To improve visibility in AI answer engines, content and SEO marketers need to add AEO keywords gap analysis to their strategies. Traditional SEO keyword gaps show which terms a company isn’t ranking for versus the competition. An AEO keywords gap uses the same principle but with broader criteria, identifying the prompts and questions where a given brand is cited in AI search, but another isn’t.
This guide offers a practical pathway to find and close the AEO keywords gap, identifying AI citation opportunities a company is missing. It covers how to audit current content and competitor coverage, how to spot high-value gaps to close first, how to turn gaps into answer-ready content that gets cited, and how to track whether it’s working.
Table of Contents
- What is an AEO keywords gap?
- AEO Keywords Gap vs. Traditional SEO Gap
- How to Audit Your AEO Keywords Gap
- How to Prioritize the Right Gaps
- How to Turn a Gap Into Answer-Ready Content
- How HubSpot AEO Helps You Find and Close Gaps
- How to Measure Progress Over Time
- Frequently Asked Questions About AEO Keywords Gaps
- Don’t underestimate the value of AEO keyword gaps.
What is an AEO keywords gap?
An AEO keywords gap is the difference between the questions or topics AI answer engines surface versus the questions a brand answers clearly enough to be cited. The gap refers to keywords, topics, questions, and prompts that a brand hasn’t answered clearly enough to be cited in engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
The stakes are high for AEO keyword gaps in this new search era. When a buyer asks an answer engine to recommend a product or solution, rather than a page of links to choose from, they get a paraphrased response or a shortlist directly from AI.
The evidence is in the data: HubSpot’s own research of 3,063 CRM software purchase decision-makers found that 42% of CRM software buyers now use AI search as part of their evaluation, and it’s the strongest predictor of purchase intent HubSpot tracks. Referral traffic from AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini has also tripled over the past year, according to Search Engine Land. If a brand isn’t showing up in the prompts that map to its category, it’s being left off the shortlist before a buyer ever visits a website.
The following bar chart from the Search Engine Land article shows the aggregate referral traffic by month in 2025. Monthly volume climbed steadily throughout the year, with December’s referral traffic roughly three times higher than January’s. The rising traffic reinforces the importance of the AEO keyword gap. More people are searching using AI tools.
Important note: An SEO keyword gap and an AEO keywords gap don’t tell the same story, and closing one doesn’t close the other. A page can rank on page one of Google for a term and still never get pulled into an AI-generated answer for that same topic. BrightEdge’s analysis of AI Overviews (AIO) found that only about 17% of sources cited in AIOs also rank in the organic top 10, meaning roughly five out of six AIO citations pull from content that never appears on page one of traditional results.
Pro tip: While an SEO keyword gap shows where content is missing from rankings, it can’t show where content is ranking well and still getting skipped over in AI-generated answers.
AEO Keywords Gap vs. Traditional SEO Gap
A traditional keyword gap report answers one question: Which terms does a competitor rank for that a brand doesn’t?
Gaps between AEO versus SEO are not the same thing. The comparison needs more dimensions than that, because answer engines aren’t just matching keywords. AEO keyword research prioritizes questions, entities, answer formats, and citation potential.
How to Audit Your AEO Keywords Gap
Auditing an AEO keyword gap is the first step to improving visibility and staying competitive in search. There are four essential steps that make up an AEO keywords gap audit:
1. Inspect Search Console and SERP patterns.
Google Search Console (GSC) shows which queries are already driving impressions and clicks to a website. While GSC is largely an SEO tool with keyword research capabilities and AEO features in beta, the data is still transferable to AEO (also known as GEO). Queries that are already gaining impressions and clicks are, in theory, associated with your website; the brand already has authority there, which may transfer to AIO.
Start by exporting data and reviewing keywords in Google Sheets or in an Excel spreadsheet. Look for:
- Long-tail queries (multiple words in one query). People tend to use more conversational prompts in AI search engines. Longer-tail keywords are more likely to include problems or hints about the audience) searching.
- Question-style queries, since those are most likely to surface in answer engines.
Export data from GSC by visiting the Performance report, altering the data range, then clicking Export.
The following screenshot shows a Google Sheet I exported that contains all queries for my brand in Google Search Console. I used a formula to calculate how many words were in 1,000 queries, then sorted by the biggest value.
