Despite all the discussion about how AI is changing the web as we know it, the fundamentals of marketing and communications are more important now than ever.
As Google recently announced, Gemini-based AI prompts and responses will be built into search prompts and results. This change is a significant shift away from their traditional search approach and from existing search engine optimization (SEO) models. As such, it’s no longer optional to think seriously about AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) alongside existing SEO best practices. This consideration is especially important for paid campaigns that rely heavily on landing pages to do the heavy lifting of converting prospects.
How do you make sure that in this age of AI, your campaign pages don’t fall behind?
The first answer is simply to start with the why.
If you think back to the early days of web searching, that’s exactly where we’re returning. But instead of searching for brief keywords, it’s prompting with questions like:
- “Why should I choose your services over a competitor?”
- “Where can I go near me that offers ____?”
Instead of asking Jeeves, we’re now asking AI.
So, when you build your landing page, consider the following:
- Answer the primary question first and place supporting text for that answer front and center. That will make it far easier for AI bots to understand and summarize your content for relevant queries.
- Make your content skimmable. Refrain from long paragraphs. Produce copy that’s easy to read – not just for humans but for robots too.
- Have one true call to action (CTA). There might be other priorities for your campaign, but you must treat campaign landing pages as the transactional handshake for the primary goal. Your CTA should directly match the content in your ad that led users to your page in the first place and clearly answer the question that would lead anyone to the landing page.
That’s it. It seems simple because it is. For all the noise, in many ways, we’ve returned to the early days of search and the web experience. That means it’s time to dust off your old best practices book and return to the basics.
- Answer the “why”?
- Make the answer easy to read and concise.
- Provide a single, clear, and actionable next step.
We are ready to jump in tackle all your digital marketing needs including AEO and SEO. Contact us today, to learn more about what we do.
– Tommy Barbee, Assistant Vice President, Digital
