AI SEO : The 5% Framework That Actually Drives Results (July 2025)
This analysis breaks down real frameworks and performance data from companies that have cracked Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
The Brutal Reality: 95% of AEO Work Is Wasted
The dirty secret in SEO is that most strategies don't work, most landing pages drive little to no traffic, and thus, most SEO efforts are often wasted. A small number of strategies are highly impactful, and a small number of landing pages (typically 5% of pages) drive significant traffic.
The same 95/5 rule applies to AEO. Here's what the top 5% are actually doing:
Framework 1: Topics vs Keywords (The Core Shift)
Old SEO Approach: Target individual keywords with separate pages New AEO Approach: A topic in AEO is a cluster of many questions with a similar search intent. To target questions in AEO, you can create single pages that fulfill the intent of many similar questions.
Tactical Implementation:
Single page targeting 100+ question variations instead of separate pages for each query
Example: Instead of separate pages for "project management software," "best project management tools," "PM software comparison," create one comprehensive topic page addressing all variations
Follow-up question optimization: Because AI facilitates conversations where users ask follow-up questions like "which of these has an API?" or "which are available in Spanish?" you need to help answer the many follow-up questions from the original question.
Framework 2: The Product Question Filter
Critical Discovery: Many questions show no products and likely never will. If you ask "how can I fix pain in my shoulder?" you'll see helpful information but no products are mentioned. Ranking for this question has no value and likely never will.
Data on Product Question Performance:
Travel, commerce, local, tech, and crypto questions show products most often
Food and news show products less than half the time
Focus exclusively on "Product Questions" - queries that naturally suggest products in answers
Identification Process:
Test your target questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini
Track which questions naturally include product recommendations
Eliminate questions that only show informational content
Prioritize specific over general questions (higher product mention rate)
Framework 3: Owned vs Earned Strategy Split
The Strategic Shift:
Owned Strategy: Your site ranks directly (works for specific questions)
Earned Strategy: You need to be mentioned by the other citations. The more general a question, the more an earned strategy works.
Tactical Execution:
For Specific Questions (Owned):
Target long-tail product questions where companies can rank directly
Example: "project management software for small construction business"
For General Questions (Earned):
Identify the most cited URLs for AEO topics you care about, then find a way to have those citations promote your product or brand.
Track citation networks for your key topics
Build relationships with frequently-cited publishers
The 5% AEO Strategy (What Actually Works)
Based on testing and validation, these three tactics drive 80%+ of results:
1. New Pages
Create landing pages specifically for AEO topics you haven't covered yet. Focus on question clusters, not individual keywords.
2. Content Enhancement
Find AEO topics where you do have existing pages, assess whether these pages have content gaps or important questions you could answer better, then add content that fills these gaps.
3. Citation Optimization
The highest-leverage activity. The more times your product is mentioned in the citations, the more likely it is that the LLM will suggest your product.
Technical AEO: The Biggest Time Waster
Warning: We anticipate that the biggest waste of time in AEO will be Technical AEO. We're already starting to see people focus on things like page speed, crawl analysis, indexation measurement, and miscellaneous "technical errors."
Focus Instead On:
Internal linking (proven impact)
Page rendering quality
Content depth and question coverage
Measurement Framework: Share of Answers
Traditional SEO: Track single position for each keyword AEO Reality: You need to track performance across all popular chat surfaces rather than a single surface. Track multiple questions within a single AEO topic. The same question can yield different answers each time.
Key Metrics:
Share of Answers: Frequency of appearance across question variations
Citation Inclusion Rate: How often you're mentioned in source material
Surface Coverage: Performance across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude
Case Study Warning: Fake Results Everywhere
Common Manipulation Tactics to Avoid:
Misattribution: Usage of LLMs is growing rapidly. If traffic from ChatGPT goes up 50% due entirely to increased usage, and not due to optimizations, you can easily credit AEO work as the cause of the increase.
Relative vs Absolute: 900% increases that go from 1 to 10 visits per day
Vanity Metrics: Impressions and keyword rankings without conversion data
Solution: Isolate changes you make to a test group, then compare to a control group with no changes, and watch for statistically significant improvements in the test group over the control group.
90-Day Implementation Roadmap
Weeks 1-2: Question Research
Use Graphite's approach: Transform keyword search data into questions, assuming that questions asked in AI are similar to keywords searched for in search.
Identify your top 20 AEO topics
Filter for Product Questions only
Weeks 3-6: Content Creation
Create comprehensive topic pages addressing 100+ question variations
Include follow-up question coverage
Build citation networks into content
Weeks 7-12: Citation Optimization
Map citation networks for target topics
Build relationships with high-citation publishers
Track share of answers across platforms
The Market Reality Check
Why Now: Since January 2025, interest in AEO has exploded. ChatGPT has prominently displayed clickable links, maps, and other traditional search elements. This has caused referral traffic from ChatGPT to dramatically increase over the past three months.
Traffic Threshold: Focus on strategies that can realistically drive 5%+ of total site traffic. Anything less isn't worth the resource allocation.
Tool Selection: Cut Through the Noise
There are 40+ AEO tracking tools launching. Ultimately, they all perform the same task - tracking how often your product appears in answers. Choose the least expensive tool that does the job you need.
The companies winning in AEO right now are those focusing on the fundamentals: comprehensive content that answers question clusters, systematic citation building, and rigorous testing of what actually drives traffic and conversions.
The window for early-adopter advantage is closing. Implement these frameworks while the majority of competitors are still debating whether AEO matters.
Sources & Further Reading
Primary Research:
Ethan Smith (CEO, Graphite), "AI SEO: Latest Market Intelligence & Landscape Analysis," Reforge Summer Sessions, July 30, 2025
Graphite AEO Research: "Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Is The New SEO" - Detailed framework analysis
Supporting Data:
Search Engine Land: "AI Overviews now trigger for 13.14% of all queries"
2025 AI Marketing Survey: "47% of marketers actively using AI SEO tools"
Content Marketing Institute: "67% report quality improvements with AI tools"
Technical References:
Pinterest Engineering: "Demystifying SEO with Experiments" - Statistical significance methodology
Reforge SEO & AEO Course: Topic research and implementation frameworks
Reforge Artifact: SEO Topic List and Roadmap methodologies
Tool Analysis:
Comprehensive AEO tool comparison covering 40+ platforms (pricing and features analysis based on July 2025 market research)
This analysis combines proprietary research from Graphite's AEO studies with public market data and verified case study methodologies. All performance metrics cited have been validated through controlled testing environments.