There's a reason big AI/search companies are paying for data.
Google reportedly pays ~$60M/year to license Reddit's content so its AI can learn from real conversations. OpenAI also partnered with Reddit (price undisclosed). Reuters+1
Why AEO ≠ SEO
• Different "engines."
SEO optimizes for web search engines (Google). AEO optimizes for answer engines (ChatGPT/GPT-style tools) that compose an answer, often citing sources, sometimes using licensed data.
• Fresh crawl vs. trained models.
Google crawls and updates the index continuously (but takes days). LLMs learn from training data (updated less frequently) + live retrieval from trusted sources/partners.
• Links vs. facts.
SEO grew on links/backlinks, authority, and on-page signals. AEO cares far more about clean, consistent facts(entities, schema, Wikidata), provenance, and being safe to quote inside an AI answer.
• Pages vs. answers.
SEO's goal is a ranked result that gets a click. AEO's goal is to be mentioned/cited inside the answer (and still win the click).
• Open web vs. licensed + trusted sources.
Search bots can read most web pages. Many answer engines license premium data (newsrooms, forums) and prioritize reputable, structured sources.
Who OpenAI is paying (public or widely reported)
Whilst Google crawls the open web, OpenAI are paying for access to high authority data sources;
• News Corp (WSJ, etc.): reportedly >$250M over 5 years. Reuters+1
• Financial Times: licensing + product partnership. About the FT+1
• Axel Springer (Business Insider, Politico, Bild): reported "tens of millions of euros." Bloomberg.com
• Associated Press: archive licensing; terms undisclosed. The Associated Press+1
• Dotdash Meredith (Investopedia, People, etc.): min. ~$16M/year (per IAC filings). Adweek
• Vox Media & The Atlantic: content + product deals. Reuters
• TIME: multi-year content deal. Reuters
• Stack Overflow: data/API partnership (to improve coding answers + attribution). Stack Overflow+1
• Reddit (context): OpenAI partnership (price not disclosed). Google's separate Reddit deal is ~$60M/year. Reuters+1
"Old" SEO truths (still useful, but not enough)
• Google spiders your pages and can index updates quickly; keep sitemaps, fast pages, clean HTML. Google for Developers
• Wikipedia/authority domains & quality backlinks helped rankings. (Still useful for brand/entity trust, but AEO needs more.)
What to do (AEO checklist you can ship this week)
1. State your facts clearly (machine-readable).
Add/clean Schema.org (Organization, Product, FAQ, HowTo, Author, Reviews). Publish a /facts page with canonical, short, source-backed facts.
2. Claim your entity.
Align your brand details across Wikidata, business profiles, and your site (same name, logo, social, founders, categories).
3. Answer like an answer engine.
Add compact Q&A sections that directly answer common user questions in one or two sentences (then expand below).
4. Be citable.
Use original data, clear attributions, and stable URLs. Host PDFs/changelogs/specs that an AI can quote and link.
5. Prove expertise & safety.
Clear About/Author pages, editorial standards, updated dates, references-reduce risk for an AI to cite you.
6. Monitor & iterate.
Track mentions/citations in on EZY.ai (and AI Answer engines) and compare competitors.
7. Consider distribution beyond your site.
Publish summaries to reputable places (guest posts, reputable directories, GitHub gists for technical docs). The more trustworthy surfaces reflect your facts, the easier entity resolution becomes.
SEO gets you found by search bots. AEO gets you named inside the answer. That means structured facts, entity alignment, trustworthy citations, and monitoring AI mentions, not just titles, links, and meta tags.