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Oct 7
35m 29s

GTM 166: SEO → AEO: The Next Big Shift i...

GTMnow
About this episode

Guy Yalif is Chief Evangelist at Webflow and a veteran B2B marketing leader with 20+ years across Twitter, Yahoo, BrightRoll, and as co-founder/CEO of Intellimize (acquired by Webflow). He champions AI-driven optimization for sites and content, bringing a rare blend of aerospace-engineer rigor and operator experience from four successful exits to help teams win the shift from SEO to AEO.

Discussed in this episode

  • Why AEO is an evolution of SEO (and what truly changes)
  • The shift from keywords to “clusters of questions” as the new topic model
  • Webflow’s four-part AEO framework: content, technical, authority, measurement
  • Tactics that moved the needle: adding FAQs + schema; prioritizing freshness
  • Why PR/brand and plain-text mentions matter more to AI engines
  • How to measure AEO: presence in questions, share of voice, and sentiment
  • Where to start: two moves any founder can ship this week
  • Risks of ignoring AEO and the early-adopter advantage

Episode highlights

00:21 — “Your SEO resources are your AEO resources. This is an evolution, not a reset.”

01:15 — Webflow’s AEO promise: answer engines are a massive arbitrage—akin to early SEO/SEM/mobile.

03:00 — Why “ranking for keywords” is obsolete; topics = clusters of questions across the funnel.

07:49 — The 4-part AEO framework: content, technical (schema & structure), authority, measurement.

10:11 — Case study: Add ~6 FAQs + inline schema to product pages → half of new citations came from 6 pages; +24% organic in 2 weeks.

15:23 — If you only do two things: (1) answer questions comprehensively, (2) add schema metadata.

21:46 — Webflow data: AI-search traffic converts ~6x better than non-branded organic; unbranded share grew from 0% → 42% in a year.

24:02 — How buyers actually use LLMs in-flow; why your website still matters (to humans and machines).

29:58 — The learning curve is back: why AEO is resetting the playing field and rewarding curiosity.

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor:

ZoomInfo is the GTM Intelligence Platform built for sales, marketing, and RevOps.

By unifying data, workflows, and insights into a single system, ZoomInfo helps revenue teams find and engage the right buyers, launch go-to-market plays faster, and drive predictable growth.

With industry-leading accuracy and depth of data, it gives your team the intelligence advantage to win in competitive markets.

It’s trusted by the fastest-growing companies and has become the category leader in GTM Intelligence.

Learn more at zoominfo.com.

Follow Guy Yalif:

The GTMnow Podcast
The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

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