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AI for Brand Visibility

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Live Event•Zapier •Dec 11, 2025
AEOGEO

AI for Brand Visibility — Zapier x Profound Webinar

Webinar notes from "AI for Brand Visibility" with Zapier and Profound.

Chat + meeting transcript ↗

AI Search Evolution

  • AI search is growing rapidly at Zapier, already reaching ~4% of total traffic within a few months.
  • Conversion rate from AI search is 4x higher than traditional search traffic.
  • Traditional search still accounts for 96% of traffic volume, but AI search signups show ~14% higher conversion.
  • Model updates can cause dramatic spikes and drops in AI search performance as models change content selection and volume.
    • The team is still working on making performance more consistent as models evolve.

    • Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) vs Traditional SEO

  • AEO behaves very differently from SEO.
    • Only ~39% overlap between ChatGPT answers and Google SERP results.
  • Classic SEO metrics (referring domains, backlinks, authority scores) explain only 4–7% of AI citations.
  • Content quality, expertise, and freshness explain ~93% of variance in citations.
  • LLMs explore deeper into result pages instead of just focusing on top results like humans.

    • AEO Ranking Metrics (Maturity Curve)

  • Mentions – brand is referenced when relevant topics are discussed.
  • Citations – content is used as a source of truth in AI answers.
  • Referrals – AI mentions drive actual traffic.
  • Sentiment – positive vs negative brand perception in AI-generated responses.

    • Content Freshness as a Critical Success Factor

  • Content published within 13 weeks sees ~50% higher citation rate than older content.
  • High-quality content is essential for LLM visibility.
  • Answer engines primarily evaluate four key elements before deciding on citations:
    • URL structure – semantic, natural language paths.
    • Title quality – clarity and relevance.
    • Description quality – concise and informative.
    • Content snippet relevance – how well the visible snippet matches the query.

    • Early Best Practices for AEO

  • Reddit is emerging as a top cited source because AI systems look for opinionated, first-hand perspectives.
  • YouTube is increasingly important as Google integrates video data into AI Overviews.
  • FAQ-style formats perform exceptionally well, with up to +848% visibility lift for e‑commerce.
  • Speed advantage for smaller companies:
    • AI systems can pick up new content in ~2 days, much faster than traditional SEO cycles.

    • Zapier’s 2025 AEO Experiments

  • Brand perception
    • Competitor comparison pages.
    • Optimizing SMB-focused content.
  • Topic leadership
    • Expanding into AI orchestration keywords.
    • Encouraging employee-journalist style content.
  • Pricing optimization
    • Deep, comprehensive pricing articles to become the default LLM reference.
  • Content syndication
    • Distribution via the Stacker network to reach local news publishers.

    • Getting Started Recommendations

  • Begin with content optimization, not net-new volume.
  • Focus on existing high-quality content and make it easier for AI to discover and understand.
  • Use natural language URLs (observed ~11.4% lift in citations).
  • Add FAQ sections on key product and category pages.
  • Test speed and publishing velocity rather than sheer content volume, especially for smaller teams.

    • Visuals and Slides

    Below are slides and working materials captured from the webinar and follow-up work.

     

    Working Approaches

    Explorations and working approaches based on the session:

     

     

    Zapier Use Case

    Specific Zapier AEO use-case illustration: