you to bring in llms traffic? (I feel blogs are now to build authority around the niche and not to generate traffic)
- are there any other channel (apart from ads as they've also become highly crowded) that can bring traffic?

I'm not looking for a universal answer because I understand every niche is different. I'd just like to hear from people who are actively working in competitive industries like saas and have real-world experience.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Hi everyone,

As organic traffic is fragmented, i've been working on improving my site's llm viisbility. Would like to understand what's actually working with llms visibility, especially in highly competitive markets like saas, martech and edtech.

One thing I've noticed is that some agencies now claim they can improve your ai visibility within 3-6 months. But when I ask what their strategy is, the answers are usually the same things that are already being discussed everywhere like structured content, schema, llms.txt, ai-friendly content, etc. We've already been implementing many of these ourselves.

At the same time, when I look at AI responses, I keep seeing the same well-established brands getting mentioned and cited. Most of them have spent years building their reputation through PR, software review sites, analyst reports, community discussions, reddit, podcasts, media coverage, etc. So I'm wondering what the ground reality is.

Want to know about:
- In highly competitive markets, can a company with relatively little historical PR and brand authority realistically improve its AI visibility just by implementing aeo/geo today?
- has anyone actually seen aeo/geo produce meaningful traffic (in highly competitive market)? if so, how long did it take?
- since llms don't always include clickable links, are ai mentions translating into meaningful traffic or are they mainly improving brand awareness?
- what content strategy works for you to bring in llms traffic? (I feel blogs are now to build authority around the niche and not to generate traffic)
- are there any other channel (apart from ads as they've also become highly crowded) that can bring traffic?

I'm not looking for a universal answer because I understand every niche is different. I'd just like to hear from people who are actively working in competitive industries like saas and have real-world experience.

Thanks in advance :)
acording to my experience, AEO/GEO appears to be more effective for mention rather than traffic. the optimal strategy may include mentioning the brand at review site, communitie, PR, and industry source—look like LLMs really appreciate such signal more than any kind of on-page optimization.
 
Bro, it's way more obvious than you think, and what's more, it's all done through good old manipulation just now it's search + AI, not just search. And the timeframe can be totally different, even 2-3 weeks, something like that
 
@wagaj83118 nailed the core of it imo. LLMs pull from the same places that already have authority... review sites, reddit threads, PR mentions, comparison articles. That's where the citations come from, not from your schema or llms.txt.

To your actual questions... yeah a brand with little history can move the needle but not by doing on-page stuff. You gotta get mentioned where the models are training/retrieving. G2, Capterra, reddit threads that rank, listicles like "best X tools for Y", getting into those comparison posts other people write. That's the real work and it's slow, not the 3-6 month magic agencies sell.

On traffic vs awareness... honestly it's mostly awareness right now. Even when perplexity or chatgpt cites you the click through is tiny. What we've seen work better is people reading "top 5 tools" type content on the LLM, then googling your brand directly. So it feeds branded search more than direct clicks.

Blogs for traffic are pretty dead in competitive saas, you're right. They're for topical authority now. If i had to pick a channel outside ads i'd go heavy on reddit + niche communities and getting placed in third party roundup articles. That's the stuff LLMs eat up.

@enco talking about manipulation and 2-3 weeks... in a crowded saas niche? nah, not happening that fast. Maybe in some dead low comp niche you can spin up fake mentions quick but competitive markets you're playing a longer game.
 
- In highly competitive markets, can a company with relatively little historical PR and brand authority realistically improve its AI visibility just by implementing aeo/geo today?
not really. on-page aeo setup is useless without off-page mentions, because llms scrape review sites, reddit, and news outlets to decide who to trust.

- has anyone actually seen aeo/geo produce meaningful traffic (in highly competitive market)? if so, how long did it take?
No, because the results change. Someone explained it here that llms show average of results that means it is not sure that if your website is showing first time for a query it will show next time in the same place.

- since llms don't always include clickable links, are ai mentions translating into meaningful traffic or are they mainly improving brand awareness?
it is mostly brand awareness. It does help though.

- what content strategy works for you to bring in llms traffic? (I feel blogs are now to build authority around the niche and not to generate traffic)
comparison tables, listicles, and clean Q&A sections. i am working on these in my every post.

- are there any other channel (apart from ads as they've also become highly crowded) that can bring traffic?
niche newsletter, reddit/discord communities, youtube channel. you have to go direct to where your audience hangs out.
 
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