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AI is rewriting the rules of search… and fast. You’ve seen it already.
Fewer blue links.
More “instant answers.”
And now, your brand visibility depends not just on SEO rankings, but on how AI models describe and surface you.
The bottom line is that search is (at least in some ways) shifting to AI.
People use AI to search for, compare, and evaluate options. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to make sure your brand shows up when they do.
We tested this for our brand, asking ChatGPT to find the best digital marketing HubSpot agencies in Sydney, and as you can see below, we ranked 1st on the list:
How did we do this?
Contrary to popular belief, by focusing on SEO (now being popularised and slowly replaced by the terms AIO or AEO).
Check out our complete SEO Guide below to make sure you’re doing everything up to par.
The Ultimate Guide to SEO (Step by Step Guide)
But if you really want to double down, you’ll also need to start optimising your site beyond traditional SEO.
That’s where HubSpot’s new AEO Website Grader comes in.
Built to help brands assess how they show up in AI-powered results (like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity) this tool doesn’t just score your site. It gives you a snapshot of how machine-readable and brand-distinct your online presence really is.
But here’s the problem: most marketers don’t know how to use it, or worse, confuse it with just another SEO checker.
In this article, you’ll learn exactly how to use HubSpot’s AEO tool strategically. You’ll understand what it measures, what those scores actually mean, and what you can do today to increase your visibility in AI-generated answers, without throwing your existing SEO strategy off track.
What Is HubSpot’s AEO Website Grader?
HubSpot’s AEO Website Grader is a free tool designed to assess how well your brand is positioned to appear in AI-generated search results.
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation, a newer, AI-focused extension of traditional SEO that focuses on how large language models (LLMs) interpret, cite, and respond with content from your brand.
Here’s a snapshot of the first page of a 10 page report that HubSpot’s AEO Website Grader produces:
This tool doesn’t look at keywords or backlinks. Instead, it looks at how AI engines “understand” your brand, and how likely they are to feature your business in answers across engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
The AEO Grader breaks down your visibility across five key dimensions:
- Brand Recognition – How well your brand is known and referenced online
- Market Score – How often you’re mentioned in comparison to competitors
- Presence Quality – The richness and reliability of your content in the eyes of AI
- Brand Sentiment – How positively your brand is discussed across various sources
- Share of Voice – How well your brand fits into conversations related to your niche
It then aggregates these into an overall AEO Score, showing how strong your current positioning is and where your weaknesses lie.
To start, you simply input your brand name and select your industry, product/service and location.
The tool then scrapes AI engines and digital sources to benchmark your brand’s presence.
Within minutes, you receive a detailed report showing how you perform across multiple AI engines and what you can do to improve.
While it won’t replace SEO audits or full technical tools, the AEO Grader gives you a unique lens: how AI sees you.
And that’s becoming more important every day.
AEO vs SEO: What’s Different, What’s the Same?
It’s easy to assume that if you’re doing well in SEO, you’ll automatically perform well in AEO.
But that’s not always true. While they overlap in some areas, AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are built for different purposes, and they’re scored by different systems.
Here’s a breakdown of where they align and where they split.
What’s the same
- Content quality still matters: Both SEO and AEO reward clear, helpful, trustworthy content.
- Technical foundations are critical: Fast-loading pages, crawlable content, and structured metadata help both humans and machines interpret your site.
- Topical authority plays a role: Being known for a specific niche improves your rankings in both traditional and AI-generated search.
What’s different
- SEO ranks pages. AEO ranks ideas and entities: Google’s algorithms rank web pages. AI engines like ChatGPT or Gemini don’t work that way, they generate answers based on entities (people, companies, topics) and how well those entities are understood in context.
- SEO relies on structured data. AEO relies on semantic understanding: Schema markup is vital for SEO. For AEO, what matters is whether your brand is talked about in ways AI can interpret (across multiple sources, with consistent, fact-rich language).
- SEO is about winning clicks. AEO is about earning citations: With SEO, your goal is to rank and get the click. With AEO, your brand wins by being mentioned in the answer, even if there’s no click at all.
- SEO is ruled by Google. AEO is platform-agnostic: AEO applies to any AI-powered search (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others). They each train on different data, but they’re all looking for clear, well-supported brand signals.
If you’re only thinking about rankings and not reputation, you’re missing the point of AEO. The real win isn’t just being found. It’s being included in the answer, as a source of truth, a trusted provider, or an example others follow.
