What Is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving a website so it appears more prominently when users search for your products, services, or expertise. SEO helps attract organic traffic from people actively looking for what you offer.
A strong SEO Strategy considers how a business's audience searches, what questions the audience might need answered, and what makes your business the best fit for their needs. When done correctly, SEO brings more qualified visitors to your website – people who are more likely to call, book, request a quote, or make a purchase.
It will also account for how web crawlers such as Google Search Engine read the metadata from your site. Metadata, alt-text, keywords, and JSON-LD Schemas all give web crawlers the necessary contextual information for search engines like Google to rank your website better for searches that are relevant to your business and offerings.
The better the match between your website and the audience's search, the better it is factored into where the website ranks on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Ideally, your website would be ranked amongst the first five listings for branded searches.
What Is AEO?
AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is the practice of making your content easy for AI-Powered search tools to understand and cite your website when they are asked questions that pertain to your business. As more people use tools such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini to streamline their research and get the answers they are looking for, businesses need to be visible beyond traditional search listings.
AEO involves creating clear, well-structured content that directly answers common questions. Effective examples are concise introductions, FAQ sections, comparison tables, step-by-step guidance, and schema markups that help AI systems crawl your website and interpret the content accurately.
AI uses web crawlers to research and cite websites when answering questions asked by users, similarly to how Google uses SEO to rank websites. Where they differ in their core goals, how they present information and how success is measured.
AEO vs. SEO: What’s the Difference?
SEO helps you rank in traditional search results, such as Google's Organic listings
AEO helps your brand appear in AI-generated answers, summaries, and recommendations
Together, they strengthen visibility across both search engines and AI platforms
AEO does not replace SEO. In fact, strong SEO fundamentals like effective content, a technically optimized website, and clear brand information make AEO even more effective. This is because both SEO and AEO are optimizing for web crawlers to parse through the website information and deem the website relevant to the inquiry.
Businesses that invest in both are better positioned to appear across the full search journey.
How SEO & AEO Services Support Business Growth
At Snack Agency, our services help audit, strategize, and implement Search Engine Optimization and Answer Engine Optimization to improve a business’ visibility to their audience and to web crawlers. The value of having both SEO and AEO strategies implemented allows your website to become a source of high intent visibility with your audience. Unlike paid advertising that relies on budgets, SEO and AEO will continue to support valuable discovery over time.
Effective SEO and AEO can help businesses:
Attract customers who are actively searching for your services
Increase qualified leads, calls, bookings, and form submissions
Improve local visibility in competitive markets
Build trust through helpful and authoritative content
Appear in both traditional search results and AI-generated answers
Stay visible as AI search continues to grow
Snack Agency Services:
Our SEO and AEO Audit examines four core areas: website health, keyword opportunities, competitor performance, and AI prompt visibility. Together, these give us a clear picture of where your business stands today, what is limiting growth, and where the opportunities are.
See where your website is losing visibility, Book an SEO & AEO audit with Snack!
Website Health
We assess the technical foundation of your website to ensure search engines and AI tools can effectively crawl, understand, and index your website.
Keywords
We identify search terms your customers use at every stage of their journey and audit your current content to ensure it aligns with your audience.
Competitor Performance
We benchmark your organic visibility against competitors capturing attention in your market, revealing gaps and opportunities to out perform them.
AI Prompts
We evaluate how your brand appears or fails to appear when customers ask AI tools questions related to your services and expertise.
The digital landscape is changing every day and with it search and AI tools are constantly improving. Ensure your website is poised to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Get a prioritized roadmap, not just a report.
Book your SEO & AEO audit with Snack today!
Get Started With Our Professional SEO & AEO Services
Ready to improve your visibility across search engines and AI-powered answer tools? Explore our SEO and AEO services to see how a customized strategy can support your business goals and keep you top of mind.
Get in touch with our team today to learn more!
