It's early days for Answer Engines and they are yet to make a positive contribution to most brands digital marketing. I am also mindful that at the time of writing, Google are experiencing challenges with their Search Generative Experience solution. Despite these early challenges, Search is changing and we at equimedia are encouraging brands to start thinking about Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) alongside SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
Reflecting on history and how the adoption of tech and data by people can precipitate a new commercial model, I am reminded that Google never intended to be a global PPC service. Google copied a business model that the likes of Overture had in the early noughties but with great user experience as a key business objective, Google delivered an advertising service that was easier to set up (time wise and with a better user interface). The search results were also displayed in a more user-friendly way. At the time, Overture relied on the likes of MSN and Yahoo for the distribution of its PPC tech for user engagement and revenue generation. Google’s tech was adopted by Overture’s primary distribution partners and Overture was absorbed into Yahoo with Google continuing to grow and dominate organic and PPC search.
I think we’re at an interesting point in time as the battle lines between Answer Engines and Search Engines are drawn up. It’s inevitable that competition between the different tech solutions for marketing budget will increase, and so it might be useful to explore the differences and the common elements of Search Engines and Answer Engines.
What are the main differences between Answer Engines and Search Engines?
Answer Engines differ from traditional search engines in several ways. In no particular order of importance here are a few examples:
- Understanding Your Intent: Answer Engines leverage natural language processing (NLP) and AI technologies like Large Language Models to understand the intent behind the user's question. This allows the Answer Engine to provide more relevant and contextual answers.
- Results Presented as a Result of a Search: Search Engines provide lists of web pages and links as results, while answer engines aim to directly answer the user's query with a concise, summarised response – potentially with additional suggestions to refine the result. In many cases Answer Engines also provide supporting citations or points of reference.
- Reasons for Using Either Solution: Search Engines are better suited for exploratory research and finding a breadth of information on a topic. Answer Engines excel at providing human-like answers assimilated and contextualised from multiple sources. Albeit with a current known weakness to make up facts (aka ‘hallucinate’).
- Sources of Data: Traditional search engines crawl and index websites on the internet. Answer engines, on the other hand, are trained on pre-existing information from search engine indexes or internal data repositories to generate their answers. Therefore, it is currently a symbiotic relationship.
In summary, Answer Engines leverage AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand user queries at a deeper level and provide direct, tailored answers, rather than a list of relevant third-party sources (e.g. web links).
The introduction of a more conversational and intelligent information retrieval solution is driven by a belief that concise and accurate answers to natural language queries is what people really desire.
How soon will business’ need to consider the impact of Answer Engines?
The speed of user adoption will determine how quickly you need to consider how AEO will help your business succeed. It is our belief that AEO and SEO can be complementary strategies alongside CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation), and businesses should implement all three to maximise visibility across search platforms and enhance the whole brand experience for customers.
How will Answer Engines be monetised?
The options are numerous but with billions being invested by big players to get to the top of the technology tree, we have to expect there will be a financial model outside subscription i.e. advertising.
Back to my earlier point about Google’s business model as it developed over 21 years ago. In May 2003 equimedia paid $45 dollars to Google on a credit card on behalf of a Barclays brand. In the same month we invested over £35,000 for the same brand with Overture. And in the same month we paid £165,000 to Yellow Pages. How things have changed!
We are all on a journey and I am excited to be onboard.
If you’d like to join us on this journey and would like help planning your answer to the changes in search, please get in touch to talk to our experts. We'd love to help you!
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| Author | Andrew Burgess |
| Channel | Website |