Are you on the hunt for the perfect AEO agency to take your business to the next level? I’ve compiled a list of top-notch agencies that are making waves in the industry. From renowned names like NoGood and Omniscient Digital to innovative DIY pioneers like Goodie, there’s something here for every business need.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the choice and aren’t sure where to start, don’t worry. I’ve done the legwork for you and gathered a selection of agencies that stand out for their strengths and unique approaches.
Whether you are looking for AI-driven insights or creative content strategies, these agencies offer a range of services tailored to meet specific challenges. Say goodbye to guesswork and let these experts help you navigate the complex world of AEO.
Having spent 24 hours experimenting with Google’s innovative “Ads Advisor,” I was eager to uncover its potential. This AI assistant, designed to optimize advertising campaigns, left me with a sense of cautious optimism.
Why it matters to me. Google is diving deeper into autonomous AI systems that work on our behalf. My firsthand experience offers a glimpse into the real-world functionality of Ads Advisor, moving beyond Google’s promotional promises.
As these AI tools become integral to campaign management, understanding their accuracy and limitations is vital. It’s crucial for us advertisers to discern which tasks are safe to delegate to AI, and where human intervention remains non-negotiable to safeguard performance and budgets.
What I liked:
No Google bias: Impressively, the AI consults the broader web before responding, even suggesting to bypass default Google settings like unchecking “Display Network” and “Search Partners” for a fresh Search campaign.
Comprehensive perspective: Beyond Google Ads, it advises on enhancing product titles for Shopping campaigns, though some recommendations lacked precision in execution.
Areas of concern:
Outdated insights: The AI occasionally bungled performance diagnostics and referred to obsolete interfaces like “Tools & Settings > Conversions.”
Limited autonomy: Despite its promising name, the Ads Advisor stops short of implementing changes. It offers guidance, which at times, falls short.
The final verdict. I liken the Ads Advisor to “an enthusiastic intern who just nabbed their Google Ads certification — sometimes hitting the mark but often missing.” While I see its future promise, I urge small business owners to be wary of accepting its counsel uncritically.
Moving forward: My journey with the Ads Advisor continues, as I plan to share in-depth evaluations in an upcoming YouTube video. Stay tuned for more insights.
I recently came across a fascinating report on AI referral traffic that’s shaking things up in the digital world. According to Conductor’s AI search benchmark report, AI-generated traffic currently makes up just over 1% of website visits across ten major industries.
AI referral traffic: It’s intriguing to see that 1.08% of all web traffic originates from AI. Among this, ChatGPT is a dominant force, accounting for 87.4% of AI referrals. Leading industries include IT with 2.8% and Consumer Staples at 1.9%, while Communication Services and Utilities are seeing the lowest shares, at 0.25% and 0.35%, respectively.
AI answer engine market share: ChatGPT is at the helm, followed by Perplexity. Interestingly, the impact varies across industries. For instance, Gemini is responsible for 21% of AI traffic in Utilities, whereas Copilot contributes 5% in Financials.
AI vs. traditional traffic: Despite the rise of AI, traditional organic search still reigns supreme. Industries like Health Care (42.4%), Communication Services (39.6%), and Industrials (33.8%) lead in organic search shares.
Why we care: While organic search remains a heavyweight, AI is emerging as a powerful channel. If a brand isn’t appearing in AI answers, it risks being invisible to its audience. While SEO strategies overlap with AI and other platforms like ChatGPT, being a Google ranking champion doesn’t guarantee AI visibility.
The brands AI cites most: Across 17 million AI responses, AI prefers different brands compared to Google. Giants like Amazon and Walmart top the list for consumer queries. In health and finance (YMYL categories), reputable sources like Mayo Clinic and NerdWallet are often cited. Meanwhile, industry stalwarts like Google and Microsoft lead in tech and B2B queries.
AI Overviews benchmarks: From an analysis of 21.9 million Google searches, 25.11% triggered AI Overviews, with categories like Health Care and Financials in the lead. The preferred content types cited are blogs, videos, and articles among others.