How to Rank in Google’s New AI Search Overview
How to Use the AEO Grader Strategically
Using HubSpot’s AEO Website Grader isn’t just about checking your score and moving on.
To get real value, you need to treat it like a diagnostic tool that helps you shape how AI engines describe, interpret, and surface your brand.
Here’s how to get the most out of it.
Step 1: Set the right inputs
When you use the grader, you’ll be asked to enter:
- Your brand name
- Your industry
- Your geographic market (e.g. Australia, US, UK)
Make sure you use the name your customers and the wider internet know you by, not your legal name or internal abbreviation. This helps the tool pull relevant data AI engines would realistically use.
Step 2: Read the scorecard, not just the score
The tool gives you an overall AEO Score, but the real insights are in the breakdown:
- Are you lacking in Brand Recognition? That’s a visibility issue.
- Is your Presence Quality low? You may need better content structure and external validation.
- Is your Brand Sentiment neutral or mixed? That suggests reputation-building work is needed.
- How do your Market Score and Share of Voice compare to competitors?
Each of these tells a different story and points to a different area to prioritise.
Step 3: Benchmark and monitor
Run the grader every quarter (or monthly if you’re actively improving).
Compare your scores over time, and against close competitors. You’ll begin to see how your content and PR efforts impact your AEO presence.
You can also track changes when:
- Launching a rebrand
- Publishing a high-authority piece of content
- Being featured in major media or industry roundups
- Partnering with known brands
In short: don’t treat the grader as a one-time check. Use it as a directional compass to guide how you show up in AI-powered discovery.
5 Common SEO Problems and How to Solve Them
How to Improve Your AEO Visibility
Improving your visibility in AI-generated answers requires more than just SEO tweaks, it’s about making your brand easy to understand, reference, and trust in the eyes of language models.
Here’s how to do it.
1. Structure your content for clarity, not just clicks
AI engines favour well-structured, direct content. That means:
- Use clear subheadings, bullet points, and concise answers
- Add Q&A-style sections (FAQs) to explain your services, process, pricing, etc.
- Create “What is” or “How to” content around core topics you want to be known for
- Keep your brand messaging consistent across your site and external sources
2. Strengthen your brand entity
Large Language Models rely on clear signals to understand what your brand is.
Help them by:
- Ensuring your brand has a dedicated About page with detailed info
- Including bios and structured data for key people on your team
- Listing your brand in reputable directories and marketplaces
- Securing high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources in your niche
3. Build external credibility, not just internal content
AI doesn’t just read your website, it pulls from a web of sources.
Your brand needs to be mentioned and cited:
- Get featured in articles, guest posts, roundups, and interviews
- Encourage satisfied clients to mention your brand in testimonials or reviews
- Partner with influencers or experts in your field to co-create content
4. Optimise for multiple answer engines
Different AI platforms use different models and data sets. Some prioritise web citations, others lean on knowledge graphs, and others on platforms like Reddit.
To broaden your reach:
- Submit data to platforms like Reddit
- Use schema markup (like “sameAs” for brand aliases) to connect your digital footprint
- Monitor how your brand appears across tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini over time
5. Focus on sentiment and trust signals
AI won’t feature you if the overall conversation about your brand is negative or unclear.
Maintain a positive digital footprint by:
- Addressing bad reviews or feedback publicly and transparently
- Creating helpful, non-promotional content that educates your audience
- Being consistent in tone, branding, and claims across platforms
Can Users Recognise AI Written Content & What Should You Do About It?
The Future for AI Answer Search
As AI continues to reshape how people discover information, we’re heading toward a future where answer engines could rival or even replace traditional search for many queries.
Understanding this shift is essential if you want to stay ahead and make your brand a trusted source in the eyes of AI.
Here’s some of the key trends to watch out for:
| Trend | What It Means |
| AI answers replacing traditional search | More queries will be answered directly by AI, reducing reliance on link-based results |
| Mentions outweigh backlinks | AI engines favour consistent brand mentions over traditional backlink signals |
| Authority is inferred, not assigned | Trust is based on clarity, context, and how others speak about your brand,not domain authority |
| Zero-click experiences will rise | Visibility within AI answers will matter more than getting clicks; being cited is the real win |
| AEO tools become standard in strategy | Tools like HubSpot’s AEO Grader will join the SEO stack to guide content that performs in AI search |
Next, learn once and for all whether AEO is replacing SEO.
Is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and AI Search Overview Replacing SEO?
