The world of search is maturing. AI chat may be the new way people discover your agency, but the core of SEO content strategy still matters.
We’ve arrived at the AI search generation. It’s no longer a question of will your agency build towards Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), but rather, how much is your agency doing for AEO each day?
As more and more people adopt AI search, the next generation of insurance buyers are expecting different things out of their search results. According to a study from Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, over half of people under 30 are using AI for their searches and to help them with key tasks.
First-time buyers aren’t just typing in, “best home insurance near me.” They’re asking hyperspecific questions about their unique situations right in the search bar, and hoping AI can surface a few solid sources to answer their questions.
The younger generation of insurance buyers are expecting to be able to chat with AI about their insurance questions, get quality results, and then reach out to your agency if you’re the source of said results. Reviews and social proof are no longer enough; you want to be the source that builds that initial trust with a young prospect.
AI search results look and feel different from the original, coveted top spot on Google, but at their core, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and AEO are complementary pieces of the digital marketing puzzle. The agencies leading the AEO pack are all doing one (or more) of these things:
- Publishing quality content consistently.
- Leveraging client conversations as content opportunities.
- Putting education over keyword stuffing.
- Writing their content in a way that mirrors how their clients actually speak.
AEO and SEO work together to build your agency’s digital presence.
Prior to the AEO boom, I’d been peppered with questions like, “Jason, how can I show up first when someone wants trucking insurance in my town in Iowa?” These days, with AEO, the questions have morphed to, “Jason, how can I get ChatGPT to cite my agency?” or, “Jason, why won’t AI summaries bring up my website’s coverage pages?”
My answers aren’t changing much from SEO to AEO related questions. The core of SEO still applies to AEO. That is, you want to publish relevant, engaging, and value-first content on an established schedule on your website. The Forge website platform is built with SEO principles in mind, from important technical elements under the hood, to optimized coverage pages, and finally, yes, we offer a suite of tools to help you blog.
As a phrase, AEO can sound shiny and new, perhaps even a little intimidating, but at its core, it runs off the same essence as SEO.
Sometimes, I like to remove all the acronyms and technical tidbits and remind agents that they are here to be helpful. With every piece of content you put out there, your goal is to leave the reader in a better position than when they went searching for your blog post. A service-first mindset makes building your content calendar all the easier.
Every client call, email, and text is a valuable content opportunity.
I’ve seen the most education-first, personable agents I know struggle to come up with content. Meanwhile, they’re taking upwards of 50 phone calls a day with clients, having no issues talking them through policy updates and answering their pressing insurance questions.
Your website’s unique content is already flowing all around you in your day-to-day as an insurance agent. I’ve previously written about harnessing your agency’s niche to own your own corner of the market. A lot of those same strategies apply here, so I recommend you give that article a read as well.
Along the lines of that article, I want to challenge the notion that there’s nothing pressing for an agent to discuss online. People are looking up specific insurance questions during a time of high need, and you want to be found first–and cited first–so that those folks build an immediate trust with your agency.
Here’s my suggestion: at the end of your day today, take a look at your call notes. Pick a single topic that came up a few times across your conversations, and make note of it in a spreadsheet or document! The next two or three times a client calls in to discuss this topic, mark down their question and how they asked it–use their exact words in your notes.
Repeat the above with another commonly asked question you or your agency receives, and so on until you have three-to-five frequently asked questions that you’re ready to turn into content opportunities.
FAQs are AI search’s best friend.
A lot of marketing comes down to paying close attention to the signals in your work life, because they can easily be translated into the content type AEO values more than any other: FAQs.
Since people are searching with full questions more often than just keywords mashed together, having clear FAQ sections on your website helps tell AI search you have quality content worth surfacing.
With Forge, we offer both quick-start FAQs produced monthly by our professional content team, tailored to a variety of coverages, and depending on your Forge tier, we also offer the ability to create and customize your own FAQs.
You can build FAQs on your non-Forge sites as well, but remember to look into the technical elements of AEO-focused FAQs, namely schema, so that AI search engines can see your content. Forge FAQs have the scheme piece handled for you, so there’s one less thing to think about.
Blogs are still important! Just remember that they’re not the only part of the AEO puzzle. Every piece of your digital content strategy works in concert to make sure you get found first, and reliably, by future clients.
Make your content sound as human as possible.
With the speed of technology, it’s important for you to slow down and remember the basics when writing content for your website. I do this myself when writing these blogs.
Whenever I get stuck, I ask myself a few simple questions:
- What does my client actually need to know about this topic?
- What can I teach my client about this topic?
- How can I leave my client more empowered than before?
These touchstones are nothing new. The AEO twist here is just making sure you’re actually writing like a human talking to a human. While we have AI tools built into the Forge website platform to help you draft content, there is no replacement for editing the content and getting your voice baked into what you publish.
Remember, AI search results come up when someone types in a full question into Google, the same way they may phrase it when they text or call your agency. That’s why turning client conversations into content pieces makes a major difference.
Here’s a final handy tip for anyone writing their FAQs from scratch: read them aloud before publishing them. AI privileges content that is direct, conversational, and actually answers the search question. When you read out loud, you catch all sorts of opportunities to smooth out or enhance your content.
One AEO win you can do right now.
Look at your call notes from the previous week. What’s the most common question you’ve answered in the last 7 days? That’s the start of your first AEO-focused FAQ on your website.
Remember: there is no easy button for anything in the world of digital marketing. That’s why every single step you take matters, and makes a big difference as it all adds up to one strategy that gets your agency in front of the right people.
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