
GTM 166: SEO → AEO: The Next Big Shift in How People Discover Your Product
The GTMnow Podcast
What Changes for Founders: Keywords → Questions
Guy breaks down the shift from ranking for keywords to answering clusters of questions and adding schema and authority signals.
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03:00 — Why “ranking for keywords” is obsolete; topics = clusters of questions across the funnel.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:
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Learn more at zoominfo.com.
Follow Guy Yalif:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gyalif/
- X (Twitter): https://x.com/gyalifX (formerly Twitter)
- Webflow author page: https://webflow.com/people/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.
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