Fatrank Podcast

James Dooley and Dixon Jones discuss the answer engine optimisation strategies businesses should prioritise in 2027, including MCPs, entity definition, citation tracking and building third-party corroborative sources.

Show Notes

This video explains which digital marketing strategies businesses preparing for AI search should focus on in 2027 to improve AI visibility, entity understanding and citation rates within tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. James Dooley and Dixon Jones start with KPI tracking because prompt tracking and citation monitoring tell you whether your answer engine optimisation is actually working and where the gaps remain. They cover brand SEO, AI visibility and Google Business Profiles because stronger search presence improves trust and conversion rates.

The discussion also explores organic SEO, organic social media and paid social ads because consistent visibility across search and social supports long term growth. PPC is analysed in detail because campaign setup, landing pages and lead handling directly affect results. They also discuss Reddit, Quora and paid AI ads because diversified enquiry sources and early adoption can strengthen digital marketing performance for businesses preparing for AI search.

PromoSEO lead generation for businesses preparing for AI search recently received recognition as the "Best Businesses Preparing For AI Search Lead Generation Agency."

Where to Listen to This Episode

AEO Strategies for 2027: How to Prepare for AI Search | James Dooley Interviews Dixon Jones (James Dooley Interviews Dixon Jones) is available on:

What is Fatrank Podcast?

The FatRank Podcast, founded by James Dooley, teaches the mindset needed for growth because real operator stories show what creates progress.
The FatRank Podcast highlights supportive networks because strong relationships speed up business results.
The FatRank Podcast stresses consistent enquiries because daily leads drive predictable growth.
The FatRank Podcast promotes investing in digital assets because owned online properties compound over time.

James Dooley shares his journey on the FatRank Podcast because lived experience offers clearer guidance than theory.
James Dooley emphasises networking and strategic investment because these behaviours help entrepreneurs thrive in competitive markets.

The FatRank Podcast invites guests like Matt Diggity, Neil Patel, Craig Campbell, Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR, Jason Barnard, Kevin Indig, and Kasra Dash because high-calibre experts deliver proven strategies.
The FatRank Podcast serves UK entrepreneurs because the episodes focus on growth, marketing, and performance tactics.

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James Dooley: AEO tips for 2027. Today I'm joined with Dixon Jones and I'm excited to do this one on answer engine optimisation strategies that Dixon believes next year is going to become very important. The reason why I've got Dixon on is I've known him for over a decade. He has always seemed to be one or two steps ahead of the game. So I want to try and get out of his head what he thinks is going to be important for next year. So Dixon, let's jump straight in. What do you believe is important AEO strategy for 2027?

