In June 2024, we started an experiment. Within 90 days, our daily search impressions jumped from 200 to 10,000. But here's what mattered more: people started finding us through ChatGPT and other AI tools.
Someone types "best UX agencies for AI startups" into ChatGPT. Bricx appears in the response. They click through. They book a call. We close a $50K deal.
This wasn't accidental. It was a systematic approach to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). And almost no one is talking about it.
The Fundamental Shift: From SEO to AEO
For 15 years, SEO meant optimizing for Google. You targeted keywords. You built backlinks. You climbed rankings.
That still matters. But there's a new game in town.
AI search is different. When someone queries ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity, they're not looking for ten blue links. They want a direct answer. And in that answer, brands get mentioned.
The question becomes: how do you become one of those mentioned brands?
Why Search Platforms Beat Discovery Platforms
Before diving into tactics, you need to understand the strategic advantage.
Most founders pour energy into discovery platforms. LinkedIn. Twitter. Instagram. TikTok. The algorithm shows your content to people who didn't ask for it. You hope they stop scrolling.
This works, but it has a fatal flaw: it requires constant feeding.
Build 20,000 followers on Twitter over two years. Stop posting for a month. Watch your reach drop to 5-10% of what it was. The asset you built? It decays without maintenance.
Search platforms work differently. You create one strong piece of content that people search for every single month. That content generates traffic for years. You can stop producing entirely and the asset keeps delivering.
This is the difference between renting attention and owning it.
Discovery platforms rent you attention. Search platforms let you own it.
The 5 Stages of Prospect Awareness
To build an effective search strategy, you need to understand who you're targeting. Every potential customer falls into one of five awareness stages.
Stage 1: Unaware
They don't know they have a problem. Your design agency? They've never thought about hiring one. They're happy with their current website. Not a prospect yet.
Stage 2: Problem Aware
They've realized something's wrong. "We're losing 20% of users during onboarding." They know the problem exists but have no idea how to solve it.
Stage 3: Solution Aware
They know solutions exist. They're researching: "How to improve SaaS onboarding flows." They understand the problem can be fixed, but don't know which approach to take.
Stage 4: Product Aware
They know about you specifically. "There are agencies like Bricx that help with this." They're comparing options.
Stage 5: Most Aware
They know everything about you. They just need a final push to buy. They're reading reviews, checking case studies, comparing pricing.
Here's the breakdown that matters: roughly 3% of your market is actively looking for your product right now. Another 10% is considering solutions. The remaining 87% doesn't care yet.
For early-stage companies, focus on the 13%. Don't waste resources trying to educate the 87%. They're not ready.
How Awareness Stages Translate to Search
Each stage searches differently.
Problem Aware searches:
"Fix low customer activation"
"Improve SaaS UI design"
"Why users churn during onboarding"
Solution Aware searches:
"Best UX agencies for startups"
"Top SaaS design companies"
"Should I hire a design agency or build in-house"
Product Aware searches:
"Bricx Labs reviews"
"Bricx vs [competitor]"
"Bricx case studies"
Your content strategy needs to capture all three. But here's the problem: you won't rank for the high-intent keywords.
The Ranking Problem
Try searching "best UX agencies" right now. The first page is dominated by Clutch, Yelp, and established players who've spent years building SEO authority.
You can't compete with that. Not directly.
These companies have domain ratings of 70+. They have thousands of backlinks. They have content teams of 20+ people.
But there's a workaround. And it's uniquely suited to AI search.
The Long-Tail Keyword Strategy
Short keywords have high search volume and high competition. Long-tail keywords have lower volume and almost no competition.
The insight: AI search queries are inherently long-tail.
Nobody types "best UX agencies" into ChatGPT. They type: "I'm a Series B fintech company looking for a UX agency that specializes in complex dashboards and can deliver in 6 weeks."
That's a specific query. It needs specific content to answer it.
This is where you win.
The Modifier Framework:
Take your seed keyword and add modifiers:
Seed: "best UX agencies"
Location modifier: "best UX agencies in San Francisco" / "best UX agencies in Dubai" / "best UX agencies in London"
Company size modifier: "best UX agencies for Series A startups" / "best UX agencies for enterprise companies" / "best UX agencies for YC companies"
Industry modifier: "best UX agencies for fintech" / "best UX agencies for healthtech" / "best UX agencies for AI companies"
Technology modifier: "best UX agencies using Framer" / "best UX agencies using React" / "best UX agencies using Webflow"
One seed keyword. Five modifier categories. 100 variations per category. That's 500 unique articles covering ground no one else is fighting for.