About the data: The comprehensive report analyzed 13,770 domains, over 3.3 billion sessions, and millions of AI interactions, offering a snapshot of the growing AI impact from May to September 2025.
AI assistants have truly become the front door to retail, shaping the way we interact with products. In my experience, Shopping Analysis provides incredible insights into how products are discovered and recommended during AI-driven conversations. This tool offers retailers much-needed visibility into the dynamics of chat shopping, transforming the way they connect with customers.
I recently discovered something intriguing from court filings related to Google’s antitrust case, revealing FastSearch, a system unfamiliar to many search marketers. At the heart of Google’s AI Overviews, FastSearch prioritizes speed over the deeper analysis we’ve come to expect from traditional search results.
This leads me to wonder: what does FastSearch really focus on?
FastSearch is Google’s internal mechanism designed for grounding Gemini models and producing AI Overviews. While the traditional Google Search analyzes vast amounts of web data using numerous ranking signals, FastSearch prefers a more targeted approach, emphasizing speed.
FastSearch uses RankEmbed signals, which generate condensed, ranked web results that models can use to yield grounded responses faster than the traditional Search processes. However, this comes with a tradeoff in quality.
Marie Haynes highlighted this revelation after examining the legal decisions regarding Google’s monopoly case.
FastSearch achieves faster results by making three compromises.
Smaller document pool: Instead of scanning Google’s entire index, it accesses a focused subset of pages to cut down processing time.
Simplified ranking signals: It mainly uses RankEmbed signals to emphasize semantic connections over traditional authority indicators such as backlinks.
Acceptable accuracy threshold: While FastSearch results are less detailed compared to fully ranked outcomes, they are deemed satisfactory for grounding AI responses.
The court documents also describe RankEmbed as a high-level signal capable of identifying patterns in extensive data sets. This focus on semantics means content with clear topical relevance might perform better than pages relying on high domain authority but lacking relevance.
Traditional SEO strength doesn’t automatically ensure visibility in AI Overviews.
Google integrates FastSearch into its Vertex AI platform. This means Google’s business users can leverage the technology for AI without receiving direct FastSearch results, safeguarding Google’s intellectual property.
For content strategy, FastSearch highlights the importance of clarity, topical depth, structure for extraction, and maintaining traditional SEO fundamentals. These strategies are critical for AI visibility.
FastSearch’s emergence shouldn’t lead us to neglect SEO fundamentals. According to Google’s Danny Sullivan, solid SEO is key for effective generative engine optimization. This means understanding user searches, creating valuable content, and making it accessible to search systems both remain vital.
In summary, optimizing your content approach involves conducting semantic audits, tracking AI performance separately, testing content structures, and keeping traditional SEO practices. FastSearch offers insights into Google’s future, spotlighting the need for transparent and helpful content that makes a significant impact on users.
As the holiday season approaches, I’m thrilled to share that Google has rolled out a range of exciting AI-powered shopping features. Just recently, Google announced this major update, perfectly timed for our holiday shopping adventures.
What’s new with AI Mode? Picture this: you can now describe what you need as if you’re chatting with a friend! Google’s AI Mode organizes all the essentials—images, prices, reviews, and inventory—helping you decide confidently and quickly on your next purchase.
In my Gemini App experience, it has become my go-to for brainstorming gift ideas. It effortlessly compares products and supplies answers with handy shoppable links, all within a chat.
Are you too busy to check store stock levels? I now let Google’s agentic calling feature make those calls for me, ensuring I know about any promos or stock availability without lifting a finger.
And here’s something I absolutely love: tracking prices with agentic AI. Whenever an item I’ve been eyeing drops in price at eligible U.S. merchants, I receive a notification. I can let Google purchase it securely using Google Pay, all within my budget!
Why does this matter? The bustling holiday season is critical for many businesses. With these innovative AI features, I hope to see more traffic and revenue driving local stores rather than distracting buyers from making purchases.
I’m curious to see how these tools impact our shopping experiences, and I encourage everyone to explore these features to see where your website ranks.
Shockingly, AI has fabricated damaging narratives from thin air, as evidenced in recent legal filings.