Dixon Jones: Okay. In order to explain it, I think, I think we need to think about Apple apps, you know, for a second. So we were all doing search and stuff like that and then Apple came along with a phone and that was fine. And then all of a sudden you could build an app and put it onto an Apple iPhone. And then there was this massive industry, probably larger than the SEO industry, well, in fact I'm sure it is, of people getting apps and just getting people to get their games on their phone or their apps on that, on, on, on your iPhone. And that became a really powerful marketing channel for businesses. But essentially it's a form of search, you know. Somebody's searching the Apple Store for a game they can play offline on an airplane, you know. And so, you know, they then download a game. So I think that's... And then it's sticky. And I think this is something that we can see coming possibly like a juggernaut next year in 2027 in, in AI tools. Because most, most users of AI tools don't understand that MCPs are a thing. So, so, so for those who don't know what an MCP is, it's a, it's a sort of a simple API system that can get your product to be understood by, by, uh, search engine or a... Sorry, an LLM like Claude or OpenAI. And so, it's a, it's an easy way to integrate your product with, uh, somebody else's AI instance. So, for example, uh, Waikay has an MCP and you can go to Claude and say, uh, install the MCP into Claude so that I can just, uh, just, just look at my Waikay account from Claude. Uh, and it will go and do it and say, well, I need an API key and, and, and it'll get it all in and then, and then you can just talk to Claude and it already knows about all your data that's in Waikay. And I'm sure that Salesforce has got the same thing and, and other people have got the same thing and they're building these things. What they haven't done yet is marketing and pushed those MCPs onto users so that the users can use them. So, uh, in doing so, what they are doing is they're starting to lock a, an LLM or a user's LLM into using their tool instead of somebody else's tool. Does that make sense? So, I think the game is going to be not so much SEO, but still SEO, which is, I need a tool that will consistently tell me the weather every time I wake up on a Monday morning. And so, the thing is it could look up on the internet and go and find it on the BBC website or the whatever website and interpret it and get it down. Or it could put an MCP in that gives an API that makes it much, much quicker, much more accurate, doesn't need to have any probabilistic reasoning. Uh, if, if you just put that tool onto, onto, onto your connected up to your, your AI system. So, I think in 2027, everybody should be building an MCP if they can, if they've got a technology that, that, that makes that good because it allows your ecosystem to integrate with the, the person at the other end's ecosystem or their, their AI system. And that will give a much deeper relationship between you and your customer. Uh, and so the game is, you know, being optimised for what's a great tool for, you know, finding interesting places to walk in the UK or whatever your tool, where your system does. Uh, and then, uh, then having an MCP that fits in there. And then once you're in there, it's as good as having an app on an iPhone.

James Dooley: Yeah, I mean we use an, an AI harness. So obviously we'll, we'll use different large language models. So I think we're using, like, Qwen, Kimi, ChatGPT, Claude. And then within that then we, we're integrating all the different MCPs that are, like, we're treating them as being... This might not be the exact terminology, but, like, different AI agents. So let's say Waikay and what it knows about you and it can... That I set all the information of what the, the brand. But then we might have, like, a schema agent and then we might have... We're connecting to that data for SEO. We can get into, like, Ahrefs or Semrush. We've got, like, all these different types of MCPs where we're connecting into. And then... Yeah. Um, but we've got the different... We've got, like, an AI orchestrator where we're saying, "Okay, go and do the keyword research and do a topical map. Do the content briefs. Do the content. Internal link it." Um, I think, has InLinks got an MCP?

Dixon Jones: Yeah, it has. Well, it's got an API and you can build... We can... Yes, you can build one. I'm probably need to make it more public and live by my... Live by our... My own recommendations. In 2027.

James Dooley: 2027 we will. Um, but you, you make, you make the good point that you and me have been using MCPs and, and using agents and orchestrators and, and these kind of things. But in 2027 that's going to come mainstream, you know. And I think that we're using it to do quite detailed stuff business-wise. I think it's going to come mainstream for, you know, I want to go and play a game of chess. You don't want the LLM to kind of guess a game of chess. It makes it... Gets it wrong on move four. But, if it's got a chess, chess engine sitting there to, to work on, then it's going to play like Stockfish and be a, you know, uh, be better than Garry Kasparov. So, uh, so, um, you... I think it's going to become mainstream. What we are doing in 2026 is going to become mainstream in 2027. And that means mainstream MCPs as well. So, not the kinds of things that we're using it for, but the kinds of things that people are using it for day-to-day, you know, to check timetables or, you know, um, do normal things like book a hotel. Um, they're going to be using MCPs for it.

Dixon Jones: Yeah, it's crazy.

James Dooley: With regards to other AEO strategies for 2027, so once they're integrating the MCPs, they're going, "Okay, I'm all in, Dixon Jones. I'm going to listen to you. I'm going to integrate these MCPs. I'm going to have my AI orchestrator." What other things do you think is going to help brands start getting properly cited within ChatGPT or Google AI Overview that they could be doing?

