To be honest – it is not necessary to every company go full throttle on every AEO tactic right away. Your stage of growth matters. If you’re a solo founder still validating your product, your AEO game plan will look very different from a 200-person SaaS company with a full content team.
So instead of a one-size-fits-all checklist, here’s a more realistic look at what to focus on – and what to ignore – depending on where you’re at.
Early-Stage: Just Getting Started
Maybe you just launched. Your domain authority is close to zero. You don’t rank for anything yet. That’s okay. This is actually where AEO shines – because you don’t need to rank to get mentioned.
At this stage, your goal is simple: get noticed by the engines and the humans who influence them.
Start by inserting yourself into real conversations. Reddit, Quora, Discord servers – wherever your audience hangs out. Don’t pitch. Don’t paste links. Just answer questions with actual insight. If it makes sense, mention your product.
Then publish one great comparison page. Something like: “Best [category] tools for [niche].” Make it clean, useful, and totally fair. Don’t be afraid to include your own product – just be honest. Use tables, FAQs, and real pros and cons. LLMs love structure.
Lastly, go get cited somewhere. Anywhere. A guest post. A podcast transcript. A YouTube demo. A comment on Hacker News. Even one mention can land you in an AI answer the very next day.
Growth Stage: You’ve Got Some Momentum
You’ve got a few thousand visitors a month. Maybe your blog is starting to pick up traction. You’ve been mentioned in a few places. This is where it gets fun – and a little more strategic.
Now’s the time to treat AEO like a real channel.
Start mapping out your most important topics – the ones that drive sales, trials, or key signups. For each one, write a page that doesn’t just answer one question, but 20–50 related ones. This is how you earn visibility across dozens of AI search queries without creating 50 separate posts.
Structure matters more now. Use tables. Use semantic HTML. Add author bios and schema. Start watching which pages get picked up by Perplexity or ChatGPT. And take notes: what kind of formatting seems to help? What gets reused?
Also – this is the phase where you start measuring. You don’t need a fancy dashboard. Even a spreadsheet will do. Just track your core topics, and see if you’re being mentioned more this month than last.
Finally, collaborate. Get your product mentioned in someone else’s blog. Join an expert roundup. Record a podcast. All of it adds up.
Enterprise: You’re Big. Act Like It.
You’ve got traffic. You’ve got authority. You’re probably already ranking. But are you showing up in generative answers?
Now’s the time to zoom out and build AEO into your content operations.
Start by identifying your highest-impact topics – not just based on traffic, but based on commercial value. Then build (or clean up) the source of truth pages for each one. These should be:
- Well-structured
- Routinely updated
- Loaded with data, FAQs, examples, and trust signals
Next, track your “answer share.” Use tools to see how often you’re cited across Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Bing. Where are you showing up? More importantly, where are you being left out – and who’s showing up instead?
And don’t forget your indirect content creators: support, sales, success, even legal. These teams are constantly creating information that models can crawl. Make it part of your playbook.
Finally, build internal standards. Define what AEO-friendly content looks like in your org. Set up templates. Train your team. AEO at this level is less about tactics – and more about systems.
Summary: Pick Your Lane
| Company Stage | Focus On |
|---|---|
| Early | Get cited. Answer niche questions. Build one great roundup page. |
| Growth | Cluster content. Add structure. Track citations. Collaborate often. |
| Enterprise | Operationalize AEO. Measure answer share. Standardize your content. |
Your strategy doesn’t have to be perfect. But it does need to be appropriate for where you are right now.
Build smart. Build lean. And grow into it.
Ready to move on to Your AEO Launch Plan: A Realistic 30–60–90 Day Guide?
AEO & GEO Handbook 2026 by People, business, and AI systems clarity coach Mike Moisio