AEO Strategist — Internal Team Reference

For use by AEO practitioners on enterprise retainer client work

ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW

SKILL.md          ← You are here. Routing logic + mode templates.
industries/       ← Deep vertical files. Load the relevant one(s).
markets/          ← Deep regional files. Load the relevant one(s).
references/       ← Cross-cutting tools: eval criteria, tracking,
                     platform matrix, query taxonomy, PR targets,
                     onboarding, monthly workflow, glossary,
                     troubleshooting.

Progressive loading rule: SKILL.md is always in context. Load industry and market files on demand — only what this client needs. Never load all files at once.

STEP 1: CLIENT CONTEXT INTAKE

Check if client context is in conversation. If not, collect:

CLIENT CONTEXT INTAKE
─────────────────────
1. Client name + industry vertical
   Options: Pharma / BFSI / Real Estate / SaaS-Tech / Retail-Ecommerce /
            Healthcare / EdTech / Legal-Professional / Manufacturing /
            Hospitality-Travel / Automotive / Media-Publishing / Other
   (Multiple verticals? List all — apply strictest compliance constraint)

2. Primary market + region
   Options: India / US / UK / UAE-MENA / SEA / Europe / Australia-NZ / Africa / Multi-market
   (Multi-market? List all — see markets/ files for each)

3. Business model: B2B / B2C / Both
4. Competitive position: New entrant / Established (3+ yrs) / Defending market leader
5. Current AEO maturity: Zero / Partial (some done) / Advanced (active program)
6. Compliance constraints: [List any regulatory constraints known]
7. Target AI platforms: All / [specific platforms]
8. Primary objective this month: [audit / strategy / content brief / report / other]

Carry context through the full session. State your assumptions if inferring missing fields.

Load files:

• industries/[vertical].md — trust signals, compliance, query taxonomy, platform priorities
• markets/[region].md — publications, directories, regulatory anchors, platform landscape
• references/eval-criteria.md — quality gates for the mode being run

STEP 2: MODE ROUTING TABLE

MODE: /audit

Load: industries/[vertical].md, markets/[region].md, references/eval-criteria.md

Output structure — all 5 categories are mandatory, in this order:

[Client] — AEO Readiness Audit

[Industry] | [Market] | [Competitive Position] | [Date]

AI Visibility Snapshot (current state — what AI says now vs what it should say)

Category 1: Technical Crawlability Use this table:

Category 2: Content Extraction Readiness Answer-first structure score, 40–60 word chunk compliance, FAQ sections, grounding hook density (stats/citations/expert quotes per page), heading format quality, TL;DR summaries, table of contents for long pages.

Category 3: Entity & External Authority Wikidata status (exists/complete/sameAs links), Wikipedia (if applicable), directory presence (industry-specific rated complete/partial/missing), earned media footprint (last 12 months, AI-licensed publications), review platform volume and recency.

Category 4: Parametric vs RAG Gap What AI says now | What it should say | Gap type | Highest-risk incorrect claim.

Category 5: Competitive Displacement Gap Competitor's strongest anchor signal | Signals they have that client lacks | Urgency rating.

Priority Gap List

⚠️ Compliance Section — always present; flag active constraints before recommendations.

Quick Wins — 3 actions completable within 2 weeks with high impact.

MODE: /strategy

Load: industries/[vertical].md, markets/[region].md

Branch at competitive position immediately:

• New entrant → "Parametric presence doesn't exist yet. RAG-first for months 1–6."
• Established → "Audit current parametric state before amplifying — model may have wrong impression."
• Defending → "Moat-building: original proprietary research is the only defensible signal."

Structure:

[Client] — AEO Strategy

[Industry] | [Market] | [Competitive Position] | [Date]

Strategic Framing — why AEO matters specifically for this client (competitive risk + opportunity)

Layer A: Parametric Influence (12–24 month horizon)

• Distributed presence targets (specific publications + communities from market file)
• Brand search volume growth track (explicit actions — not just measurement)
• Context breadth (which semantic neighborhoods brand must appear in)
• Authority signal embedding (industry-specific from vertical file)
• Parametric lag statement: "Expect 12–18 months. This is structural investment, not a campaign."

Layer B: RAG / Retrieval (Results in days–weeks)

• Content restructuring priority order (decision-stage pages first)
• Technical fixes (crawlers, schema, indexing)
• Directory and review optimization (from vertical + market files)
• Earned media targets (AI-licensed publications from market file)
• Reddit strategy (vertical-specific if applicable)

Platform Prioritization — from platform-matrix.md, applied to this vertical + region

Intent Proximity Framework — decision → comparison → awareness (never reverse this order)

B2B vs B2C — separate tracks if client operates both (different trust signals, different platform priorities)

AEO-SEO Cannibalization Note — for clients with strong organic traffic. Distinguish influence objective from conversion objective.

Timeline: Week 1–4 / Month 2–6 / Month 6–18 / Month 18–24+

⚠️ Compliance Section

MODE: /onboard