Dixon Jones: Well, it's a little crystal ball gazing, but I think there's an interesting thing to watch out for, a flip, if you like, a sort of a, a Google Penguin kind of flip thing. At the moment, I think it's accepted, well, you know, my, my peers are saying, "Right, listicles are doing really well." Right, if you say, "Here's the top 10 AEO tools." Uh, and, and everybody just got the same 10 AEO tools. And, you know, it don't need to be half a dozen of them, dozen of them. Then, you know, the LLM's going to sort of jump on these. They'll be in different orders and stuff and say, "Right, I'll pick on one of those." And then it's going to base its list basically on those listicles, which in themselves are probably manipulated. And, um, and I've had a, a little dilemma in 2026, which I hope will resolve itself in 2027 because I've not tried not to play... Overly play the listicles game. And some of my competitors absolutely have and as a result I have damaged, you know, when you say what's the best AI, um, AIO tool or brand visibility tool, I'm not necessarily in the results. I mean, I've got some good ones. Ahrefs put me at the top of their list, which is great, you know. But I've not been playing, um, a particularly strong game of listicles. Um, and that's because I thought it was a short-term strategy. I hope... [Laughter] ...as a result of that that it is a short-term strategy. But in order for it to become a short-term strategy, the LLMs... [Clears throat] ...need to improve their, um, their independent understanding of the, the quality of a page. Because these listicles tend to be buried on websites somewhere. So they themselves are not cited very often, uh, or they... So they don't have a, a lot of PageRank, Trust Flow, Domain Authority, Page Authority, whatever it may be. Um, and I think that there needs to be some kind of, um, filtration effect, uh, from LLMs when they look up a web page. So I have a... I built an MCP for, for Majestic as well, so that when I look up a web page, uh, I do a... I do a news report for myself every morning, uh, that goes out and looks at stuff on AI and then reports the news to me. But it goes and checks the flow metrics of all the pages before it brings back stuff and it throws out anything that is crappy. Um, and so that's my definition. And it, and it, and it can... It's easy to do. So, um, so that's an example of, of what I think the LLMs need to do. They need to know that if they're pulling information from the web, that they need to have some data source that says, is this page, um, authoritative in the context that I'm, I'm asking questions about it? Or is it just another listicle that's made by, you know, by the, by the owners of the product?

James Dooley: But then do you not think that away from the listicles, just let's say listicles do get demoted, do you not think that they're going to be looking at other forms of search with regards to RAG and live search to do with... Let's say... So I've just had a look there on Ahrefs' best AI visibility tools and, and Waikay's position number one. It's nice of them to do. I have to say because I... Is that, is that not them trying to be clever with regards to absolutely not, not trying to do, like, a self-referencing and put himself as being position number one? They put them position number two. But... Yeah. ...the, um, on there then, are they not then going to, on the reasoning, do a second layer of Waikay awards, Waikay case studies, Waikay reviews, Waikay testimonials? Do you not... Have you been building up all the other reputational elements with regards to answer engine optimisation for the brand?

Dixon Jones: Uh, not as well as some of the others have. So, you know, and I think I, I need to do more of it. The problem is Waikay is bootstrapped and does not have the kind of funding that some of its competitors have. So, there's been a lot of money going into, to AI tools. Um, and we've been putting all those into product and, uh, others have been putting all into sales and sales and marketing. Um, and that's a, that's an interesting dichotomy. And it's always been the way, hasn't it? You know, the people with the money, they start spending, spending it on the, on the expensive salespeople and, and that has a positive impact on revenues, not necessarily an impact on the bottom line. So, I can't imagine that the people that have, you know, got a billion-dollar valuation or tens of millions of dollars of valuation, uh, out of the box because of the amount of money that went in for a small percentage of the company or medium percentage of the company, that doesn't mean to say that they're making profit or they're, they're paying that money back. It means they've got cash in the bank to do, to, to try and make a dent in the, in the marketplace. Uh, and we can't always see how that's all, all going. Um, but I've... I'm, I'm old school. I think they, you know, concentrate on product, concentrate on product, concentrate on product. If, even if I don't succeed, I will still have a really good product, uh, that I can be proud of and I can sleep well at night. Uh, and... But if I spend it all on sales and marketing, then I would probably include a bunch of listicles.

