HubSpot outlines AEO measurement alongside SEO

Marketing teams accustomed to measuring search rankings, organic traffic and conversions face another question: whether their brands appear in answers generated by AI tools. HubSpot says answer engine optimization, or AEO, can add a layer of measurement to traditional SEO as buyers use tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to research software and compare vendors.

Those buyers may receive a summary without reaching a conventional search results page. As a result, established SEO metrics remain useful but do not show the full picture of a brand’s presence in AI-generated responses. A page could perform well in Google search while a competitor is mentioned more frequently in answers to the prompts a team tracks.

HubSpot recommends establishing a baseline before making AEO changes. That means identifying which answer engines mention a brand, which tracked prompts produce those mentions, how visibility compares with competitors and which sources appear as citations. Reviewing these findings alongside existing search data can help teams assess both forms of visibility.

The company’s HubSpot AEO product reports brand visibility as the share of analyzed answers to tracked prompts that mention a brand. Its prompt-tracking features let teams inspect responses from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, while citation reports identify referenced pages and domains. HubSpot says it runs tracked prompts daily and recommends examining results over several days or weeks before assessing a trend.

Citation patterns can also inform decisions about content creation and updates. The sources cited by answer engines can include a company’s own site, competitor sites, industry publications, social platforms and user-generated content. Examining those sources can help SEO teams identify where cited material appears. HubSpot also offers recommendations informed by citation patterns.

For teams assessing business outcomes, HubSpot says its traffic-source properties can be used to evaluate contacts and associated deals classified under AI Referrals. That information sits alongside visibility and citation reporting rather than replacing the traffic and conversion measures marketers already use.

What this means for marketers

Start by recording where your brand appears across tracked prompts and which sources answer engines cite. Compare those observations with conventional search performance, review results over time and use the citation patterns to guide content work.