The formula:
=IF(TRIM(B1)=””, 0, LEN(TRIM(B1)) - LEN(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(B1), “ “, “”)) + 1)
The queries highlighted in green are most interesting to me.
I can see B2B software companies struggling to tie pipeline to won deals, which is a common challenge I can solve! From this information, I could create pages and content to support this audience with a call to action to get in touch.
Before creating content, it helps to look at the search engine results pages (SERPs). Even a manual review provides insights into patterns. Next, pull up the SERP for a target query and note:
- Whether an AI Overview or answer box appears
- Which pages (e.g. blogs, service pages, product pages, case studies, etc.,) is the AIO pulling from
- Which domains are cited
- What shows up in traditional search
Once I’ve established what’s being prioritized in SERPs, I’d create a similar page to maximize visibility.
2. Collect first-party customer questions.
Sales calls, support tickets, and community forums are full of the exact phrasing customers use when they’re trying to solve a problem, which is often closer to how someone would prompt an answer engine.
Pulling recurring questions from these sources and checking whether current content answers them directly is a fast way to surface gaps that neither a keyword tool nor a competitor audit would catch on their own. Start by reviewing:
- Transcripts, tickets, or thread exports
- Sales call recordings
- Support ticket logs
- Forum threads (Reddit, Slack communities, G2 reviews) and owned communities
Here’s an example of a question on HubSpot’s Community, likely the kind of question that gets asked in AI search all the time:
This question relates to speed differences between WordPress and HubSpot. HubSpot has a comparison between WordPress and HubSpot. This mini content gap analysis demonstrates that HubSpot could edit the comparison to include information about page speed to satisfy queries like this. This mini content gap analysis reveals which content edits or new pieces will improve performance in search generative experiences.
3. Study competitor coverage.
A company’s top competitors in AI answer engine search are often different than the ones showing up in a traditional SERP. To expose where the real competition is, run a set of prompts related to a brand’s category and note:
- Which competitors appear in the response
- The domains cited as sources
Which formats those citations favor (comparison pages, listicles, product pages) Start by running category-level prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overview that a prospective customer might type before they’ve decided on a vendor. Log the response, the domains cited, and the page type behind each citation in a spreadsheet.
Here’s an example: Running a prompt like “best CRM for small sales teams” surfaced listicle-style blog posts and Reddit posts as citations. The domains were not any vendor’s own website. The pages cited most consistently were structured as head-to-head comparisons with pricing tables, reviews, pros and cons, and more.
From this, marketers know what they need to do to improve brand visibility in these searches. Marketing needs to work on connections with third-party websites or PR, since this search is dominated by them.
4. Review current content.
Once the foundational research is done, it’s time to optimize websites with a view of closing AEO gaps. Start with an inventory of existing pages mapped against the core topics a brand should own.
Does each page directly answer identified, specific questions? Or does it talk around a topic without committing to a clear answer? A page can cover a topic thoroughly and still fail this test if it never states a direct answer an engine could lift and cite. Sticking with the examples above, a content review for each insight might be:
- The B2B pipeline-to-won-deals query from Search Console points to a page (or a gap) that needs a direct, citable answer built around that phrase for a specific audience.
- The HubSpot community question about page speed points to an existing page, the WordPress vs HubSpot comparison, that covers the topic but doesn’t commit to an answer on speed specifically. That’s a partial pass: The topic is owned, but the direct answer isn’t there yet.
- The CRM competitor research points the other way; the citations are going to comparison pages with pricing tables, reviews, and pros and cons on other people’s sites, not the vendor’s own.
Run together, these AEO keywords gap audit steps replace guesswork with a documented view of where a brand is answering clearly, where it’s talking around a topic without committing to an answer, and where competitors are winning the citation instead.
With all the information and data from the first three steps, marketers have a much easier time getting buy-in from teams to create or edit content, or even securing budget from stakeholders to get the work done.
How to Prioritize the Right Gaps
Not every gap surfaced by the four steps above is worth closing. Some questions get asked but sit outside what the business actually sells or wants to specialize in.
For example, in my Google Search Console export, I found many queries related to ecommerce websites or sites with thousands of SKUs. While I could create content to help these brands and increase my visibility in AI tools, I don’t target ecommerce brands. Since they’re not my ideal client profile (ICP), I needn’t try to get in front of them.