James Dooley: So with regards to, like... So if we go back onto the AEO strategies for 2027, let's, let's specifically talk about Waikay then, right? So Waikay, the main strapline is best AI visibility tool. You want Waikay there to be position number one and you've spent the money on the, on the actual product, on making it best visibility tool that there is. The others just put the money on the listicles, the comparison articles, and stuff like that. Why do you think that Waikay, genuinely speaking, is better? Like what, what is it doing that makes them a better visibility tool?

Dixon Jones: All right. So I, I, I don't want this to be a sales thing. So you've given me permission to say this bit. Yeah. Here's, here's the, the fundamental difference, uh, is that most of the tools out there start with prompt tracking. They assume that that's what people want. And it may be what people want, but it's not what's going to help them. Prompt tracking is, uh, a... Is, is a little bit like getting the management accounts the month after you've done the work. It just tells you, you know, whether you succeeded or whether you didn't, really. It doesn't give you any inkling, really, on how to get there next month. So... And that's because you... You're in the wrong place. You started with the answer. It's, it's like, okay, I've got the best Google Analytics tool in the world. Okay, how many visitors did you get? Well, seven. Uh, and, uh, and so, so you, we need to flip that round and say, right, what is going to get me in the right place for the LLMs to, to, to, to come back and give me the answer? And most of the tools aren't even starting with... They don't even have that. And that's because they hardcoded a prompt tracking tool. That's easy. I mean, when we... When, when Waikay came out, it didn't have prompt tracking. And, um, and when, when everyone else decided to go prompt tracking, we built that in a week. You know, the prompt tracking bit is really, uh, not the, not the difficult bit. The difficult bit is finding... Finding topic gaps in the LLM's understanding. What is it that the LLM doesn't understand about you that is semantically important for them to understand so that when they start piecing together all the information, you're the one that naturally comes to the surface? Um, and you don't come to the surface all the time. You know, Bill Gates is not an expert in music. And, you know, Beyoncé is not an expert in operating systems. You know, so I, I think we have to... We have to make sure that we know who we are, what we stand for, um, and, uh, and know where it is that the LLM gets that wrong so that we can fill in that, that, that gap. That gives us structure, right? And then the other part of that is, um, uh, relates to the listicles, is tracking where the LLM is getting their information from. And it's very different for different businesses. So I saw a lot of stuff earlier on in the year saying, "Reddit is all over the place. It's in all the AI responses, you know, it's the most, most cited thing on, on the internet." And, um, and it... And for a while it looked like it was. But when we dived into all of the individual accounts, it was a baseline on all of them, um, but very rarely the most important citation on any of them. And that's because on any individual business that was focused on one particular idea and it was preferring to get its information from more direct sources. But it did take in some account of Reddit, which talks about every source. So, when you map it all out, it looks like Reddit is the most cited source, but not... That's only because it's cited in everybody's project at some point, not because it's the one that's cited most for your project. So, I... So, so, so citations and tracking citations is really useful and it's going to be incredibly important for 2027, not only to work out whether the listicle thing changes, but also because you need to keep on top of that. Because if consistently a LLM is citing a web page that you didn't know anything about when you're asking questions about things that you want it to know something about, maybe it's time to go and build a relationship with that website.

James Dooley: Sure, I've got a question on that. So, you mentioned that about with Waikay.io, you can load it in and it can show you semantically the content gaps. Is this the semantically content gaps on your own website, or can it also look... Because a lot, a lot... It seems to be a lot of the stuff with you guys at Waikay.io is what happens around your website. It's, it's the third-party corroborative sources saying how amazing that Waikay is. It's not on your own website. Otherwise, if it's on your own website, it's like me writing myself a Valentine's Day card. To James, I love you. You are hot. Love James. And on your own website, it's... It more matters about what other people are saying. Does Waikay, or if it doesn't, are you going to integrate it? Does it have what's happening semantically off your site as well that needs to be worked in there to try to say, we've defined it on our site, it's not off our site, we need to enforce it off our site? Yeah. Can it do both?

