Google is something like 90% of search. So when I conceptualize our SEO plans it’s all based on how Google works because that’s where the traffic is.
When we talk AEO are we realistically just talking about Google.com’s AI overviews? Is there a meaningful amount (like more than 20%?) of “googling” that’s actually happening in a chat/gemini/claude dashboard?
You’re right to stay focused on Google, as it still handles the vast majority of traffic. Currently, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is mostly about appearing in Google’s AI Overviews. Though chat dashboards like ChatGPT or Claude are growing fast, they haven’t hit that 20% “search” mark for shopping yet. Most people still start their buying journey on a search engine or social media rather than an AI chat box.
However, the good news is that SEO and AEO aren’t really separate jobs. If you focus on making your content easy to read, answering specific customer questions clearly, and keeping your product data organized, you’re winning at both. Both Google’s traditional links and the new AI bots look for the same thing: the most helpful, clear answer to a user’s problem.
For now, don’t worry too much about the specific AI dashboards. Just keep building your site so that it’s the best “resource” for your niche. If you are the top choice for Google’s AI, you’ll naturally be the one these other AI tools recommend too, since they all look at the same high-quality data!
I just focus on showing up well in the main search engine’s AI answers, since the same good content and clean site structure help both regular results and AI overviews.