In 1965, co-founder of Intel, Gordon E. Moore, made the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years. Until now, the law is still being used to assist in research & development of digital industries. What it illustrates is the exponential speed at which the internet is evolving. While Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will be high on your marketing agenda, you now need to include Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO). With the rise of AI-powered chatbots, Google’s Featured Snippets and voice assistants, Answer Engine Optimisation is gaining attention. In this article, we’ll be exploring SEO vs AEO and best practices for financial services brands to optimise for both.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation focuses on how you can rank your website higher on search engine result pages (SERPs) based on specific queries. As an SEO specialist, you’ll be engaging with a number of techniques including content creation, keyword research, technical SEO and building a backlink strategy.
These are the key components of an SEO strategy:
- On-page SEO: Optimised content, meta data, headers and images
- Off-page SEO: Link building and increasing domain authority
- Technical SEO: Schema mark-up, increasing site speed and mobile responsiveness
- Content: developing a publishing plan with relevant content that show-cases your expertise and authority, including keywords
- User experience: Focusing on site navigation, reducing bounce rates and improving accessibility.
Get more details and tips on how to better rank with SEO best-practices here.
What is AEO?
Answer Engine Optimisation will focus on content that provides direct answers to user queries on search engines, voice assistants and AI systems. The aim here is to capture featured snippets, get voice search results and knowledge panels.
These are the key components of your AEO strategy:
- Structured data: Tweaking your content for AI search engines, and ensuring the code in your schema markup is setup correctly
- Direct answers: Writing concise, clear answers to questions
- Question based: Optimising for how users ask questions, usually more conversational
- Google’s Featured snippets: Including tables, lists and FAQs
- Voice optimisation: Using long-tail, conversational queries.
Breakdown of AEO Platforms
Still not clear on which platforms you are trying to optimise for? Here are examples of AEO platforms you’ll be targeting.
- Google Search, Featured Snippets and PAA
- Voice Assistants like Amazon’s Alex, or Apple’s Siri
- Chatbots and AI assistants like IBM’s Watson, Microsoft’s Copilot and ChatGPT
- Reddit and Quora and other user generated content (UGC) platforms
- Google’s Knowledge Panel that summarises information in search results
Are SEO and AEO the Same?
While your SEO and AEO strategies have a lot in common, there are some key differences.
| FEATURE | SEO | AEO |
| Aim | Improve your sites ranking in search | Provide direct answers in search engines and voice assistants |
| Tactics | Keywords, backlinks, technical optimisation | Question-based answers, structured data |
| Types of Content | Keyword optimised, long-form content | Short, direct answers like FAQs |
| User Intent | Looking for information, navigation or to transact | Looking for quick answers, voice search |
| Technical Requirements | Meta tags, mobile responsive, site speed etc | Schema markup, conversational content, AI compatible. |
Still not clear on how SEO compares to AEO? Let’s use an example to illustrate the differences. Let’s say you’re working in a forex broker’s marketing department and you want to optimise a piece of content targeting forex traders – here’s how the SEO optimised content could be versus the AEO optimised content:
SEO Optimised Content Example:
“Forex trading is the buying and selling of currency pairs like the EUR/USD with the aim to profit from exchange rate differences. Traders use technical indicators like RSI, moving averages and MACD to analyse the markets. If you want to get started, choose a regulated broker, learn how to trade, develop a trading strategy and manage risk through stop-loss orders. Successful forex trading requires understanding, discipline and a reliable trading platform.”
Here’s why the above text is optimised for SEO:
- Uses relevant keywords like ‘forex trading’, ‘technical indicators’ and ‘currency pairs”
- Gives details and in-depth content to keep readers engaged and aims to keep them on the page longer
- Structured to support search engine crawling and indexing.
AEO Optimised Content Example:
“Forex traders make money by buying and selling currency pairs like the EUR/USD based on exchange rate fluctuations. They will use technical analysis tools like RSI and moving averages to make informed trades. To start, choose a regulated forex broker and use risk management strategies like stop-loss orders.
Here’s why this is optimised for AEO:
- Structured in question-answer format to align with featured snippets and voice search queries
- Language is concise, direct and easy, with bite-sized answers
- Avoids unnecessary details and focuses on actionable information
- Designed to fit Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) and voice assistant searches
How to Analyse Your Site’s SEO and AEO
To find out how your site’s SEO and AEO is ranking, you’ll need to conduct analysis using different tools.
Tools to Analyse your SEO:
- Google Search Console for site performance, indexing issues and keyword ranking
- Google Analytics to track user behaviour on your site, traffic sources and engagement
- Moz / SEMrush / Ahrefs provide keyword research, backlink analysis and audit your site for overall health like broken links, missing meta tags etc
- Other tools like Screaming Frog and PageSpeed Insights can analyse site performance and make recommendations for improvements.
Tools to Analyse your AEO:
- Google’s Rich Results Test will check your structured data for featured snippets
- AnswerThePublic can identify common question queries
- PAA Scraper will extract commonly searched questions from Google’s People Also Ask section
- Jetson AI / Schema.org / Validator – these tools evaluate how well your content is optimised for voice search.
- Watson Analytics / Dialogflow can assess chatbot efficiency in answering user queries.
Speak to the team at Contentworks about a comprehensive SEO and AEO audit of your site.
Why Your Finance Brand Needs SEO and AEO
Financial services firms like PSPs, banks, fintechs and forex brokers are in a competitive and highly-regulated landscape. Building trust, authority and having excellent customer experiences are vital for business success. While SEO practices can help drive organic traffic and build credibility, AEO will provide immediate, authoritative answers based on users questions. For your finance brand to appear in multiple search formats and to amplify your online visibility, both strategies need to be implemented.
Here are some best practices for finance firms to employ:
Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness (EAT): Make sure your content is written by experts in finance that credit their sources and conduct rigorous research and fact-checking.
Keyword Optimisation: Your research should focus on high-intent KWs related to financial topics and don’t forget about long-tail queries.
Content Marketing Strategy: A comprehensive content strategy will include a mix of in-depth guides, educational eBooks, market analysis and industry reports.
Link Building Strategy: Find reputable financial news sites and publish authoritative content with backlinks to your site.
Technical Optimisation: Conduct a thorough technical audit of your site and improve speed, mobile responsiveness and security with HTTPS. Implement structured data like How Tos / FAQs, and use schema mark-up.
Optimised Content for AEO: Use lists and tables, and concise answers to common questions your users might have and aim for Featured Snippets.
Optimise for Voice Search: Write conversational content that answers finance-related questions directly.
AI-Powered Assistants: Make sure your content is easily understood by AI search tools and chatbots.
Book An SEO / AEO Audit
Going back to the start of this article and looking at Moore’s Law its easy to feel overwhelmed at the speed of change. Financial services firms need to constantly be moving forward with the latest developments in digital marketing. To stay competitive in search ranking and build authority they need to balance traditional SEO techniques with new AEO strategies. Search engines and AI tools will continue to evolve and the companies that optimise for both will stand out in this crowded digital space.
Need an SEO / Answer Engine Optimisation audit of your site? Or a killer content marketing strategy and branded content that ticks all the boxes? Contact the Contentworks team and book a 15-minute zoom.