Marketing Speak® 537. KPIs for AEO with Duane Forrester
Jan 21, 2026
Duane Forrester, a former Microsoft/Bing product leader and SEO expert, shares his insights on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and the shifting landscape of digital discovery. He discusses the urgent need for new KPIs, revealing 12 crucial metrics for success in an AI-driven world. Duane highlights the obsolescence of traditional SEO practices and the critical importance of tracking AI visibility. With ChatGPT's rapid rise, he emphasizes the need for businesses to adapt or risk being left behind. Tune in for practical frameworks and tools to navigate this new terrain!
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AI As The New Gatekeeper
- AI systems sit between content and audiences, deciding what gets retrieved, summarized, cited, or ignored before humans see it.
- This changes discovery from links and intent signals to a machine-first gatekeeping layer.
Track New AEO KPIs Yourself
- Track new KPIs like chunk retrieval frequency and attribution rate because existing tools don't provide them.
- Build your own tracking and proxies where platforms don't share data to surface AI visibility signals.
Automate Citation And Retrieval Checks
- Automate LLM queries, capture responses, and classify whether you are cited, mentioned, paraphrased, or excluded.
- Use APIs and tooling to scale this rather than manual copy-paste spreadsheets.
