How Webflow Built an AEO Assessment Tool in a Weekend

Guy Leaf, Chief Evangelist at Webflow, discusses the emergence of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and how it differs from traditional SEO. AEO focuses on optimizing content for AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, where content gets reformulated rather than displayed directly like in Google search. Leaf explains that while organic traffic from traditional search is declining 10-25%, traffic from LLMs converts 6x better because users arrive further down the funnel after more detailed conversations with AI. He built an AEO maturity assessment tool over a weekend using AI and Zapier, which evaluates websites across four categories: content, technical, authority, and measurement. The tool has processed over 3,500 assessments in three months, helping marketers understand how to optimize for this new medium. Leaf emphasizes that AEO represents an evolution of good SEO practices, focusing on genuinely valuable content that answers questions comprehensively, and advises taking an iterative, empirical approach when building AI-powered tools.