{"id":"2012895638955204897","url":"https://x.com/alexgroberman/status/2012895638955204897","text":"","author":{"name":"Alex Groberman","username":"alexgroberman","avatarUrl":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1847759351802716160/5MTXOpZ__200x200.jpg"},"createdAt":"Sun Jan 18 14:31:32 +0000 2026","engagement":{"replies":48,"retweets":76,"likes":803,"views":249169},"article":{"title":"NEW: Microsoft just revealed how to get traffic from ChatGPT. ","previewText":"Microsoft just released an official \"Here Is How To Get Traffic From ChatGPT\" Guide. \nIt has gotten surprisingly little attention. Let's go over it together. \n \nThis week Microsoft dropped “From","coverImageUrl":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-7FYUrXYAAcdns.jpg","content":"Microsoft just released an official \"Here Is How To Get Traffic From ChatGPT\" Guide. \n\nIt has gotten surprisingly little attention. Let's go over it together. \n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-6pRo9WEAA7MI4.jpg)\n\nThis week Microsoft dropped “From discovery to influence: A guide to AEO and GEO – Practical data strategies to empower retailers for AI search, AI assistants and AI browsers.”\n\nEverything here is drawn directly from the document and its diagrams with some of my personal takes layered on top for clarity and execution value. I'll also reference the pages in the pdf in case you want to go read it yourself. \n\n## 1. Microsoft’s central message in the doc is that retail competition is shifting from “being found” to “being chosen.”\n\nThey argue that traditional SEO was optimized for:\n\n- Ranking\n\n- Clicks\n\n- Page visits\n\nWhereas AI-driven shopping replaces that with:\n\n- Answers\n\n- Recommendations\n\n- Agent-led decisions\n\nThey're arguing that visibility is now earned by how clearly AI systems understand your products, trust your brand and can act on your data.\n\nThis is where \"AEO\" and \"GEO\" come in. (I hate both of these acronyms and prefer to just call it all AI search optimization, but this is their doc so I'll go with their language.) \n\nThis is also why we’ve seen brands struggle even with strong traditional SEO, but immediately improve AI visibility once they pair technical SEO with structured, intent-driven content and authoritative signals like those included in SEO Stuff’s Gold Plan\n https://seo-stuff.com/gold-plan-package\n\n## 2. Microsoft also broke down the difference (to them) between AEO and GEO. \n\nMicrosoft makes it a very clean distinction:\n\nAnswer / Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO) in their estimation optimizes content and data so AI assistants and agents (Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini) can:\n\n- Find it\n\n- Understand it\n\n- Summarize it\n\n- Recommend it\n\n- Act on it\n\nThis is about clarity and machine-readability.\n\nGenerative Engine Optimization (GEO)\n\nOptimizes content so generative AI search systems trust it as:\n\n- Authoritative\n\n- Credible\n\n- Citable\n\nThis is about credibility, reputation and justification.\n\nMicrosoft is explicit that SEO still matters, but it is now the foundation and not the endpoint.\n\nIn practice, this is why execution now requires both properly structured pages and volume at scale, something SEO Stuff intentionally designed the Premium Content Bundle to solve\n https://seo-stuff.com/premium-content-bundle\n\n## 3. Microsoft then delved into the AI shopping ecosystem (how discovery actually works now).\n\nOne of the most interesting sections is Microsoft’s breakdown of AI browsers, assistants and agents ([pages 5–7](https://about.ads.microsoft.com/content/dam/sites/msa-about/global/common/content-lib/pdf/from-discovery-to-influence-a-guide-to-aeo-and-geo.pdf)).\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-6pqbeXgAAbI-g.jpg)\n\nThese are not separate systems and they overlap constantly:\n\nAI Browsers\n\nEdge, Chrome or similar with embedded AI\n\nThey can “see” the live page you are on and interpret it in real time.\n\nAI Assistants\n\nCopilot, ChatGPT, Gemini\n\nThey answer questions, summarize options and recommend products.\n\nAI Agents\nThey:\n\n- Navigate websites\n\n- Add items to carts\n\n- Apply promo codes\n\n- Calculate shipping\n\n- Complete purchases\n\nThe key insight:\n\n> The question is not “which AI surface am I optimizing for?”\nThe question is what data can AI access, trust, and use?\n\nThis is exactly where most sites break. The data exists, but it isn’t structured, consistent or surfaced in a way AI can reliably act on.\n\n## 4. Microsoft then went into how AI actually decides what to recommend.\n\nMicrosoft outlines a multi-stage reasoning process used by Copilot and Bing AI (pages 7–8).\n\nAI does not rely on one data source, but rather fuses:\n\n1. Crawled web data\n\n- Brand reputation\n\n- Category authority\n\n- Expert mentions\n\n- Historical understanding\n\n2. Product feeds and APIs\n\n- Price\n\n- Availability\n\n- Variants\n\n- Inventory\n\n- Key specs\n\nThis is where competitive advantage often comes from, and where most brands are under-optimized.\n\n3. Live website data\n\n- Real-time pricing\n\n- Promotions\n\n- Reviews\n\n- Media\n\n- Checkout functionality\n\nIf your live site fails, the agent fails, even if feeds were perfect.\n\nAn example Microsoft gives is rain jacket under $200.