Add First-Hand Experience to Answer Engine Optimization Content
This may become one of the most valuable parts of AEO.
AI systems can summarize information that already exists.
That makes generic summaries increasingly easy to produce.
What is harder to reproduce is genuine experience, testing, original research and informed observation.
For example, instead of writing:
“Canva is a popular design platform.”
a stronger article might explain:
“After testing Canva for small-business social content, the biggest time-saving feature isn’t the template library. It’s being able to adapt one design into multiple formats without rebuilding the layout.”
That gives the reader something they can’t get from a generic product description.
Google’s guidance explicitly encourages unique viewpoints and first-hand perspectives as examples of non-commodity content that can provide additional value.
Strengthen Answer Engine Optimization With Original Data
If you can produce original information, use it.
Examples include:
- Surveys
- Case studies
- Product tests
- Pricing comparisons
- Original statistics
- Interviews
- Experiments
- Industry observations
- Before-and-after results
- Imagine two articles about website hosting. One repeats specifications copied from hosting companies.
The other tests five hosting providers and records setup time, support response, pricing and performance.
The second article has something original to contribute.
That distinction matters because answer engines are not simply looking for pages that contain keywords. They need useful sources to support their answers.
Build Trust With Clear Sources and External References
Citations and external references can make an article easier to verify.
This is particularly important when discussing:
- Statistics
- Government policies
- Prices
- Scientific findings
- Immigration rules
- Financial information
- Technology specifications
- Industry research
Don’t simply say:
“Experts say…”
Name the source.
For example, if you’re explaining how ChatGPT search works, link readers directly to OpenAI’s official ChatGPT Search documentation. OpenAI explains that ChatGPT can search the web and provide links to relevant sources.
Likewise, when discussing Perplexity, its own product information emphasizes that answers are sourced and cited, allowing users to inspect the underlying sources.
Good sourcing isn’t just an SEO technique.
It makes the article more trustworthy.
Make Your Website Crawlable for ChatGPT and Perplexity
A brilliant article cannot be discovered if important systems cannot access it.
For ChatGPT search specifically, OpenAI says website owners should allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl their content if they want their pages to be eligible for inclusion in ChatGPT search results.
That means your technical SEO still matters.
Check:
- robots.txt
- Indexing settings
- Noindex directives
- Canonical URLs
- Internal links
- Site accessibility
- Server availability
- Mobile usability
OpenAI also provides information about its crawlers and their purposes in its official crawler documentation.
Perplexity also uses web crawlers to discover and retrieve online information. Its publisher ecosystem emphasizes accurate, trustworthy sources and citations.