Category Archives: Answer Engine Optimization

Answer Engine Optimization

Comparison SEO for AI

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In a world where Google & Bing Overviews AI are more prominent on search results pages, providing comparison tables of products will assist in SEO.

Comparative charts can potentially leading to rich snippets in search results and there is also an argument that these comparative charts becuase they are structured content is more easily digestible for voice assistants, improving the chances of being featured in voice search answers such as when using Siri on iPhone.

Comparison SEO is an essential strategy for eCommerce sites, affiliate marketers, and content publishers aiming to attract purchase-ready users. It focuses on optimizing content for high-intent keywords like ‘X vs Y’ or ‘best [product category],’ helping shoppers evaluate their options quickly and confidently.

Here’s a few examples from the US retail market across car parts, tennis racquets, and homewares.

Car Parts: Brake Pads
When drivers need to replace brake pads, they often search for terms like ‘best ceramic brake pads’ or compare top brands. By showcasing side-by-side features such as material type, warranty, and price, a well-optimized comparison table can directly influence buyer choices.

Tennis Racquets for Intermediate Players
Tennis players looking to upgrade their gear often compare racquets based on weight, string pattern, and brand reputation. Comparison tables not only aid in decision-making but also attract traffic from search terms like ‘Wilson vs Babolat racquet.’

Homewares: Blenders
For everyday consumers browsing high-ticket appliances like blenders, side-by-side product comparisons help visualize the difference between a $99 Ninja and a $449 Vitamix. Well-crafted SEO content based on such tables targets terms like ‘best blender under $500’ and drives conversions.

Comparison SEO works because it aligns with how people search when making buying decisions. Clear product differences, organized tables, and value-driven content make it easy for users to act—and for websites to convert traffic into sales. Whether you’re in automotive, sporting goods, or homewares, comparison content is a powerful tool.

Google Wiz SEO

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Google has announced its intent to acquire Wiz, a leading cloud security platform, for $32 billion. Biggest acquisition ever. Sure it’s to compete against Microsoft Azure & Amazon AWS yet how does it fit with Google Ads which generates US$265 billion in 2024 (75% of its total revenue)?

While Google’s acquisition of Wiz aims to bolster its cloud security offerings by identifying vulnerabilities, assessing risks, and providing actionable insights to protect cloud environments, there has been no official announcement regarding the integration of Wiz’s technology into Google’s Ads or SEO tools or services.

Which is the bigger threat? Hackers and bad actors trying to hack servers or stopping bots clicking on Google ads and ad-fraud in general. I guess by the size of the Wiz paid sticker, you might think it’s the former.

Answers Engine Optimization & Zero Click Searches

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The magic number If you’re looking for a roadmap for optimization is 58.5%. This is the most informative statistic as it is the percentage of “zero clicks” after Americans perform a search on Google. Only 41.5% click out of the Google page after their search query which is why “Answers Engine Optimization” is so critical.

Google is increasingly providing drop down question and lists to keep users on the page so they don’t click out of the results page and perform another search OR click on one of the questions which displays the answer. This is called ‘Answer Engine Optimization’. See below for an example.

Nearly 10% of organic search clicks on Google are directed towards ‘questions’ displayed in the search results, which link to websites providing relevant answers. Answer Engine Optimization (AOE) refers to optimizing content in a question-and-answer format. Search engines are increasingly incorporating these questions into the snippets shown on search results pages.

For example, a search query of “What’s the best school district santa clara, ca” the below results page appears. As users click a question, new series of more relevant questions appear.

Is Conversational AI a knock out punch for SEO?

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Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) has a more conversational feel to it. Questions appear below answers and the results page is more interactive, feels more intuitive and simulating a human response – which is after all what Artificial Intelligence does.

It’s a given now in Silicon Valley that conversational agents are expected to replace traditional software UIs, creating more human and natural interactions. And that includes the results pages for search engines. Now that might seem like a knock out punch for organic rankings and fulfil Google’s shareholder dreams to monetize the entire page with paid ads yet hold on amigo! We’re not done yet as the lifeblood of Google’s search engine is the functionality of being able to find relevant, third party information.

Google’s Search Generative Experience isn’t working to everyone’s satisfaction as we can see below! So it will take some time for Google and Bing to fully roll out correct versions of thier AI search products. That might take many years.

