You walk into a crowded room — a soiree of sorts. Around you, the crowd breaks into whispers. It’s people you know and people you’ve yet to meet. You may think they’re talking about your sick get-up or new haircut. Or are they actually talking about somebody else?
The thing is you can never be truly sure what’s being said in those whispers.
Today’s content marketers are faced with this dilemma as they try to align content with the whispered prompts being asked of AI search bots.
We know Search AI Optimization (also called SAIO, GEO, AIO, AEO, etc.) FAQs, whitepapers, and other answer-rich content can help gain visibility in AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.
As search behemoths roll out AI-integrated features like Google’s new search bar, people are asking their full questions directly into AI chatbots as well as traditional search engines.
Here are some considerations for gaining insight into the right questions to guide your answer-driven content:
- What questions are people asking?
- Which questions are worth answering through content?
- How should you answer these questions?
What Questions Are People Asking?
Sales & Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Knowledge
These are — hands down — the best knowledge mines, as they are directly interacting with customers. Most of us are aware of marketing/sales silos — content marketers can break through this divide by getting experts’ inputs early in the content planning process. If your sales/SME professionals are strapped for time, consult their notes, AI notetakers, and/or meeting recordings to unearth the most asked questions about features, offerings, processes, and more.
AI Platform Prompting
This seems simple and it could be, but AI tools still need to be prompted correctly. Be specific about your audience and the buying stage they’re in throughout the prompt because questions from the general public may be vastly different than the audience you’re targeting. Here’s an example prompt:
I am making [an FAQ/whitepaper/video script/other content] on [topic] for [specific target audience] as [your brand or non-branded industry]. Please provide a list of questions people ask about [topic] to AI platforms. They should appeal to people in [specific stages of sales/buying process]. [Include any extra clarification relevant to your needs like technical you want the questions to be.]
Now, put this prompt in multiple chatbots (at least 3). Compare the responses. You may notice very similar questions worded differently. Take this all as directional data. Note which ones are very applicable to what you know about your brand and how many times a core question is reiterated across AI responses.
Third-Party Tool Research
There’s a plethora of AI research tools out there that can help generate questions, including Moz, Answer the Public, and SEM Rush. Normally, we’ll start out with Google Keyword Planner to inform the keywords we use for this third-party tool research. Then, our team uses Answer the Public to generate long-tail keyword and question variations.
Also take this as directional data, especially if the tool offers a competitive research component. Every response is different in the AI — no general rankings to which to adhere — so if your brand is not mentioned in a sample response your tool pulls up, it doesn’t mean it is never cited. Always take variability between responses into account.
Review Websites
This is a reminder that you can use reviews from Amazon, Reddit, Google, etc. to see the questions people are asking about your brand’s offerings. Be sure to remember that most reviews are polarized one way or another. But, if a bunch of people have the same comment or question, this is a great place to gain insight.
Competitor Websites
Your competitors are doing something right in order to be your competitor. There are two ways to find how their content supports your shared audience:
- Search through their content to see what questions they’re answering and topics they’re covering.
- Go to AI platforms and search engines and prompt/search the topics/questions on which you compete for brand visibility. Are you competitors showing up with you/instead of you?
In both cases, you don’t ever want to copy (or reword) competitor content. (Ew, that’s not cute.) But you can put your own spin on the topic with your brand’s unique differentiators and experience. The reason (and we’ll talk about this more later) people click onto your website from AI citations and search engine results is because they in some way trust you — your experience, expertise, authority — as a source.
You may also notice topic gaps from your competitors and dive right in there with your own content to gain early visibility/authority for it.
Customer Interviews
If your company already does interviews, these can most certainly be repurposed in content. Here you can utilize a lot of the advice from previous sections: uncover their common discussions and questions on the process, product/service, etc. that could use clarification on your website.
Which Questions Are Worth Answering Through Content?
Let’s start by blowing up the bubble of positivity: answering questions on your site can get you cited in AI chatbot citations.
Now, let’s pop it: Unfortunately, there are more things that need to be considered before spending time and resources answering every viable question.
Namely, the big one is if the question can be easily answered in an AI summary in a sentence or two. If yes, the question could be answered as a part of a larger piece but not the sole focus. Examples: What is a pool vacuum? Is composting good for the environment? There’s already a plethora of content around these topics. The way to get clicks is by activating the unique brand spin, which brings us to E-E-A-T….
E-E-A-T stands for Experience – Expertise – Authority – Trustworthiness, and that is what your content should flaunt. Google recently released guidance on AI optimization and AI Search linking enhancements. Both pieces emphasize making relevant, helpful, E-E-A-T-based content. Why, you ask? Let’s discuss!
AI & Experience/Expertise: While AI has the expertise to easily answer questions like “What are good humidifiers for large rooms?” It has never actually experienced owning a humidifier to offer solid, all-encompassing advice. AI is just summarizing.
AI & Authority: Yes, AI does have authority, but only as much as its sources do. Your brand is endowed with its own authority by the content and products/services it puts out. You are the only one with your unique authority in what you do. Own it.
AI & Trust: Well, this one is tricky but gives brands the leg up. We trust AI to answer easy questions with nothing crucial riding on their responses. You may ask: “Who starred in this movie?” But you might not check beyond it to find out it was, in fact, not that actor. Having said this, you want to choose questions that people will want reassurance on, for example: “What’s the benefit of choosing this computer security platform over this one?” Questions like these are a bit further down the funnel where people are more primed for conversion.
So, the question for pondering is: how can you weave in your own brand experience, expertise, authority and trust to make people want to click through?
How Should You Answer These Questions?
Answers can not only be laid out in a FAQ format, but in a multitude of creative ways like videos (make sure to include a transcript), whitepapers, social posts, articles, etc.
What matters is that people get their answer in a clear way from a source they trust. After you’ve done your research, you’ll likely have a few topics you can use to expand your experience, expertise, authority, and trust through your website’s content. That will help drive AI visibility to your site!
Happy optimizing!
