10 articles
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring and promoting content so AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude cite and recommend your brand when someone asks a question in your category. Here's the plain-language definition, the data behind why it matters now, and how it differs from SEO.
A boutique dental practice in Hawaii was receiving new patients from ChatGPT. Its website analytics showed nothing. Here's what we found when we started reading the answers.
We pointed Halogen Presence at itself and audited a month of our own core metric, the one that tells a customer your brand is visible in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. On day one, that metric was wrong 71% of the time. Here's what we found, and what we did about it.
My family and I spent two and a half weeks driving 3,890 miles across the country to celebrate America turning 250. At every stop, I asked ChatGPT what it knew about the local businesses. The pattern I saw on the road is the same one changing how your next customer finds you right now.
I've spent the last year studying how AI decides who to trust. The answer has nothing to do with how much you spend on marketing. Here's what the research shows — and why authentic human voices in forums, reviews, and press are the only currency that actually matters to an LLM.
At Google I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai unveiled "Search agents" — AI that runs 24/7 in the background, watching the web on your behalf. They built it for consumers. But read it again as a business owner. Your customers are about to have always-on agents shortlisting for them, quietly and continuously, without ever loading your website.
I spent a day at the Small Business Expo in New York talking to business owners about AI search visibility. I walked in expecting to validate a market. I walked out with something more valuable — a clear picture of the three barriers standing between small businesses and AI adoption, and the path that actually works.
GA4 is lying to you about where your best traffic comes from. Not intentionally — but by default, it folds AI referral traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others into generic buckets, giving you zero visibility into one of the highest-converting channels driving traffic to your site right now.
I asked the major AI platforms what they knew about me. Most got it right. One told people I smuggled drugs into prison. Here's why that happened — and what every business owner needs to understand about AI hallucinations and brand reputation.
AI answer engines make citation decisions in milliseconds, and your content structure determines whether you make the cut. Here's what we've learned about how Answer Engine Optimization actually works — and the three patterns that consistently drive citations.