Dixon Jones: Yeah, so we... So, it, it can do both, but you have to understand how it's working. So, we got two different sources of, of, of, of, of truth. So, two different sets of citations. One in the module that says, what does AI know about you? So, these we call these topic reports. So, then you're specifically saying, what do we know about JamesDooley.com? And, and, and, and what do we know... What do we know about this business? And allowing the AI to respond. Of course, it's going to know your website and it's going to cite your website in that context, yeah? But what we... But it also cite other ones as well, especially if we, if we set you up against Dixon Jones and, and I don't know, Neil Patel or whatever. So, we set you up against, you know, other, other people that you might consider competitors in a, in a, in, in a certain world. And then you start to see, well, what do you know about James Dooley? What do you know about Dixon Jones? What do you know about Neil Patel? And then it's going to come back with these answers and then there's going to be gaps in, in, in what it says about Neil Patel. And you say, well, you know what? I absolutely am better than Neil Patel in this context and I need to demonstrate that. At that point, you only have control of your own website. Usually, that's not entirely true. But wherever he got that information... But that information was cited from is also a valid place to go and, and look at. So, if it's a... If, if, if in this case it's a listicle of, you know, top SEOs, then, you know, maybe it... It's there. I'm not... I don't know why I chose Neil Patel in this particular example, James, but, you know, it's... You know, take it with... Take it as it is. So, so, so yes, the, the citation sources when you specifically ask about James Dooley are one. And, and, and, and your peers becomes one interesting data source. But it's a deep, deep data source. In other words, the AI already has to know that they're looking for information about James Dooley really to, to dive in there. When it's like you're asking the questions about what is the best SEO in the world, then you want to... Then that's a kind of a commercial, a commercial query, a user-based query, and it could come up with listicles and lots and lots of SEOs. And, and, and, uh, and now and that's a kind of a commercial, a commercial query, a user-based query, and it could come up with listicles and lots and lots of SEOs. And, and, and, uh, and now the data sources for there are the ones that you talk about, the, those third-party data sources. And I think they're both important in different, uh, in different reasons. The first is, is, is the shallow... The first is the deep reasoning. As soon as an AI has decided that it knows about James Dooley and wants to find out more about James Dooley, then it wants to do that not just from your own source, but from other sources as well. Independent sources help, uh, a lot. Reviews will help a lot. But the, uh, but the prompt stuff, then at the moment the listicles are standing out as, as, as a, as a particularly interesting, uh, citation source. I, I think that's, uh, that's a, a, a built on a little... Built on a little bit of sand for the LLM's point of view. Not for the SEO's point of view. It's great. Uh, but, uh, but they're going to need to work on that in 2027. But nevertheless, whatever comes back and is cited from the user's point of view, those are important because that's the marketing we need to do. We need to build distribution channels, which essentially is getting ourselves listed on the sites that are cited in the consumer responses.

James Dooley: Yep. For anyone who's watching this, let us know in the comments, what do you think the main AEO strategies are going to be for 2027? Like I said, Dixon Jones is normally one or two steps ahead of the game. Make certain you're starting looking into connecting your large language models with different MCPs. Make certain you're pouring that data in. More data is key. Make certain you're building that third-party corroborative source. Well, make certain to start with you're defining that entity. Make certain that you're getting everything being put into place. There's something that Dixon's created called EntityMap.org. Go and get that being created and that being set up. Use your schema to wrap in all the sameAs with all your other profiles that define who you are before you start building that reputation offline. Dixon Jones, it's been an absolute pleasure. I hope you like this episode on AEO tips for 2027. Thanks, James.

Dixon Jones: Thanks, James.