How to Optimize for AEO and SEO at the Same Time?

Optimizing for AEO and SEO at the same time is no longer optional, because the two now compete on the same screen. Google's AI Overviews reach 2.5 billion monthly users, answering questions directly above the classic blue links (Source: Google). The page a business needs to rank on is the same page where an AI summary now decides whether anyone scrolls at all.

Treating answer engine optimization and search engine optimization as separate budgets is the expensive mistake. Over 12 years in search, Austin Heaton has watched the strongest teams collapse the two into one motion: a single content engine that earns Google rankings and AI citations from the same work. Here is how AEO and SEO actually overlap, where they genuinely diverge, and how to run both at once without doubling the effort.

Key Takeaways

• AEO and SEO share one foundation: crawlable, credible, well-structured content.
• The split between them is smaller than most marketing teams assume.
• Optimize revenue pages first, because they win rankings and citations together.
• Austin Heaton runs AEO and SEO as one engine, not two budgets.
• Measure rankings and citations together, or the channel gets underfunded.

Why Should You Optimize for AEO and SEO at the Same Time?

You should optimize for AEO and SEO at the same time because the answer engine and the search engine now live on the same results page. When someone searches, an AI Overview, a block of organic links, and a chatbot citation are all competing for the same intent, and the work that earns one increasingly earns the others. The stakes are concrete: by some measures, 92% of AI Mode sessions end without a click to an external website (Source: Semrush), so being the cited source inside the answer matters as much as ranking beneath it.

Running them together pays off for three reasons:

• Shared surface: the same query triggers organic results and an AI summary, so one strong page can win both.
• Shared inputs: crawlability, clarity, and credibility feed rankings and citations alike.
• Compounding effort: a page engineered once for extraction keeps earning visibility across Google and the chatbots.

Austin Heaton is blunt about this. As he explains in his breakdown of how much of AEO is just SEO fundamentals, most of the groundwork is identical, so splitting it into two teams mostly duplicates cost.

What Do AEO and SEO Actually Share?

AEO and SEO share most of their foundation: both reward content that is technically accessible, genuinely useful, and clearly attributed to a credible source. The crawler that indexes a page for Google rankings reads many of the same signals an answer engine uses to decide whether to trust and quote it.

The shared foundation comes down to four things:

• Technical hygiene: fast, crawlable, well-structured pages get indexed and parsed by both.
• Content quality: original insight and direct answers earn featured rankings and citations equally.
• Entity clarity: consistent signals about who you are help Google and LLMs map your brand.
• Authority: credible mentions and references raise trust for rankings and for AI selection.

None of this is exotic, it is disciplined SEO applied with answer engines in mind, which is why Austin Heaton treats technical SEO for AI visibility as the same workstream rather than a separate project.

Want to know whether your pages already work for both? An AI search audit shows where you rank, where you get cited, and where a single fix would move both at once.

Where Do AEO and SEO Diverge?

AEO and SEO diverge mainly in the unit of victory: SEO optimizes a page to rank, while AEO optimizes a passage to be quoted. Traditional search rewards the page that earns the click, but an answer engine lifts the sentence that best answers the prompt, then names a source, sometimes without sending a click at all.

The practical differences worth planning around:

• Page versus passage: SEO wins positions, AEO wins extractable answers inside the content.
• Links versus entities: classic SEO leans on backlinks, while AEO leans harder on entity authority and brand mentions.
• Clicks versus citations: SEO success shows up as traffic, AEO success shows up as how often models name you.

This is where his framing on domain authority versus entity authority for AI search matters, because the signal that moves AI citations is not always the one that moved rankings a decade ago.

How Do You Optimize for AEO and SEO at the Same Time?

You optimize for AEO and SEO at the same time by building one content engine that satisfies the crawler and the answer engine in a single pass: start with revenue pages, structure every page for extraction, and reinforce your entity everywhere. Austin Heaton runs this as one workflow, and he reports results like 575% AI search session growth and 770% ChatGPT traffic growth in 90 days from the combined approach.

The core moves, in order:

• Start with revenue pages: optimize use-case and comparison pages first, since they rank and get cited where buyers decide.
• Structure for extraction: clear questions, direct first-sentence answers, and clean formatting a model can lift.
• Build entity authority: keep brand signals and credible mentions consistent across the web.
• Measure both: track rankings and citation share together, not in two disconnected reports.

The thread tying it together is sequencing, and Austin Heaton lays out the citation side in his guide on how to build an AI citation strategy, which slots on top of solid SEO rather than replacing it.

Ready to run AEO and SEO as one engine instead of two? You can book a discovery call and map the fastest path to rankings and citations in your category.

What Mistakes Break AEO and SEO Alignment?

The mistakes that break AEO and SEO alignment almost always come from treating the two as rivals instead of one program: chasing rankings while ignoring how the answer box reframes the query, or chasing citations while neglecting the technical base that makes a page legible at all.

The most common ways teams undercut themselves:

• Two separate teams: duplicated work, conflicting priorities, and no shared scorecard.
• Traffic-only metrics: optimizing for clicks while AI answers quietly absorb the intent.
• Top-funnel first: publishing blog volume before the revenue pages that actually convert.
• Backlinks over entities: pouring budget into links while ignoring the brand signals AI weighs.

These are the same patterns Austin Heaton diagnoses in his analysis of why SaaS organic traffic is down in 2026 even when rankings improved, and the fix is alignment, not more output.

The Bottom Line on Optimizing for AEO and SEO

Optimizing for AEO and SEO at the same time is really one discipline practiced well, because the answer engine and the search engine now share the same page and reward the same foundations. With AI Overviews reaching 2.5 billion monthly users (Source: Google), the businesses that win treat rankings and citations as outputs of a single content engine. Austin Heaton builds that engine for B2B, SaaS, FinTech, and Web3 teams, so the same work earns a Google position and an AI citation at once.

Read Next:

• B2B SaaS SEO and AEO Strategy for Modern Growth
• AI Search vs Organic Search for SaaS
• The Multi-LLM Optimization Playbook: How to Get Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude Simultaneously

Ready to stop running two strategies and start running one? Book a discovery call with Austin Heaton and build a program that wins Google rankings and AI citations together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you optimize for AEO and SEO at the same time?

Yes, you can optimize for AEO and SEO at the same time, because they share the same technical and content foundation. Austin Heaton runs both as a single engine, so one page can rank on Google and get cited by AI tools.

Will AEO and SEO stay separate disciplines in 2026?

AEO and SEO are not staying separate in 2026, they are converging onto the same results page where AI summaries sit above organic links. Austin Heaton treats them as one workflow rather than two competing budgets.

How are AEO and SEO different from each other?

AEO and SEO differ mainly in what they optimize: SEO targets the ranking page, while AEO targets the passage an answer engine quotes. Austin Heaton plans for both so a single page can win a position and a citation.

Which should you prioritize first when optimizing for AEO and SEO?

When optimizing for AEO and SEO, prioritize revenue pages first, because they rank and get cited exactly where buyers make decisions. Austin Heaton starts with use-case and comparison pages before scaling top-funnel content.

What metrics show AEO and SEO are working together?

The metrics that show AEO and SEO are working together are combined rankings and citation share, tied back to pipeline rather than raw traffic. Austin Heaton sets up that shared measurement so neither channel gets underfunded.