In 2023, Jonathan Turley was falsely implicated in non-existent charges, a fictitious event at a faculty he never attended.
ChatGPT inaccurately cited a non-existent Washington Post article, highlighting the issue of AI-derived misinformation.
Similarly, James Keene filed a lawsuit against Google after its AI falsely portrayed him as a multiple offender.
The challenge remains that AI can generate stories that tarnish reputations based on misunderstood or misinterpreted data.
The Battle with Accuracy and Trust
AI chatbots are slowly improving in managing biographical data, yet challenges persist.
Leading AI companies aim to improve accuracy in responses, but hallucinations and inaccuracies are still concerns.
While some have included disclaimers noting limited information, it’s hard to state their effectiveness in preventing misinformation.
When a client sought help from Meta, the company responded quickly, showcasing possible responsiveness from tech giants.
The reputational risks lie more in misrepresentation and the repetition of defamatory claims than outright falsehoods.
The Legal Quagmire: Liability and Section 230
The legal framework around AI-induced libel is murky, with little precedent on company liability for AI-generated defamation.
Some argue Section 230 could protect AI companies, as AI-generated content is viewed similarly to third-party material.
Despite this, AI-generated statements often exceed mere derivation, suggesting novel legal challenges.
Interestingly, during the legislative process, a 10-year AI moratorium was proposed but ultimately not pursued, hinting at ongoing debates over AI regulation.
AI’s Rising Influence in Reputation Management
AI-generated insights like Google’s AI Overviews are reshaping how we perceive and trust background checks.
With AI systems becoming accurate and reliable, the public may increasingly trust AI-generated profiles—even if flawed.
AI is also revolutionizing how employers conduct background checks, with products like Checkr leveraging AI to assess potential hires.
Yet these systems lack disclaimers to caution users against potential defamation, potentially leaving individuals exposed.
It’s clear that AI often mirrors existing defamatory content; hence, removing such sources is crucial before AI replicates them.
Yet as AI systems become adept at “remembering,” merely erasing original content might not suffice to delete harmful narratives.
Addressing AI Defamation: What Can You Do?
To combat AI-generated defamation, consider requesting directly from AI platforms to amend or remove unwanted statements.
For instance, Meta has responded to takedown requests involving its Llama AI, possibly more swiftly than it does for Facebook content.
An attorney’s involvement might expedite responses, although most platforms also accept reports from individuals.
As someone deeply immersed in the digital world, I’ve witnessed how AI is fundamentally changing how we search for information online. It’s quite a challenge to ensure that our content stays both visible and impactful as these AI platforms evolve.
While traditional SEO tactics are still important, I’m learning that embracing AI SEO is essential for thriving. By tailoring our content for AI systems, we can distinguish our brands among AI-generated responses, especially within large language models like Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and ChatGPT.
It’s surprising to see that ninety percent of businesses are worried about losing SEO visibility in this AI-dominated search era, as revealed in a recent survey. Many plan to increase their SEO budgets; however, prioritizing strategies remains a common challenge.
To navigate this rapidly changing field, I’ve found five key factors that can drastically improve our AI search visibility. These factors are fundamental industry “pillars” of technical AI SEO that will be vital in making our content stand out in this new, AI-driven search ecosystem.
Content retrievability is another crucial aspect. It’s all about making sure AI systems can easily find, extract, and attribute information from our content. If AI can’t access or accurately pull our content, it won’t appear in AI-generated answers, meaning we miss out on engagement opportunities.
Structuring pages with clear headings, concise bullet points, and optimized multimedia content is key. It’s remarkable how a study showed that schema-marked pages have a 40% higher click-through rate than those without it.
To improve content alignment, it’s all about speaking the language of AI. AI systems favor content with clear, direct answers that align with people’s conversational queries.
Including summaries at the start of pages and using a conversational tone can greatly increase AI’s use of our content in response generation. Interestingly, 88.1% of queries triggering AI Overviews are informational in nature.
We need to focus on competitive differentiation by offering unique insights or perspectives that stand out from competitors. AI systems prioritize relevance and value, seeking content that truly stands out to users.
