This article is part of a series exploring key marketing freelance and contractor roles on the Wripple platform. We’ll dive into what each role does, why they’re essential, and how they can help your business thrive.
This article explores the role of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) Strategists. A strong online presence is essential for visibility and staying competitive, and SEO has long been the foundation for helping brands get discovered online. But as search behavior shifts and consumers increasingly turn to AI-powered tools, assistants, and answer engines for information, SEO alone is no longer enough. AEO adds a critical layer, ensuring your brand remains visible across emerging, non-traditional search environments.
As generative AI continues to reshape how people access information, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is also an emerging related discipline. GEO focuses on optimizing content so generative AI models such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google’s Gemini can understand, summarize, and reference your brand. While closely connected to AEO, GEO represents the next evolution of search visibility on AI-driven ecosystems.
What is an SEO & AEO Strategist?
An SEO strategist is responsible for improving a website’s organic (unpaid) visibility on search engines and driving organic traffic and conversions. While some SEO Strategists focus primarily on research, analysis, and recommendations, others take a more hands-on role in execution. Some can do both.
Increasingly, businesses look for strategists who understand AEO, which focuses on helping brands appear in AI-driven answer engines. As generative AI becomes part of everyday search behavior, GEO-informed practices are also gaining traction. These techniques ensure content is structured and clear enough for AI models to interpret and present reliably.
Key Responsibilities
SEO
Conduct keyword research and provide recommendations
Audit, develop, and optimize content strategy
Implement off-page SEO strategies such as link building
Monitor performance metrics with SEO tools
Enhance technical and mobile SEO
Stay current regarding trends and algorithm updates
AEO
Optimize content for AI-generated answers, summaries, and overviews
Ensure content is structured for clear, direct answers to user questions
Improve entity clarity and topical authority for AI interpretation
Implement schema markup to support machine understanding
Align content with conversational search patterns and intent
Monitor emerging answer-engine platforms and behavior shifts
Apply GEO principles by structuring content so generative AI tools can summarize and cite information
Strengthen factual clarity and credibility to improve the likelihood of AI citation
Why are SEO & AEO Strategists Critical for Your Business?
In today’s competitive online landscape, simply having a website isn’t enough—your site needs to be visible to the right audience at the right time. This means your website must be discoverable across traditional search engines, emerging AI-driven engines, and generative search.
An SEO & AEO strategist ensures your business:
Ranks when potential customers are actively searching, regardless of the platform
Appears in AI-generated answers, summaries, and chat-based search experiences
Stays competitive by adapting to evolving search and AI algorithms
Maintains visibility in generative AI environments
Has content, structure, and UX built to improve engagement, retention, and answerability
Gains high-quality, conversion-driven traffic
Builds credibility and authority that AI systems can reliably reference
Without a combined SEO + AEO strategy, you risk losing visibility in new search ecosystems where more consumers are seeking information and recommendations.
What to Look for in an SEO & AEO Strategist?
Must-Have Skills
SEO Skills
Keyword research and analysis
Knowledge of search engine algorithms and ranking factors
Basic understanding of HTML + CSS
Ability to monitor performance metrics and adjust SEO strategy
Familiarity with industry tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Screaming Frog, Moz, etc.
Knowledge of technical SEO requirements likesite structure, speed, crawlability, indexing, and schema markup across all devices
Understanding of optimizing content, meta tags, headers, and internal linking for better search visibility
Experience with off-page tactics to drive organic search such as link building, digital PR, and reputation management
Ability to structure content to provide clear, concise answers
Strong grasp of entity SEO and topical authority
Experience with schema markup for enhanced machine understanding
Knowledge of conversational search patterns
Ability to analyze and optimize for zero-click or AI-generated answers
Nice-To-Have Skills
Industry-specific expertise
Content marketing and writing
Project management
A/B Testing
Knowledge of specialized SEO areas: local, international, video, app, voice
Soft skills: communication, attention to detail, problem-solving, adaptability
Without a comprehensive approach to both SEO and AEO, your brand may lose visibility where consumers are searching today and where they’ll be searching tomorrow. Investing in both ensures you stay discoverable, relevant, and positioned for sustainable growth
Insights from an SEO Specialist
We interviewed Aurora Sanchez, an SEO Manager on the Wripple talent marketplace, to get her thoughts on where SEO is headed:
Where do you think the SEO Specialist role is headed in the next 5-10 years?
I see SEO becoming more contextual. SEO is becoming more interconnected, requiring SEO specialists to either collaborate across various marketing functions or develop these skills themselves.
What is the impact of AI on SEO?
Despite their own opinions, I see SEO strategists having to learn how to work with AI and build it into their workflow. Strategists are starting to use AI to perform more manual tasks like generating meta titles, descriptions, and alt tags, which can be very beneficial. On the other hand, when AI Overviews dominate SERPs, SEO and content strategists have to format their content in a problem-solution method. That is how more content snippets are featured in these AIOs.
Are there any exciting trends that could impact this role?
For me, the excitement is that the sphere of knowledge is expanding. It's much harder to get organic clicks on Google when organic results are getting pushed down. However, YouTube is still the second largest search engine, and more and more people are looking to TikTok to solve their problems. We will have to learn the algorithms of these other search engines, and that expansion is exciting to me.
Curious about other key marketing roles on the Wripple platform? Explore more in our Role Deep Dive series:
To learn more about any or all of these solutions, contact your Wripple Client Lead, or request a demo.
