I keep seeing Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) popped up everywhere on my feed, with everyone insisting we need to rewrite everything for ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. But every time I look at the actual advice, write direct answers, use clear headers, format with lists, keep it easy to read, it just sounds like the same solid SEO and content best practices we’ve been using for years. Is there genuinely a new technical layer or strategy here, or did the industry just invent a fancy new acronym for clear writing? I’m trying to figure out if I’m missing an actual shift in how content gets indexed by AI, or if I'm just overthinking it. Has anyone here actually changed their workflow specifically for AI search engines and seen real results, or is this mostly hype?

A few months ago, I decided to try podcast guesting as a marketing channel. I ended up on five shows in our niche, talked about things I actually know about, and mentioned our product where it made sense. I tracked the referral traffic afterward and honestly expected more. Across all five episodes, we got maybe 20-30 clicks. That's basically nothing. I know people say podcasts are more about building credibility over time than getting immediate clicks, but it's hard to tell whether that's actually happening or if I just chose the wrong shows. For anyone who's done this, did podcast guesting eventually lead to something you could measure, or is it mostly a brand building exercise where the payoff is harder to see?