When Marc Phillips spoke to several hundred retailers recently at a conference, it was obvious that AI was still nascent for most business folks outside of technology, education and information services fields. Not every industry is drinking the Kool Aid of AI outside of Silicon Valley! Sure, AI is transformative yet as one store owner commented ‘AI sure isn’t going to sell products on the showroom floor to my customers’.

Perhaps the best advice is for everyone to use AI in different applications as it’s early days and change is the only constant right now in the AI world.

Will Google OutPrompt ChatGPT?

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I think so. Here’s how… it starts in September 2016 when Goolge buys venture funded start up called API.AI which provides tools to developers building apps for Google’s virtual assistant. They tweak it and rename it “Dialogflow” and since 2018, it is part of Google Cloud Platform.

Create your own Generative AI agent EASILY

So now Google has just made it so easy to create a Generative AI chatbot in literally just a few clicks using Vertex AI Conversation and Dialogflow. ALl you have to do is connect your webpage or documents to your Dialogflow CX agent and leverage large language models for generating responses from the content, out of the box!

You can also call a large language model to perform specific tasks during a virtual agent conversation or respond to a query contextually, significantly reducing development effort and making virtual agents more conversational.

We did this for a client recently using Vertex AI App Builder and Dialogflow. It then generates a small pieced of Javascript that you can paste into a container and it appears on your website. Remind you of YouTube embed code or Google Analytics, or AdSense. Oh yeah, those products worked out pretty well for Google to scale global distribution amongst publishers. It’s the distribution piece that Open AI / ChatGPT need to play catch up on Google.

I just don’t think they can catch Google, particularly when they start leveraging their $220B revenue per year from Adwords that allows them to give Cloud products like Dialogflow and Vertex AI App Builder away for free! And when they start integrating this all into Google Analytics, Adwords, etc, etc. The network effect Google has is a potential road kill for ChatGPT.

Google Vs AI

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We were skeptical about Microsoft’s claims that 40% of people using Google don’t find what they are looking for. This was a throw away statistic they quoted when announcing that they had incorporated AI into Bing.com search functionality. SEMRush has come out with research that found:

A) 10% of people click through to other Google properties (GMB, shopping or images)

B) 18% refine what they are searching for by using another keyword.

C) 25% Zero-click searches meaning they stay on Google results page and then exit.*

The point here is that 1/4 of people searching on Google find what they are looking for after 1 search query and then do not need to go further. All stats (including Google’s ad revenue) show they have been sending more traffic to the open web every year. So the fact is that Google does provide users with the answer and they don’t just exit the search engine.

And. In every SpyFu competitor analysis of the number of SEO keywords and monthly SEO clicks that websites receive in the past 6-9 months, we’re seeing declines resulting from the Google Algorithm Core Update on September 2022 and Helpful Content Update in December 2022. See chart below. So, what does this mean? It means Google are ripping on ChatGPT and Generative AI content production.

The bottom line is that just because you can use ChatGPT or tools like Jasper.Ai and other content tools, the mass production of content isn’t going to make it to page 1 of Google. Another way of saying this is you get nothing for nothing in this world. Just ask the crypto fanatics who spiked that ball for the past 5 years!

Let There Be Light at Apprenticeship.com.au

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Today is the official launch of Apprenticeship.com.au inspired by the words from the Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie ‘Let There Be Light’. I quote from words of Andrew Carnegie:

“I spoke again at Dunfermline, July 27, 1881, when my mother laid the foundation stone there of the first free library building I ever gave. My father was one of five weavers who founded the earliest library in the town by opening their own books to their neighbors. Dunfermline named the building I gave “Carnegie Library.” The architect asked for my coat of arms. I informed him I had none, but suggested that above the door there might be carved arising sun shedding its rays with the motto: “Let there be light.” This he adopted.

From working in a mining pit without light as a kid after emigrating from Scotland at age 12, he built the Pittsburgh Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $303 million. It became the U.S. Steel Corporation. After selling Carnegie Steel, he surpassed John D. Rockefeller as the richest American for the next several years.

He became a leading philanthropist in the USA and  British Empire, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education, and scientific research giving away 90 percent of his fortune.

How Andrew Carnegie Went From $1.20 a Week to $309 Billion ... Then Gave It All Away