r/aisearchgaps

So this isn’t a “here’s my framework” post. I genuinely don’t have one yet. Just need to vent and compare notes with people who get it.

I run SEO for a small agency, mostly local service businesses plus a couple of SaaS clients.

Last week one of my SaaS clients called me panicking because their signups were down about 30% over the last two months. Traffic in GSC looked… fine? Not great, but definitely not a cliff.

So I’m poking around, and on a whim I ask ChatGPT the exact question their landing page is built around.

It just… answers it.

Fully.

Mentions two competitors by name. Doesn’t mention my client once.

I tried another 15 or so queries.

Same story over and over.

We rank #3–5 on Google for most of these. Doesn’t seem to matter. The AI has already picked its favorites, and it’s not us.

Nobody prepared me for this.

Every SEO newsletter I read in 2023–2024 was still 90% “here’s how to get featured snippets,” like that was the finish line.

Meanwhile, the finish line moved to a different building.

Anyway, I don’t have a clean answer, but here are a few things I’ve noticed that seem to correlate with brands getting cited by AI:

They get talked about organically on Reddit and forums, not just on their own site.

Their content answers the question in the first couple of sentences instead of spending 400 words on an “in today’s fast-paced digital landscape…” intro.

They show up in comparison-style content (“best X for Y”) written by other people, not just themselves.
Older, more established sites seem to have a weird trust advantage, even when their content honestly isn’t better.

None of this is scientific. I’m just a guy staring at query logs at 11 p.m.

Is anyone else seeing this, or is it just my clients’ niche getting unlucky?

I keep seeing people talking about AEO/GEO everywhere lately, but I’m trying to figure out if this is something worth seriously investing in or just another marketing trend.

For context: I run a midsize equipment rental website with a team of around 15 people.

Historically, we’ve mostly focused on traditional SEO creating content, improving rankings, building authority, etc. That’s what we understand.

Recently one of our interns suggested that we should start optimizing for AI search and try to get visibility in tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.

I understand the basic idea behind AEO (answer-focused content, FAQs, structured information, making content easier for AI systems to understand), but GEO is still a bit unclear to me.

My questions:

• Are businesses actually seeing leads/revenue from AEO/GEO yet?
• Is getting mentioned by AI platforms something you can realistically optimize for?
• What things are actually working right now?
• Should a company like ours invest in this now, or just keep improving SEO?

I’m not looking for a “AI will replace Google tomorrow” type answer.

Would love to hear from people who have actually tested this on real websites.

What worked? What was a waste of time?

After a year of testing, I realized AEO isn’t a new SEO hack.

AI doesn’t rely on one search. It gathers information from blogs, Reddit, reviews, docs, videos, and comparison sites before answering.

The question I ask now isn’t “Will this rank?”
It’s “Will AI find enough trusted signals to mention my brand?”

That’s what separates content that ranks from content that gets recommended.