Drake Cooper from Boise just shared something that should make every independent agency pay attention. While everyone’s still figuring out basic SEO, Steve Norell and Elisia Schrauth are already building frameworks for AEO—that’s Answer Engine Optimization.
Think of AEO as SEO’s AI-powered evolution. Instead of optimizing for Google’s traditional blue links, you’re optimizing for how AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews present information to users. When someone asks an AI “What’s the best marketing agency for tech startups?” you want to be in that answer.
Here’s the number that caught our attention: 25% of search traffic is shifting to AI by 2026. That’s not some distant future problem. That’s next year.
“We’re kind of in a new era,” says Norell, Director of UX & Technology at Drake Cooper. “I think re-approaching it with a curious mindset, and starting to think about how you’ve had, like, 30 years of ongoing SEO learnings and changing what best practices are, and we’re starting over in some ways.”
The biggest mindset shift: Keywords to key concepts
Drake Cooper calls their approach “findability”—how brands become discoverable across their entire marketing stack. Think of it as SEO expanded beyond just your website to include strategy, media placements, UX, accessibility, and now AEO working together as one system.
The shift from keywords to what Norell calls “key concepts” changes everything. Traditional SEO targets specific keywords like “best running shoes.” AEO thinks in conversational prompts—the actual questions people type into AI tools: “What running shoes should I buy for my first marathon training in Seattle weather?”
“Concepts really originate from prompts,” Norell explains. “It’s more of a long tail—what are people asking, or how are people wording things, and what’s the conversation look like between a user and an LLM that might involve your brand in some way.”
Three tactics indies can implement immediately
1. Build prompts alongside your keyword strategy Start with your existing keywords and personas. Use an LLM to help develop prompts that person might actually type. Include these prompts in your briefs right next to demographic data.
2. Set up ad hoc testing and measurement tools Unlike traditional analytics where you can watch user behavior on your website, AEO requires a different approach. You can’t see what happens inside someone’s ChatGPT conversation or Claude session. Instead, you set up what you think will happen and test it manually against different LLMs (Large Language Models—the AI systems powering these tools).
Tools like Profound, AI Monitor, and SE Ranking’s AI Visibility Tracker can automate this testing, running your prompts across different AI platforms and giving you visibility scores (how often you’re mentioned), citation information (where your content gets referenced), and sentiment analysis (whether the AI presents your brand positively or negatively).
3. Start experimenting with beta features AI platforms are rolling out advertising opportunities faster than most agencies realize. Perplexity offers sponsored follow-up questions—your brand can suggest related queries after someone gets an initial answer. Microsoft has Copilot Showroom ads with interactive tiles that evolve as users chat with the AI. Google’s rolling out AI Overview ads that appear alongside AI-generated search summaries.
“These are things that are out there,” says Elisia Schrauth, Senior MarTech Manager at Drake Cooper. The key is signing up for betas quickly—something indies can do while larger agencies are still forming committees to discuss the opportunity.
The metrics that matter now
Forget clicks and traffic as your primary KPIs.
“Right now, clicks and traffic are not going to be the main KPIs for AEO,” Schrauth explains. “What we’re looking at is going to be mentions and citations and that sentiment.”
The new scorecard: Who mentions your brand? Where are you cited as a source? What sentiment does the AI attach to your brand when it talks about your category?
“You could rank really, really well on Perplexity, but totally terrible on Claude,” Schrauth notes. “Your competitors could be showing up really high for one query, but you could be showing up really strongly for another.”
The zero-click reality
Steve Norell brought up something that predates AEO but becomes more important now: zero-click results. These started with Google’s Knowledge Graph snippets (those boxes that show sports scores or quick facts without requiring a click), but AI takes this further.
When someone asks an AI “What’s the capital of France?” they get “Paris” without visiting any website. When they ask “What’s the best project management software for creative agencies?” the AI might give a complete answer with pros, cons, and recommendations—again, without sending traffic anywhere.
“It redefines the value of a website in general,” Norell says. “It’s possible that the days of the website as a free kind of marketing landing page for organic search are maybe not going to be as effective.”
This doesn’t mean websites are dead. It means they need to serve different purposes—creating user experiences, supporting customer journeys, providing value on platforms you actually own.
The indie advantage
Drake Cooper’s approach highlights something indies do better than holding companies: experimental agility.
“We have those really close relationships with our clients, that they trust us, and they let us experiment,” Schrauth says. “We don’t have the processes and hierarchies that larger agencies do that kind of prevent them from pivoting really quickly.”
Translation: While big agencies are forming committees to discuss AEO strategy, indies are already testing, learning, and adapting.
Be vulnerable with clients
Norell’s final advice cuts through the consultant BS: “Be a little vulnerable with your clients. Have these conversations and say, like, we don’t know. This is a new thing, and we have the skills to figure it out. We don’t know all the answers yet, but we want to go after and we want to be a partner in it.”
That honesty becomes a competitive advantage. Clients prefer agencies that admit uncertainty and commit to figuring it out together over agencies that pretend they’ve mastered something that’s literally evolving every week.
The AI search revolution isn’t coming. It’s here. The question isn’t whether to adapt—it’s whether you’ll lead the adaptation or get dragged along by it.
Learn more
Drake Cooper
Steve Norell LinkedIn
Elisia Schrauth LinkedIn
Agency LinkedIn
Contact hello@drakecooper.com
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Doug Zanger is the founder and editor-in-chief of Indie Agency News. He is also the founder of the Creative Bohemian consultancy, lives in the Pacific Northwest and is insufferable about it.
