Most businesses still treat content marketing like it’s 2018. Publish a blog post, optimize for a keyword, hope Google sends traffic. That approach isn’t dead, but it’s no longer enough. With AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s own AI Overviews reshaping how people find information, the game has expanded. You need AI visibility alongside traditional SEO, and the best framework for building both at the same time is one that’s been around for over a decade: They Ask, You Answer.
Marcus Sheridan’s They Ask, You Answer philosophy is straightforward. Your customers have questions. Answer them honestly, thoroughly, and without holding back. That idea helped businesses dominate search rankings long before AI entered the picture. Now it turns out the same approach is exactly what AI answer engines reward. If you’re a marketing leader or business owner trying to figure out where to invest your content efforts, this is the playbook.
Why Does AI Visibility Matter Right Now?
Here’s what’s happening. Google’s AI Overviews now appear in roughly 30% of search results, according to data from BrightEdge and other SEO research firms tracking the rollout. That means for nearly a third of searches, Google is generating an AI summary at the top of the page, often answering the question before anyone clicks a link.
Meanwhile, zero-click searches have crossed the 60% threshold based on SparkToro and Datos research. More than half the time, people get what they need without ever visiting a website. And that’s just Google. ChatGPT is processing over a billion queries per week according to OpenAI’s latest disclosures, and Perplexity AI has grown from a niche tool to a genuine search alternative with millions of daily users.
The shift is clear: discovery is moving from “ten blue links” to AI generated answers that cite sources. Your content either gets cited in those answers or it doesn’t exist to a growing segment of your audience. AI visibility isn’t a future concern. It’s a current revenue issue.
The businesses that will thrive are the ones whose content gets pulled into AI answers, referenced in AI Overviews, and cited by tools like Perplexity. And the path to getting there isn’t some new, complicated strategy. It’s answering questions better than anyone else in your space.
What Is the ‘They Ask, You Answer’ Big 5 Framework?
Marcus Sheridan identified five categories of content that drive the most traffic, trust, and revenue for businesses. He called them the Big 5 because, across every industry he studied, these were the topics buyers searched for most but businesses were least willing to address.
The Big 5 categories are:
- Pricing and cost: How much does it cost? What affects the price?
- Problems: What are the downsides, limitations, or common issues?
- Comparisons: How does this compare to the alternative?
- Reviews: What are the honest assessments of products or services?
- Best of: What are the top options in a given category?
These five topics work because they align perfectly with buyer intent. Someone asking “how much does a kitchen remodel cost in 2025” is further along in the buying process than someone searching “kitchen design ideas.” The Big 5 captures people who are actively evaluating, comparing, and preparing to make decisions.
What makes this framework so relevant to both SEO and AI visibility is that these are exactly the types of questions AI engines prioritize. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a buying question, the AI pulls from content that directly, clearly, and thoroughly answers it. If your content does that better than your competitors’, you win in both channels.
How Does Each Big 5 Category Map to SEO and AI Visibility?
Let’s walk through each category and look at how it functions for traditional search and for AI answer engines.
How Should You Handle Pricing and Cost Content?
For SEO, pricing content has always been a goldmine. Phrases like “how much does [service] cost” generate high intent traffic with relatively low competition because most businesses are afraid to talk about price publicly. A well structured pricing page with ranges, factors that affect cost, and honest context can rank for dozens of long tail keywords.
For AI visibility, pricing content is even more valuable. When someone asks ChatGPT “how much does it cost to hire a marketing agency,” the AI looks for content that provides specific ranges, explains variables, and cites real numbers. If your article says “it depends” without elaboration, it won’t get cited. If it says “most small business marketing agencies charge between $2,000 and $10,000 per month depending on scope, with the average falling around $4,500 according to Clutch data,” that’s citation worthy.
The key: be specific, be honest, provide ranges, and explain what drives the numbers up or down.
What About Addressing Problems and Limitations?
This is the category most businesses avoid entirely. Nobody wants to write about the downsides of their own product or service. But that reluctance creates an opportunity.
For SEO, problem focused content builds enormous trust. When you write “5 situations where our service isn’t the right fit,” you signal honesty to both readers and search engines. These pages often convert at higher rates than promotional content because they pre-qualify buyers.
For AI engines, problem content gets cited frequently because AI models are trained to provide balanced, helpful answers. When Perplexity or Google AI Overviews answer a question like “what are the downsides of [product],” they specifically look for content that acknowledges limitations honestly. If the only content about your product is glowing marketing copy, AI will pull from third party review sites instead, giving you zero control over the narrative.
How Do Comparisons Work for Both Channels?
Comparison content is one of the highest performing content types in all of digital marketing. Phrases like “HubSpot vs Salesforce” or “vinyl vs laminate flooring” represent buyers in active decision mode.
For SEO, comparison pages rank well because they match explicit search intent. The key is to be genuinely fair. Don’t write a comparison that conveniently makes your option the winner every time. Readers and search engines both see through that.
For AI, comparison queries are incredibly common. People use ChatGPT specifically to get quick, balanced comparisons. The content that gets cited is the content that presents both options honestly, provides clear criteria for choosing, and structures the information in a way that’s easy for AI to parse. Think tables, clear pros and cons, and explicit recommendations based on different use cases.
What Role Do Reviews Play?
Review content, both reviews you publish and reviews others write about you, has always been an SEO factor. But for AI visibility, it takes on a new dimension.
AI engines synthesize information from multiple review sources to form assessments. If your business actively publishes honest reviews of tools, vendors, or products in your industry, you become a trusted source that AI references. If you’re a marketing agency publishing genuine reviews of SEO tools, that content positions you as an authority that both Google and AI engines recognize.