Harnessing unique data or case studies, and offering fresh perspectives can set our content apart. It’s noteworthy that 22% of B2B marketers attribute success to understanding their audience deeply.
Authority signals build trust with AI systems by proving the credibility and reliability of our content. AI trusts content that’s backed by authoritative sources.
This means including consistent source citations and gaining backlinks. Pages with more backlinks rank higher, as noted in a Backlinko study.
Entity mapping allows AI systems to grasp the relationships between key entities in our content. By clearly identifying and linking these entities, we help AI build a more nuanced understanding of the content’s context.
Explicitly naming and linking key entities and creating a semantically related internal linking strategy enhances AI’s ability to surface our content in relevant searches. A recent experiment demonstrated that sites with comprehensive schema markup significantly outperformed their counterparts.
In conclusion, AI visibility requires more than just traditional SEO. Optimizing for content retrievability, alignment, differentiation, authority, and entity mapping will ensure our brand remains not just visible, but authoritative in AI-driven search results.
As AI continues to transform search landscapes, partnering with a knowledgeable SEO agency becomes increasingly crucial. Agencies blending traditional SEO strategies with cutting-edge AI optimization will be invaluable for leading in this ever-evolving field.
I’ve been following the news closely, and it seems the EU is setting its sights on Google. The buzz is about a new investigation concerning Google’s approach to penalizing publishers that use sponsored content. For many media outlets, this type of content is crucial for revenue.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is preparing for what could be a significant EU scrutiny. The allegations suggest Google demotes news publishers in search results if they run promotional or sponsored content, a key revenue stream for these publishers.
What’s Happening: The European Commission, the EU’s leading authority on antitrust regulation, is gearing up to announce this probe. We might hear something as soon as Thursday.
The case is filed under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This legislation aims to prevent tech giants, known as “gatekeepers,” from unfairly prioritizing their own services or disadvantaging others.
Companies breaching these rules could be fined up to 10% of their global revenue, which is a hefty amount.
Site Reputation Abuse: Google’s actions against these publishers spring from a spam policy first introduced in March 2024, and then refreshed in November 2024.
This policy targets “site reputation abuse” or what we in the SEO world might know as parasite SEO. Essentially, it’s when third parties use trusted sites to post low-quality content to game Google rankings.
Google argues that such content can mislead users and has actively taken measures against sites hosting these dubious materials.
The policy was later amended to clarify that even content overseen by the original site can still breach the rules if it mainly aims to exploit a site’s ranking signals.
After hearing numerous complaints about the quality of Google Discover, I’m interested to see how Google plans to tackle the issue of fake AI spam. They’ve assured us that a solution is in progress.
I’m aware that Google is taking steps to remedy the situation with its Discover feed, especially with the appearance of fake AI spam in recent weeks. Google confirmed to the Press Gazette, which has reported several instances of this spam infiltration, that a fix is actively being developed.
Google’s Assurance. In their words:
“We keep the vast majority of spam out of Discover through robust spam-fighting systems and clear policies against new and emerging forms of low quality, manipulative content. We’re actively working on a fix that will better address the specific type of spam that’s being referenced here, maintaining our high bar for quality in Discover.”
The AI Spam Issue. From what I’ve read, the Press Gazette has meticulously documented instances where fake news stories have garnered tens of millions of views on the Google Discover platform in just a week. Here’s a glimpse of some of these fake stories as reported:
It’s fascinating how spammers are allegedly buying expired domains with previously trusted reputations, exploiting their domain authority to flood Google Discover with spam content. This tactic isn’t novel, and while Google Search generally manages these tricks well, many believe this is currently how spammers manipulate the Discover feed.
French data journalist Jean-Marc Manach has been tracking this issue, building a comprehensive database of fake sites generating AI stories. His list now includes over 8,300 entries in French, 300 in English, and 150 in German.
Why It Matters to Me. As someone who values relevant and trustworthy content, I understand the potential impact of Google Discover’s reach. These fake sites can momentarily generate significant revenue, only to be shut down, after which others rise in their place. It’s a cycle that Google is inevitably working to break, though new challenges will likely emerge.