This article is part of a series exploring key marketing freelance and contractor roles on the Wripple platform. We’ll dive into what each role does, why they’re essential, and how they can help your business thrive.
This article explores the role of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) Strategists. A strong online presence is essential for visibility and staying competitive, and SEO has long been the foundation for helping brands get discovered online. But as search behavior shifts and consumers increasingly turn to AI-powered tools, assistants, and answer engines for information, SEO alone is no longer enough. AEO adds a critical layer, ensuring your brand remains visible across emerging, non-traditional search environments.
As generative AI continues to reshape how people access information, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is also an emerging related discipline. GEO focuses on optimizing content so generative AI models such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google’s Gemini can understand, summarize, and reference your brand. While closely connected to AEO, GEO represents the next evolution of search visibility on AI-driven ecosystems.
What is an SEO & AEO Strategist?
An SEO strategist is responsible for improving a website’s organic (unpaid) visibility on search engines and driving organic traffic and conversions. While some SEO Strategists focus primarily on research, analysis, and recommendations, others take a more hands-on role in execution. Some can do both.
Increasingly, businesses look for strategists who understand AEO, which focuses on helping brands appear in AI-driven answer engines. As generative AI becomes part of everyday search behavior, GEO-informed practices are also gaining traction. These techniques ensure content is structured and clear enough for AI models to interpret and present reliably.
Key Responsibilities
SEO
Conduct keyword research and provide recommendations
Audit, develop, and optimize content strategy
Implement off-page SEO strategies such as link building
Monitor performance metrics with SEO tools
Enhance technical and mobile SEO
Stay current regarding trends and algorithm updates
AEO
Optimize content for AI-generated answers, summaries, and overviews
Ensure content is structured for clear, direct answers to user questions
Improve entity clarity and topical authority for AI interpretation
Implement schema markup to support machine understanding
Align content with conversational search patterns and intent
Monitor emerging answer-engine platforms and behavior shifts
Apply GEO principles by structuring content so generative AI tools can summarize and cite information
Strengthen factual clarity and credibility to improve the likelihood of AI citation
Why are SEO & AEO Strategists Critical for Your Business?
In today’s competitive online landscape, simply having a website isn’t enough—your site needs to be visible to the right audience at the right time. This means your website must be discoverable across traditional search engines, emerging AI-driven engines, and generative search.
An SEO & AEO strategist ensures your business:
Ranks when potential customers are actively searching, regardless of the platform
Appears in AI-generated answers, summaries, and chat-based search experiences
Stays competitive by adapting to evolving search and AI algorithms
Maintains visibility in generative AI environments
Has content, structure, and UX built to improve engagement, retention, and answerability
Gains high-quality, conversion-driven traffic
Builds credibility and authority that AI systems can reliably reference
Without a combined SEO + AEO strategy, you risk losing visibility in new search ecosystems where more consumers are seeking information and recommendations.
What to Look for in an SEO & AEO Strategist?
Must-Have Skills
SEO Skills
Keyword research and analysis
Knowledge of search engine algorithms and ranking factors
Basic understanding of HTML + CSS
Ability to monitor performance metrics and adjust SEO strategy
Familiarity with industry tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Screaming Frog, Moz, etc.
Knowledge of technical SEO requirements likesite structure, speed, crawlability, indexing, and schema markup across all devices
Understanding of optimizing content, meta tags, headers, and internal linking for better search visibility
Experience with off-page tactics to drive organic search such as link building, digital PR, and reputation management
Ability to structure content to provide clear, concise answers
Strong grasp of entity SEO and topical authority
Experience with schema markup for enhanced machine understanding
Knowledge of conversational search patterns
Ability to analyze and optimize for zero-click or AI-generated answers
Nice-To-Have Skills
Industry-specific expertise
Content marketing and writing
Project management
A/B Testing
Knowledge of specialized SEO areas: local, international, video, app, voice
Soft skills: communication, attention to detail, problem-solving, adaptability
Without a comprehensive approach to both SEO and AEO, your brand may lose visibility where consumers are searching today and where they’ll be searching tomorrow. Investing in both ensures you stay discoverable, relevant, and positioned for sustainable growth
Insights from an SEO Specialist
We interviewed Aurora Sanchez, an SEO Manager on the Wripple talent marketplace, to get her thoughts on where SEO is headed:
Where do you think the SEO Specialist role is headed in the next 5-10 years?
I see SEO becoming more contextual. SEO is becoming more interconnected, requiring SEO specialists to either collaborate across various marketing functions or develop these skills themselves.
What is the impact of AI on SEO?
Despite their own opinions, I see SEO strategists having to learn how to work with AI and build it into their workflow. Strategists are starting to use AI to perform more manual tasks like generating meta titles, descriptions, and alt tags, which can be very beneficial. On the other hand, when AI Overviews dominate SERPs, SEO and content strategists have to format their content in a problem-solution method. That is how more content snippets are featured in these AIOs.
Are there any exciting trends that could impact this role?
For me, the excitement is that the sphere of knowledge is expanding. It's much harder to get organic clicks on Google when organic results are getting pushed down. However, YouTube is still the second largest search engine, and more and more people are looking to TikTok to solve their problems. We will have to learn the algorithms of these other search engines, and that expansion is exciting to me.
Curious about other key marketing roles on the Wripple platform? Explore more in our Role Deep Dive series:
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