How to Configure SEO and AEO Tools in HubSpot

For years, "getting found" meant one thing: ranking on Google. That still matters — but it's no longer the whole game. More and more B2B buyers now start their research by asking an AI assistant a question, and the brands that show up in those answers win attention before a search results page ever loads.

That's why getting found now takes two tools working together. SEO keeps you competitive in traditional search: fast pages, clean structure, the right terms in the right places. AEO — Answer Engine Optimization — makes sure your brand is one an AI cites when a buyer asks about your space. Most companies have configured neither well, and almost none have touched AEO.

Here's what configuring these tools in HubSpot actually involves, why the AEO half matters more than it looks, and where we've learned to focus.

SEO and AEO are two different jobs

SEO is about being ranked. HubSpot's SEO tools scan your site for on-page issues — missing meta descriptions, image alt text, page structure, speed signals — and prioritize what to fix. They also let you organize content into topic clusters: a central "pillar" topic supported by related articles, which is how modern search rewards depth on a subject rather than one-off posts.

AEO is about being cited. As buyers shift from typing a query to asking an AI a question, the goal changes from "rank #1" to "be the source the AI quotes." HubSpot's AEO tooling tracks how visible your brand is across AI answer engines and recommends how to become more answerable. It's an emerging capability (genuinely new) which is exactly why doing it now is an advantage.

Both matter. SEO protects the traffic you can already win. AEO positions you for where discovery is heading.

What you get when this is set up right

When your SEO and AEO tools are configured properly, the payoff shows up as discovery — the right people finding you at the moment they're looking:

You show up when buyers ask an AI about your category, not just when they search
Your site is technically clean, so search engines can rank it without friction
Your content is organized into clusters that build authority on the topics you care about
Real search data flows into HubSpot through Google Search Console
You leave with a clear content-and-discovery plan, not just a set of switches turned on

That last point is the difference-maker. Tools don't grow traffic — a strategy does. Configuring the tools is the easy half; knowing what content will actually get you found and cited is where the value is.

Where teams go wrong

A few patterns we see constantly:

Treating SEO as a one-time cleanup. Running the scan once and fixing a few meta descriptions feels productive, but SEO is a discipline, not a task. Without a content structure behind it — topic clusters aimed at what your buyers search — the technical fixes plateau fast.

Ignoring AEO because it's new. The instinct is to wait until AI search "settles down." But the brands establishing answer-engine visibility now are the ones being cited later. Waiting isn't caution; it's ceding the frontier to whoever moved first.

Expecting instant AEO numbers. AEO is early, and its metrics mature over weeks, not days. Teams that judge it in a week conclude it "doesn't work" and switch it off right before it would have started paying off. This is a place to set expectations correctly up front.

Confusing tools with strategy. The most common failure isn't a misconfigured setting — it's a perfectly configured toolset with no plan for what to publish. The tools tell you what's broken; they don't tell you what to write.

How we approach it

We treat this as a growth-strategy milestone, not a settings task. Before touching the tools, we get clear on who you actually compete with, what your buyers are searching and asking, and the one topic you most want to own. Then we configure the SEO and AEO tools, connect Google Search Console, and build one topic cluster with you — a working example you can copy to plan the rest of your content.

The part we're proudest of is what comes after the setup: a dedicated SEO and AEO strategy session, plus a free consultation with our SEO/AEO expert. The goal isn't a filled-in dashboard. It's that you leave knowing exactly what content will get you found, ranked, and cited — and how to keep doing it.

Common questions

Do we need HubSpot's top tier for this? The full SEO recommendations and topic clusters live in the higher HubSpot editions, and AEO is an emerging (beta) capability, so the exact toolset depends on your plan. We confirm what's available on your edition before we start and flag anything that isn't, rather than promising a feature you can't use.

Isn't AEO just a buzzword? No — it's a real shift in how buyers discover companies. When someone asks an AI assistant for a recommendation in your category, the answer either mentions you or it doesn't. AEO is the work of making sure it does.

Do we need our website in HubSpot for this to work? Not necessarily. SEO and AEO tooling can work with a site hosted elsewhere; some pieces (like the tracking code) just need to be installed on your external site. We sort out what applies to your setup up front.

If you want to learn more about how to get your SEO and AEO right in HubSpot, contact The Gist.