The practical move: create review content for the products and services your customers ask you about. Be thorough, include real usage experience, and update the content regularly.
How Should You Approach ‘Best Of’ Content?
“Best of” lists are search magnets. “Best CRM for small business,” “best restaurants in Duluth,” “best project management tools for agencies.” These queries have massive volume and clear commercial intent.
For SEO, well researched best of content can drive significant organic traffic for months or years with regular updates. For AI engines, best of content is among the most frequently cited content types. When someone asks Perplexity “what’s the best email marketing platform for beginners,” the AI assembles its answer from best of articles that provide clear recommendations with reasoning.
The key to winning in both channels: include your actual selection criteria, explain why each option made the list, note who each option is best for, and update the content at least quarterly.
How Does Structured Data Improve AI Visibility?
Answering questions well gets you most of the way there. But structured data, the technical markup that helps machines understand your content, gives you an edge that most competitors won’t bother with.
For AI answer engines, structured data acts like a translation layer. It tells AI systems exactly what your content is about, who wrote it, when it was updated, and how it’s organized. Here’s what to implement:
- FAQ schema: Mark up your question and answer pairs so AI engines can extract them directly. Google’s own documentation at developers.google.com walks you through the implementation.
- Author and organization schema: Establish the entities behind your content. AI engines weigh content from recognized, authoritative sources more heavily.
- Article schema: Use proper article markup including datePublished and dateModified. Freshness is a major factor in AI citation.
- Review and product schema: If you’re publishing reviews or best of content, structured markup helps AI engines parse your ratings and recommendations accurately.
Entity optimization matters here too. Make sure your business, your authors, and your key topics are clearly defined across your website, your Google Business Profile, and platforms like Wikidata and LinkedIn. AI engines build knowledge graphs from these signals. The more clearly you define who you are and what you’re an authority on, the more likely you are to be cited.
What Content Formatting Tips Help You Get Cited by AI?
AI engines have preferences when it comes to how they extract and cite information. These formatting practices improve your chances significantly.
Lead with direct answers. Start each section by answering the question in the subheading. Don’t bury the answer four paragraphs deep. AI engines look for concise, direct responses near the top of a section.
Use clear, hierarchical headings. H1 for the title, H2 for main sections, H3 for subsections. This structure helps AI engines understand the relationship between ideas and extract the right content for the right query.
Write in complete, standalone statements. AI citation often pulls a single paragraph or sentence. Make sure your key points make sense without requiring the reader to have read the previous paragraph.
Include specific data points. Numbers, percentages, date ranges, and named sources make your content more citable. “Roughly 30% of Google searches now trigger AI Overviews” is more citable than “AI is changing search.”
Update consistently. AI engines, particularly Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, strongly prefer recent content. Add a visible “last updated” date and refresh your Big 5 content at least every quarter. The Perplexity AI platform specifically prioritizes recent, well sourced content in its citations.
Create content depth. Thin content rarely gets cited. Aim for comprehensive coverage. If someone reads your article on pricing, they shouldn’t need to go anywhere else. Tools like Clearscope or Surfer SEO can help you identify topical gaps in your content.
What Does a Practical Implementation Roadmap Look Like?
Knowing the framework is one thing. Putting it into action is another. Here’s a realistic roadmap for marketing leaders and business owners who want to build both SEO and AI visibility using They Ask, You Answer.
Weeks one and two: Audit and prioritize. List every question your sales team, customer service team, and clients ask regularly. Sort them into the Big 5 categories. Identify the 10 to 15 questions with the highest commercial value. Use Google’s “People Also Ask” and tools like AnswerThePublic to validate demand.
Weeks three through six: Create cornerstone content. Write two to three pieces per Big 5 category, starting with pricing and comparisons since those tend to drive the most immediate results. Follow the formatting guidelines above. Implement FAQ, article, and author schema on every piece.
Weeks seven and eight: Optimize entities. Ensure your Google Business Profile is complete and accurate. Add author bios with credentials to every article. Create or update your organization’s presence on relevant platforms. Build internal links between your Big 5 content pieces to establish topical authority.
Monthly ongoing: Measure, update, expand. Track your traditional SEO performance through Google Search Console. Monitor AI citations by regularly searching your key topics in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to see if your content appears. Update existing content with fresh data. Add new Big 5 content based on emerging customer questions.
Quarterly: Review and adjust. Analyze which Big 5 categories are performing best in each channel. Double down on what works. Identify gaps where competitors are getting cited and you’re not. AI visibility tracking tools are still emerging, but platforms like Otterly.AI and manual monitoring can give you a baseline.
What’s the Bottom Line for Marketing Leaders?
The search landscape has fundamentally expanded. Traditional SEO still matters. Organic traffic still converts. But with AI Overviews appearing in nearly a third of searches, zero click results dominating, and millions of people using ChatGPT and Perplexity as discovery tools every day, you can’t afford to optimize for just one channel.
You need both SEO and AI visibility, and the They Ask, You Answer framework is the bridge that makes both work together. The Big 5 categories map directly to the types of content that rank in traditional search and get cited by AI engines. The same honesty, thoroughness, and buyer focus that made this approach effective for SEO makes it effective for AI.
Start with your customers’ most important questions. Answer them better than anyone else. Structure that content so machines can understand it as easily as humans can. Then keep it updated. That’s the strategy. It’s not complicated, but it does require commitment. The businesses that commit now will own both channels while everyone else is still debating whether AI matters.
