Most of the advice on answer engine optimisation was written before Google said anything official. That's worth keeping in mind now that they have.
When a new acronym gets enough momentum, agencies build products around it fast. AEO got the full treatment: llms.txt files, AI-friendly content chunking, machine-readable page rewrites, inauthentic mention-building across the web. Google published their first official guide on optimising for generative AI search in May 2026. Most of those tactics don't appear in it.
Here's what the guide actually says, and why B2B businesses with genuine expertise are better positioned than most to benefit.
Google folded AEO into their existing ranking systems, not a new one
Google's position is clear: from their perspective, answer engine optimisation is search optimisation. Their generative AI features (AI Overviews and AI Mode) pull from the same core index, using the same quality signals that have determined rankings for years.
A business that ranked well before AI Overviews existed is already the kind of business Google's AI is trying to surface. The technical requirements carry through too. Pages need to be indexed, crawlable, and eligible for snippets. Speed and site structure still matter. There's no separate AI layer to optimise for on top of what you're already doing.
What does change is how those signals are applied once a user asks a question rather than types a keyword. The AI reads across multiple sources, looks for unique perspectives, and tries to give a synthesised answer. Which brings us to the part of the guide worth spending time on.
Commodity content is the specific problem Google named
Google defines commodity content as pages built on common knowledge that could originate from anyone. Their own example in the guide: a page titled "7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers." A summary of things already said a hundred times by a hundred different sites.
The alternative they describe: "Why We Waived the Inspection & Saved $12,000." That post is built on a real decision, a real number, and a point of view you can only write if you lived through it. An AI model can't generate it from training data. A competitor can't replicate it quickly.
Google is drawing a clear line. Generic content that restates existing knowledge is getting harder to rank. Content that reflects first-hand experience and a specific point of view is what their systems are designed to surface. That distinction matters more than any technical optimisation tactic you'll read about elsewhere.
The tactics getting the most airtime don't appear in Google's guide
Google explicitly called out several common "AEO strategies" as things you can ignore:
- llms.txt files — no special treatment in Google's systems
- Chunking content for AI — unnecessary; their systems understand the nuance of full pages without it
- Rewriting content to suit AI — AI understands synonyms and intent, no exact keyword matches required
- Seeking inauthentic mentions — treated the same as any other manufactured signal, and flagged accordingly
- Structured data as an AEO requirement — useful for rich results generally, not required for AI search visibility
If someone has quoted you on "AI visibility services" recently, it's worth asking which of these are in their proposal.
B2B businesses have the raw material AI search is looking for
Most B2B businesses are sitting on content that AI systems want to surface, and almost no one is publishing it.
A commercial coating contractor with 20 years of project experience knows things about substrate preparation, coating performance in Queensland's coastal environments, and scope management on large industrial sites that no generalist can write from a desk. A professional services firm with 40 client engagements behind them has patterns in what works and what doesn't that add real insight to any market question. A specialist consultant who's seen the same commercial challenge handled ten different ways across different sectors has a perspective worth reading.
The expertise is usually there. Publishing it with genuine opinions attached is where most B2B businesses fall short. The hesitation is understandable: it takes more time, it requires your best people, and it's harder to systematise. But that difficulty is exactly what makes it defensible once it's live.
Expertise-led content builds a compounding advantage that commodity content can't
A piece of content built on genuine expertise earns links from others writing in the same space. Those links build domain authority. That authority makes the next piece index faster and reach further. And because the content is grounded in experience that isn't easily replicated, the advantage accumulates.
Generic content doesn't do that. A "beginner's guide to X" can be republished, updated, and outranked by any site with a bigger publishing budget. A post built on a real client outcome, a real project decision, or a genuine opinion formed over years of doing the work is much harder to displace.
For B2B businesses with deep sector knowledge, this is the opportunity. The businesses building that kind of content now are building something the AEO hype cycle can't touch.
Three things actually move the needle for AI search visibility
Fix the technical foundations
Make sure your site is fast, correctly indexed, and structured clearly. Every key service page needs a target keyword, a properly written title tag, and content that matches what your buyers are actually searching for. This is basic per Google's own guide, and most sites haven't done it properly.
Build content around genuine expertise
Find the topics your business knows better than your competitors and go deep. Publish your subject matter experts' real opinions. Document client outcomes with specific numbers where you can. Pick 2 or 3 topic areas and build consistently, rather than publishing a burst of posts and going quiet.
Get out of the AEO tactics conversation
The time spent on llms.txt files and AI-friendly chunking is time not spent on the work that actually matters. If you want a clearer picture of where your content stands and what's worth prioritising, a B2B SEO consultant can audit what you've got and give you a specific plan.
Want to talk through what this looks like for your business? Get in touch and we can work out where to start.
