AEO Survey

1. What is your job title?

SEO Manager / SEO Lead

Head of SEO / Director of SEO

VP / C-level (CMO, VP Marketing, etc.)

Content Strategist / Content Manager

Growth Marketing Manager / Growth Lead

Consultant / Freelancer / Agency Owner

2. How large is your company?

1–10 employees (solo / small team)

51–200 employees

201–1,000 employees

1,001–5,000 employees

3. Which industry does your company primarily operate in?

SaaS / Technology

E-commerce / Retail

Financial Services / Fintech

Healthcare / Pharma

Agency / Consulting

Other (Media, Education, Travel, etc.)

4. Which best describes your organization's current approach to AI Search / AEO?

Not actively addressing it yet

Exploring / learning about it but haven't implemented anything

Running early experiments or pilot initiatives

Actively implementing an AI Search strategy

AI Search is a core part of our SEO strategy

We have a dedicated team or program for AI Search

5. Who is primarily responsible for AI Search / AEO at your organization?

Existing SEO team (no dedicated AEO role)

A dedicated AEO specialist or team

Cross-functional team (SEO + content + product/engineering)

External agency or consultant

No one is specifically responsible for it

6. Compared to 12 months ago, how has AI Search changed your overall SEO priorities?

AI Search is now our top SEO priority

It's become a significant priority alongside traditional SEO

It's a growing but still secondary priority

It hasn't changed our priorities much

We're actually deprioritizing AI Search after initial experimentation

We weren't doing SEO 12 months ago / not applicable

7. How confident are you in your organization's AI Search / AEO strategy?

Very confident: we have a clear, effective strategy

Somewhat confident: we have a direction but it's evolving

Neutral: we're figuring it out as we go

Not very confident: we're unsure about our approach

Not confident at all: we don't have a real strategy

Not applicable: AI Search isn't a priority for us

8. How has your content strategy changed in response to AI Search?

We're creating more comprehensive, in-depth content

We're focusing more on structured data and schema markup

We're prioritizing E-E-A-T signals (expertise, authority, trust)

We're shifting toward more conversational / question-based content

We've made multiple changes across content format, structure, and targeting

We haven't changed our content strategy

9. How has your investment in evergreen content changed over the past 12 months?

We're investing significantly less in evergreen content

We're investing somewhat less in evergreen content

Our evergreen content investment hasn't changed much

We're actually investing more in evergreen content

We don't specifically target evergreen content

10. Which AI search engines are you actively optimizing for or monitoring? (Choose all that apply.)

Google AI Overviews

Microsoft Copilot / Bing AI

None; not optimizing for any AI search platform

11. What is the primary impact AI Search has had on your organic search performance?

Significant decline (>20%) in organic CTR / traffic

Moderate decline (10–20%) in organic CTR / traffic

Mixed; some areas declined, others improved

No noticeable change yet

We haven't been able to measure the impact

12. What metrics are you using to evaluate your AI Search / AEO performance? (Choose all that apply.)

Referral traffic from AI platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.)

Brand mentions / visibility in AI search engines

Share of voice in AI search engines

Average position your brand appears in AI search engines against other brands

Number of citations and citation share in AI search engines

Conversions / revenue attributed to AI-referred traffic

We don't currently track AI Search-specific metrics

13. What percentage of your total SEO budget is currently allocated to AI Search / AEO initiatives?

0% (no dedicated budget)

14. How do you expect your AI Search / AEO budget to change in the next 12 months?

Increase significantly (>25% more)

Increase moderately (10–25% more)

Stay about the same

Unsure / too early to tell

We don't have a separate AEO budget

15. What is the single biggest challenge you face with AI Search / AEO?

Lack of reliable measurement tools and attribution

Unclear best practices; don't know what actually works

Difficulty getting budget or stakeholder buy-in

Keeping up with rapidly changing AI search features

Lack of internal skills or expertise

Unclear ROI; can't prove the business value yet

16. Which technology capabilities are you using or investing in for AI Search / AEO? (Choose all that apply.)

AI search visibility and brand monitoring (tracking where and how your brand appears in AI answers)

Content optimization for AI search (tools or processes to make content more AI-friendly)

Structured data and schema automation

AI-powered content generation or rewriting

Analytics and attribution for AI-referred traffic

None; relying on manual processes or existing SEO tools