Why This Works for AI Search
When someone queries an AI tool, they provide rich context. They describe their situation, their constraints, their needs. The AI then searches for content that matches that specificity.
Your long-tail content gets picked up because it precisely matches the query.
The 10,000 searches per month for "best UX agencies"? Clutch wins those. But the 50 searches per month for "best UX agencies for Series A fintech companies using React"? That's yours.
And here's the beautiful part: those 50 searches are higher intent. They're further along in the buying journey. They know exactly what they want.
How We Executed This
We started with 5 seed keywords:
- Best UX agencies
- Best SaaS design agencies
- Top web design companies
- Best product design firms
- Top UI/UX companies
For each seed, we created modifier lists:
Locations: 100 cities globally
Company stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Enterprise
Industries: Fintech, Healthtech, Edtech, AI/ML, E-commerce, SaaS, etc.
Technologies: React, Vue, Framer, Webflow, Next.js, etc.
This gave us 500+ unique article opportunities. Each with virtually no competition.
Content Creation at Scale
You can't write 500 articles manually. Well, you can, but it'll take years.
We used two approaches:
Approach 1: ChatGPT + Virtual Assistant
We created a detailed prompt that generates a complete article from a keyword. Our VA in the Philippines runs the prompt, formats the output, adds images, and publishes. Cost per article: under $5.
Approach 2: Programmatic SEO Tools
Tools like SEO Baby handle this automatically. You input your keywords and modifiers. They generate, format, and publish. More expensive but faster.
We started with Approach 1 to test the strategy. Once we saw results, we scaled with Approach 2.
Building Domain Authority
Content alone isn't enough. You need Google to trust your domain.
Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA) measures this trust. It's based primarily on backlinks: links from other websites pointing to yours.
Here's the three-phase approach:
Phase 1: Directory Submissions (DR 0 → 20)
There are 200+ directories where you can list your company for free or cheap. Product Hunt. Crunchbase. G2. Capterra. Each listing gives you a backlink.
Tools like Listing Bot automate this. $100 gets you submitted to 200+ directories. Instant backlinks.
Phase 2: Link Exchanges (DR 20 → 35)
Find companies at similar stages. Offer to link to them from your blog if they link to you. Mutual benefit.
Tools like Outrank facilitate this. They maintain a network of companies exchanging links. You write content. They insert links to network members. Network members link to you.
Phase 3: Guest Posts (DR 35 → 50+)
Find websites in your niche. Offer to write content for them. Include a link back to your site.
Most will charge $50-150 for a guest post. Worth it for high-authority sites (DR 60+).
Our results: DR went from 10 to 41 in 6 months. Average ranking position improved from 37 to 17.
Tracking AI Visibility
Traditional SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush track Google rankings. But what about AI visibility?
New tools have emerged:
Profound: Tracks how often your brand appears in AI responses for target queries. Shows average position. Shows which sources the AI cited.
Peek: Similar functionality. Shows visibility score over time.
RightSonic: Includes AI visibility tracking alongside traditional SEO.
Use these to measure what's working. Double down on queries where you're appearing. Optimize where you're not.
The Parasite SEO Play
Sometimes you can't rank your own site. But you can rank on sites that already have authority.
Reddit threads rank incredibly well. Medium articles rank well. LinkedIn posts rank well.
Strategy: Create content on these platforms targeting your keywords. The domain authority does the heavy lifting.
Example: Instead of publishing "Best UX agencies for AI startups" on your blog, publish it as a Medium article. Or a Reddit thread. Or a LinkedIn article.
Your brand gets mentioned. The platform gets the traffic. Everyone wins.
The Golden Window
Here's the truth: almost no one is doing this systematically.
Most companies are still focused on traditional SEO. The ones thinking about AI search are treating it as a future problem.
But the window is open now. The supply of high-intent AI queries exceeds the supply of quality content to answer them.
In 12-24 months, everyone will have an AEO strategy. The early movers will have accumulated authority. The latecomers will fight for scraps.
Start today.
Your 30-Day Action Plan
Week 1: List your seed keywords. Create modifier categories. Generate 50 keyword variations.
Week 2: Set up your content creation workflow. Test with 10 articles. Refine your prompts.
Week 3: Submit to 50 directories. Start building backlinks.
Week 4: Publish your first 50 articles. Track rankings. Identify what's working.
Month 2-3: Scale to 200+ articles. Continue link building. Monitor AI visibility.
Month 4+: Refine. Double down on winning keywords. Prune underperformers.
Final Thought
The brands that win in the AI era won't necessarily have the best products. They'll have the best visibility in AI responses.
This is your chance to build that visibility before everyone else wakes up.