Why Your Clients Are Shopping ElsewhereHello

A Checklist to Apply Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Across Your B2B Website

Summary Block (AI Snippet Friendly):
B2B buyers are skipping search results and asking AI for direct answers. This article walks you through five critical areas of your website that affect whether AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude recommend your business. Includes a downloadable AEO Checklist to help you optimize with confidence.

Introduction

In Part 1 of this series, we introduced Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) – a strategy that ensures your content can be understood, summarized, and served as an answer by AI systems.

This article breaks down the five most important areas where AEO should be applied across your website. Whether you’re a manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor, these are the building blocks that determine whether your site appears in an AI-powered answer.

We’ve also created a free AI Content Optimization Checklist to help you assess where you stand and what to improve.

Download the AI Content Optimization Checklist

Let’s break it down:

Just getting your digital strategy off the ground?

Our Digital Readiness Series may be a better starting point if you’re still building (or rebuilding) the foundation of your eCommerce experience.

Strategy & Messaging

Why it matters:
AI tools summarize the first content they can clearly interpret. If your message isn’t visible or understandable in the top section of your pages, it won’t make it into an answer.

How to optimize:

Start each main page with a clear, 1-2 sentence statement of who you serve and what you offer
Use subheadings and bullet points to highlight differentiators

Add section headers that reinforce buyer value (e.g., “Why B2B buyers choose [Your Company]”)

Buyer Q&A

Why it matters:
AI models favor content that directly answers common buyer questions. Structured, scannable FAQs are more likely to be quoted.

How to optimize:

Post 4–6 FAQs per major category or service page
Write concise, 30–50 word answers in plain language
Use real customer queries gathered from your support or sales team

Product Information

Why it matters:
If specs and technical info are buried in PDFs or vague product blurbs, AI tools can’t extract or summarize them.

How to optimize:

Display product specs in HTML tables or bullet lists
Include concise descriptions that explain what each item is and who it’s for
Add context-rich images that show scale, use, or industry relevance

Technical SEO & Schema

Why It Matters:
Answer engines rely on machine-readable code – also known as “schema” – to understand what your page actually contains.

How to optimize:

Add Product schema to include price, SKU, availability, and brand
Use FAQ schema to label your Q&A sections for AI summary tools
Apply Organization schema to help AI understand who you are, what you do, and where you operate

Performance & Accessibility

Why it matters:
AI tools deprioritize sites that are hard to access or slow to load. Poor performance equals poor visibility.

How to optimize:

Ensure your site is HTTPS secure and mobile-friendly
Minimize load times across desktop and mobile
Avoid hiding key info in images or downloadable PDFs
Run regular crawl audits using Google Search Console or Screaming Frog

Final Thoughts

Every day, more B2B buyers are turning to AI tools to ask detailed, purchase-driven questions. If your content isn’t structured for AEO, you may not show up—even if you’re the best fit.

These five areas are where the work begins. In the rest of this series, we’ll show you how to tailor these AEO strategies to fit your business model – whether you’re a manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor.

Download the AI Content Optimization Checklist