AI Answer Engine Optimization with HubSpot AI Search Grader

Learn how to improve your AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) using HubSpot’s AI Search Grader to boost visibility in AI search results.

While Venturise its SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has been great since the launch of this site in October 2025, I felt our Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) needed optimization to achieve Commercial Excellence. So, I ran the free HubSpot’s AI Search Grader to see how Venturise performs across three engines: OpenAI, Perplexity, and Gemini.

Full disclosure: our results landed in the “average” yellow zone. Time to set a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) for Venturise's AEO: get into the AEO green zone (>69 points) across all three engines within 3 months.

The interesting part is that when I put the score next to some larger companies that have been around longer, there was no gap or only a few points max. It seems the whole market is still learning how AI discovery works and what it rewards!

In this Commercial Insights blog, I'll walk through my own approach to make this BHAG a reality, including iterations on what works and what does not, and share practical tips and tools for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

How SEO and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) work together to boost AI search results

Google Search Console remains a must; it is great because it tells you how you perform in classic search, which queries drive impressions, where clicks come from, and where technical issues create drag. SEO still influences AI Search Results, because strong pages get crawled, referenced, and ranked. Yet AI search-ability is not a simple extension of SEO, because AI engines do not just present links. They interpret intent, synthesize across sources, and lean on signals like clarity, consistency, and credibility when deciding what to include in an answer.

That is where HubSpot’s AI Search Grader can give you some great insights. It gives you a practical view of how your brand shows up inside AI generated responses, including visibility, sentiment, and competitor presence.

Basically, it gives you a baseline to work from and improve. 

Why startups and scaleups need Answer Engine Optimization to win

Getting a baseline and being able to improve is especially relevant for start ups and scale ups, because they are playing a different game than enterprises. Enterprises benefit from brand gravity built over years. AI systems tend to trust what they see often, across multiple independent sources, because overlap reduces uncertainty. Earlier stage companies typically have fewer external reference points, even when their product is strong, which means they can execute decent SEO and still be underrepresented in AI Search Results.

There is also a growth stage trap that is easy to miss. Start ups and scale ups iterate fast, and their messaging evolves fast with them. AI systems reward consistency. If your narrative is fragmented across pages and channels, the model has less confidence in what you do and how to describe you, and that reduces the chance you will be included in the answer.

A practical roadmap to Answer Engine Optimization for consistent AI discovery

While optimizing AEO there are some practical approaches (which I will also follow myself to improve performance). 

1) Start light and determine your baseline

First of all: start light and use free tools to test your performance. Begin with measurement and market comparison. 

The HubSpot AI Search Grader is a great free tool and starting point to test your brand and a small set of competitors. Use the output to spot patterns, but do not obsess over a score. Look for topics where you are absent, topics where you show up but with the wrong framing, and topics where competitors appear consistently. 

2) Create focus and determine which topics you want to own.

Next, pick three topics you want to own that line up with the types of deals you want more of, and choose one primary page per topic to serve as your reference page. Upgrade those pages so they answer a specific buyer question directly and early, using headings that mirror how people actually phrase their questions. Make each page easy to quote by adding a short summary, clear definitions, and sections that link problem, approach, and outcome without over-explaining.

Bring specific content; generic wording will not cut it. Add quantified outcomes, customer examples, or clear process descriptions that show real work behind the claims. Refresh older pages that still attract traffic but no longer match your positioning; these pages reduce confidence. Having structure content like FAQ's on your page that share a consistent message are good ways to optimize your results. 

3) Expand your website and reach

After that, expand beyond your website, because AI Search Results are shaped by what the wider web repeats about you. Earn aligned mentions in places that matter to your buyers, such as partner pages, credible guest contributions, relevant communities, and review platforms. Structured PR and publishing will also help in optimizing AEO as it looks at consistency in content and distribution. The goal is repeated, consistent signals that reinforce the same story from multiple angles -> not volume. Less (and focused) is "more". 

