Resources

Primers for the recommendation economy.

Start here to understand AEO, the Agentic Endorsement, and what it takes to become the business AI recommends.

• An Excellent Personality

  Truth and trust are fine, but let’s give thanks to Ziggy Stardust: product plus personality equals brand. The robots will do our searching and deciding — but we’ll still do our buying based on emotions, and I’m going with the brand I like.

• Functional Trust

  I have a cordless drill older than my daughter, and it has earned my trust by doing what it promises, over and over. That’s functional trust — and here’s how to build it for a service in the age of Agentic Endorsement.

• Truth

  It might be an old copywriter thing, but I can spot a lie based on the length of the explanation. The shorter the headline, the stronger the story. Truth rarely needs explaining.

• Swimming upstream in the age of Agentic Endorsement

  Marketing is downstream. It flows from the qualities of the product. All of us have spent too much money and effort and talent denying that fact.

• Nice AIs Finish Last

  Your AI ask doesn’t trigger SEO – Search Engine Optimization, it does AEO Answer Engine Optimization, a whole other banana where “agents” read articles...

• The shift from SEO to AEO

  Search engines rank websites. AI recommends businesses. Here's why visibility is no longer enough — and what to do about it.

• What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

  AEO is the practice of making your business understandable, provable, and recommendable to AI — so that AI recommends you, rather than simply listing a webpage.