Answered on camera by Dan Milikow, CEO of iShoot.direct · 1:00 · transcript and sources below
AEO and SEO both do different jobs: SEO wins keyword placement; AEO gets you cited when people ask context-heavy questions. With AI Overviews cutting clicks to top-ranked pages by 58%[1], rankings matter less than they did — showing up inside the answer matters more, and the toolset now includes FAQ formats and YouTube.
AEO and SEO are related, but they're doing different jobs. SEO makes you discoverable for keywords. It's a competition for placement when somebody types Florida personal injury, or construction litigation, or estate planning attorney. AEO makes you show up when people ask context-heavy questions. For instance: my contractor stopped showing up and he won't return my calls — can I recover my deposit?
Here's why that matters now. Ahrefs compared click-through rates before AI Overviews launched on Google, and after: clicks to pages at the top of the rankings fell 58%[1]. So your search ranking still matters. It just matters less than it traditionally has. What's growing in importance is how you show up when people ask questions like mine. That's what AEO is all about. And it's a different toolset: FAQ formats with very specific, contextualized questions. And it's more video and more YouTube.
| Search rank (SEO) | AI citations (AEO) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it wins | A top ranking for a keyword | A citation in the answer |
| The search | “estate planning attorney” | “My contractor won't return my calls — can I recover my deposit?” |
| Trajectory | Clicks to the top result down 58%[1] | 2.5+ billion Qs a day and counting[2] |
| The toolset | Inbound links and keyword-targeted pages | FAQs, relevance, and YouTube |