4) Tie AEO  to Commercial Execution

Fourth, connect it back to commercial execution. Its the execution that creates a compounding effect. When marketing publishes clearer reference pages, they give sales a single source of truth they can use in outbound, follow ups, enablement, and live deal cycles. Over time, reps start to repeat the same framing in calls, emails, and demos, and that language shows up again in customer notes, partner pages, review sites, and public posts.

Humans and AI models both respond to that repetition. The market begins to describe you in the same terms you use for your own company. When AI systems see a consistent pattern across your site and external sources, it increases the odds that your narrative is pulled into AI generated answers.

5) Keep on Measuring and Iterate

And finally, as with any system you want to improve, close the loop. Keep measuring your performance over time against the baseline from step 1, and note which specific actions actually move the needle. Then iterate deliberately; many companies like yours are still figuring out how to optimize (but you want to be the one that gets there first, of course).

Are you ready to use Answer Engine Optimization to drive Commercial Excellence

AI discovery is already shaping how your next customers hear about you, whether you are ready or not. The good news is that you do not need enterprise brand gravity to compete. You need a clear narrative, a focused set of topics you want to own, and the discipline to show up consistently across your site and the wider web.

Start by getting your baseline, sharpen a few strategic pages, extend that story into the places your buyers already trust, and then tie everything back to how you sell and serve. Keep measuring and iterating to refine and optimize your score. 

I will keep sharing what works (and what does not) as we push Venturise up the AEO curve.

Tools like the Hubspot AI Search Grader help you understand your Answer Engine position. For start ups and scale ups, that difference matters; being cited in AI answers is quickly becoming one of the most efficient ways to earn momentum. Gaining a better position in AEO, is essential to achieve Commercial Excellence. 

FAQ on AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

This FAQ answers common questions about AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), AI Search Results, HubSpot AI Search Grader, and how they connect to Commercial Excellence.

What is AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of making your content easy for AI engines to extract, trust, and cite in AI generated answers. Instead of optimizing only for rankings, you also optimize for inclusion in the answer itself, with clear structure, direct explanations, and evidence that supports your claims. For many commercial teams, AEO is becoming part of Commercial Excellence because it shapes how buyers understand your category before they ever reach your website.

How is AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) different from SEO

AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is different from SEO because SEO focuses on rankings, technical health, and relevance in classic search, while AEO focuses on how AI systems summarize and compare options in AI Search Results. That means consistent messaging becomes more important, pages need to answer questions more directly, and credibility signals carry more weight. If Commercial Excellence is about removing friction from your growth engine, AEO is one of the newest places where friction can appear, and where you can proactively reduce it.

What does HubSpot AI search grader actually tell you about AEO

HubSpot AI Search Grader shows how a brand appears in AI generated responses across multiple engines for AI Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). It indicates whether you are visible, how you are described, and how often competitors appear in the same space. The practical value is that it creates a baseline you can improve, so you can move from assumptions to a repeatable approach. For leaders driving Commercial Excellence, that baseline matters because it turns an abstract topic into something you can track and improve.

What are the most effective steps to improve AI search results with AEO

The most effective way to improve AI Search Results with AEO is to focus on a small number of topics and build strong reference pages for each one. Start by selecting a small number of topics you want to be known for, then create one strong reference page per topic that answers a buyer question early and clearly. Use headings that mirror how people ask questions, add a short summary at the top, and support your statements with proof points such as outcomes, examples, or clear process descriptions. This is how AEO ties back to Commercial Excellence, because it improves message clarity and accelerates buyer understanding.

Does structured publishing and PR still matter for AEO in an AI driven world

Structured publishing and PR still matter for AEO because AI engines learn from what the wider web repeats. When announcements and insights are published in a consistent format, with one canonical page and clear summaries, it becomes easier for the market to reference them and for AI systems to interpret them. For Commercial Excellence, the benefit is consistency at scale across your website, partners, and external channels, so the market repeats the same story you want buyers to remember.