\n\nAI reasoning includes:\n\n- “Patagonia and North Face make quality jackets” (general knowledge)\n\n- “Hiking jackets need to be lightweight and waterproof” (category understanding)\n\n- “Brand X is known for hiking equipment” (brand positioning)\n\n- “Your model is $179 and in stock” (feeds)\n\n- “Competitor is $199 and backordered” (feeds)\n\nYour product makes the top recommendations because feeds + availability + price + context align.\n\nThis is why content that simply “ranks” but doesn’t explain, compare or justify rarely shows up in AI answers without additional supporting assets.\n\n## 5. Microsoft then really breaks down the journey from SEO to AEO to GEO.\n\nThey summarize the transition pretty clearly (page 6):\n\nSEO = matching keywords\n“Waterproof rain jacket”\n\nAEO = descriptive clarity\n“Lightweight, packable waterproof rain jacket with ventilation and reflective piping”\n\nGEO = justification and trust\n“Best-rated by Outdoor Magazine, 4.8 stars, 180-day returns, 3-year warranty”\n\nSo basically AEO drives understanding and GEO drives confidence and you need both to be recommended.\n\nThis is why brands pairing long-form, intent-driven content with authoritative backlinks and mentions often outperform those relying on SEO alone.\n\n## 6. Then Microsoft talks about 3 data layers you must control.\n\nThey tress that retailers must show up in 3 distinct data planes (page 10):\n\n1. Crawled data\n\n- What AI learned during training\n\n- What it finds via real-time web search\n\nThis shapes baseline brand perception.\n\nSEO still matters here.\n\n2. Product feeds and APIs\n\n- Structured data you actively provide\n\n- This is where precision and control live\n\nFeeds drive:\n\n- Comparisons\n\n- Rankings\n\n- Recommendations\n\nThis is where many retailers under-invest.\n\n3. Live website data\n\n- What AI agents see when they actually visit\n\nIncludes:\n\n- Reviews\n\n- Media\n\n- Dynamic pricing\n\n- Checkout capability\n\nIf agents cannot transact, influence stops at recommendation.\n\n## 7. Here are the 3 action pillars Microsoft prescribes.\n\nThis is the most legit part of the document (pages 11–14).\n\nPillar 1: Technical foundations and structured data\n\nAI requires structure and consistency, not creativity.\n\nMicrosoft explicitly calls for:\n\n- Machine-readable catalogs\n\n- Dynamic fields:\nPrice\nAvailability\nSize\nColor\nSKU\nGTIN\ndateModified\n\n- ItemList markup for categories\n\n- Localized pricing and language via:\ninLanguage\npriceCurrency\n\nRequired schema types:\n\n- Product\n\n- Offer\n\n- AggregateRating\n\n- Review\n\n- Brand\n\n- ItemList\n\n- FAQ\n\nThey also highlight this:\n\n> \"Never serve different HTML to bots than to users.\"\n\nPillar 2: Intent-driven content enrichment\n\nAI interprets intent over keywords.\n\nMicrosoft recommends:\n\n- Front-loading descriptions with:\nWho it is for\nWhat problem it solves\nWhy it is better\n\n- Use-case framing:\n“Best for day hikes above 40 degrees”\n\n- Headings that mirror real questions\n\n- Modular, citable content blocks\n\nThey explicitly encourage:\n\n- Q&A sections\n\n- Comparison content\n\n- Feature lists\n\n- “Goes well with” product relationships\n\n- Video transcripts\n\n- Detailed image alt text with ImageObject schema\n\nThis is content designed for extraction as opposed to reading.\n\nThis is also why scale matters. One or two pages won’t move the needle. Systems that produce dozens of structured, intent-mapped articles tend to win, which is exactly what the Premium Content Bundle is built around\n https://seo-stuff.com/premium-content-bundle\n\nPillar 3: Trust and credibility signals (GEO)\n\nAI systems prioritize verifiable truth.\n\nMicrosoft highlights:\n\nVerified social proof\n\n- Verified reviews\n\n- Review volume\n\n- Sentiment extraction (“highly rated for comfort and fit”)\n\n- Review and AggregateRating schema\n\nAuthoritative brand identity\n\n- Expert reviews\n\n- Press mentions\n\n- Certifications\n\n- Sustainability badges\n\n- Official brand links\n\nContent integrity\n\n- Avoid exaggerated claims\n\n- Maintain consistent brand voice\n\n- Provide structured FAQs and help content\n\nThis also stood out:\n\n> \"AI penalizes low-trust language.\"\n\nInteresting, but obviously open to interpretation.\n\n## 8. Microsoft then closed with a fairly straight forward message. \n\nRetailers already have most of the signals AI uses to rank and recommend.\n\nThe winners in AI commerce will be the brands that:\n\n- Treat data as a product\n\n- Treat feeds as strategic assets\n\n- Treat content as machine-readable infrastructure\n\n- Treat trust as a measurable ranking factor\n\nThis is what Microsoft calls “AI ranking readiness.”\n\n## 9. If I had to reduce this entire PDF to one core idea...\n\nIf AI cannot clearly understand your products, justify recommending them and act on your data in real time, you will not be a legit presence in AI-driven commerce.\n\nThis document is Microsoft formally telling retailers that:\n\n- SEO alone is good, but not fully enough\n\n- Feeds are now a competitive moat\n\n- Trust is algorithmic\n\n- AI assistants are the new gatekeepers of demand\n\nLuckily, [SEO Stuff](https://www.seo-stuff.com/) solves for all of this. Want to increase your traffic + sales from traditional search and AI search? \n\nJust RT this + reply with \"ChatGPT Guide\" and I'll DM you some \"unconfirmed\" tricks we've been using to get traffic from ChatGPT in as quickly as 30 days. (Must be following me to get the DM)."},"adhxContext":{"savedByCount":1,"publicTags":[],"previewUrl":"https://adhx.com/alexgroberman/status/2012895638955204897"}}