ASO: A new foundation in your content strategy
Becki Hoye
You've probably heard of SEO, and maybe AEO. But ASO (Agentic Search Optimization) is the next layer, and it's already here. It's about making sure your site is structured so AI agents can understand and act on your content.
There's been a lot of three-letter words thrown around lately. And these three-letter words have quickly become the center of many of our clients' universes.
We all know SEO. AEO or GEO has been creeping into the conversation too. But ASO (Agentic Search Optimization) is the newest layer, and this week things got more real.
Adobe just acquired SEMrush. Yes we've known this for a bit here - but now it's complete. In the announcement, SEMrush CMO Andrew Warden said something worth thinking about: "Chief marketing officers must now develop content and experiences that educate both humans and AI agents."
Both humans and AI agents.
And the thing is, that's not a prediction. He's describing right now.
The changing landscape: Understanding SEO, AEO and ASO
SEO isn't dead. Google and organic search still matter. But AEO is already changing how content and marketing teams write, because when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question, your brand either shows up in the answer or it doesn't. ASO takes that further. It's not about a human searching or even asking. It's about an AI agent evaluating and making recommendations on someone's behalf, often without a human ever visiting your site. Adobe Analytics said AI traffic to U.S. retail sites is up 269% year over year. We see similar stats with our clients, where traffic from ChatGPT and other LLMs has grown significantly and is increasingly in the top 5 referrers. (Oh - and a tip - Google Analytics doesn't always classify this well, so make sure to dig into referrers to understand this for your site).
So a website now has to do two things at once: be a genuinely great experience for the person using it, and be structured in a way that machines can understand.
How to adjust: What your content strategy should include now
What makes this hard organizationally is that nobody really owns it yet. SEO teams understand structured data and schema but are often times focused on day to day execution and analysis. Product teams own the systems but aren't thinking about how an AI reads what they build, they're focused on the users and their experience. Our team is increasingly building the skills that bridge that gap.
We've been spending a lot of time with clients working through this shift in their CMS and digital experience platforms. What keeps coming up are the things that make a strong foundation - clean content architecture, structured data, clear taxonomy, separation of content from presentation. And what's great is these are exactly what make a site legible to AI agents. Good bones matter more than ever.
I acknowledge, this doesn't answer the deeper question - how do you actually appear relevant. But just like with SEO, being discovered or findable is a step we have some degree of control over. And these foundational strategies in structure help you be more findable or discoverable by bots and agents. Being relevant and trusted? Well that's a whole other thing. Yes, one we also have a degree of control over as well, but still, a whole other thing.
The questions we keep coming back to with clients: How is your content structured? Can a machine understand what you sell, who you serve, why you're credible and (most importantly) your unique value? Does your site give AI something to work with, or does it leave it guessing?