Sort queries and actions by how much they help your brand and, importantly, revenue. Think about:
- Business relevance. Does answering this question connect to something the brand sells or wants to be known for? A recurring question that’s adjacent to the category but doesn’t touch the product is lower priority than one that maps straight to a core offering, even if the adjacent question has higher volume.
- Audience: Does the question come from the brand’s ICP? Does the question come from a person with buying power? A gap that maps to an ideal audience with buying power warrants priority over one that draws traffic from an audience that will never convert.
- Funnel stage. A comparison or “vs” question sits closer to a purchase decision than a broad educational question. Prioritize gaps at the stage where a citation is more likely to influence a decision versus pure visibility.
- Answerability. Can this be answered directly and completely with subject matter experts to provide insights? A question that requires nuance needs subject-matter expertise.
- Likelihood of influencing visibility. Some gaps sit on pages or topics with existing authority (already ranking, already getting impressions in Search Console), which makes them easier to push into a citable position. Others would require building authority from zero. The former is usually the faster win.
Once the list is sorted, it helps to have a baseline read on where the brand already stands compared to competitors.
HubSpot’s AI Search Grader is a free tool that scores how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity characterize a brand across five dimensions: Sentiment, presence quality, brand recognition, share of voice, and market position. Based on those scores, AI Search Grader generates a free optimization report companies can use as a baseline to benchmark how AI represents competitors.
How to Turn a Gap Into Answer-Ready Content
Once a gap is confirmed and prioritized, the job shifts from research to writing something an answer engine can actually lift. Answer-ready content uses direct answers, supporting evidence, and consistent entity naming in a specific structure that makes it easier for AI answer engines to extract as standalone citations.
1. Choose the format the question calls for.
Not every gap needs a new blog post.
- A comparison or “versus” question, like the WordPress versus HubSpot page speed gap, is usually best served by a comparison page or a table over narrative copy.
- Use a step-by-step guide to demonstrate a recurring how-to question from support tickets.
- A B2B pipeline-to-won-deals query is closer to a blog, use case, or solution page.
2. Lead with the direct answer.
If a question appears as a heading within a page, the first sentence or two after the heading should answer the question completely, in language close to how it was asked. Then, include any nuance, caveats, or supporting details.
Front-loading a direct answer fixes the “talks around it” pages that get flagged during the content review. A page might already cover the question somewhere in the copy, but if the answer isn’t stated plainly near a heading that matches the question, an answer engine has nothing clean to cite.
3. Add supporting questions.
Once the core question is answered, build out the related questions a buyer would ask next. Each supporting question gets its own heading and direct answer, turning one page into coverage for a cluster of related prompts.
4. Build internal links with intent.
Link to pages that support the claim, such as a case study, a product spec, or a data page. Link in from related content covering the same topic cluster.
How HubSpot AEO Helps You Find and Close Gaps
Technically, marketers can perform all the AEO keyword gap research steps we’ve outlined manually. But it’s incredibly tedious, inaccurate, and reductive. Manual AEO keyword research is generally a mistake because it is inefficient and captures only a single snapshot in time.
HubSpot AEO helps marketers track brand visibility, competitor presence, and citation gaps across answer engines. It extends visibility tracking beyond traditional search to answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, turning that manual audit into an ongoing trend report rather than a one-off exercise redone from scratch every quarter.
1. Visibility Tracking
Manual monitoring only captures a single point in time: Whatever a prompt returns on the day it’s checked, until someone remembers to check again. HubSpot AEO runs that tracking continuously, sending each tracked prompt to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity every day and aggregating the responses into a Brand Visibility score, the percentage of answers where the brand is mentioned.
The benefit? Visibility becomes a trend. No brand can expect to show up in every search every time, but if visibility is trending in the right direction, it’s positive. Marketers can see a score move week over week, catch a dip as it happens, and see it broken down by engine, rather than waiting for a quarterly recheck to notice something changed.
2. Competitor Comparison
Instead of manually running a handful of prompts and noting which competitor names came back, HubSpot AEO runs that comparison continuously and structures the results: Which competitors are named, how consistently, and whether that shifts over time.
The tool tracks Share of Voice, showing marketers the percentage of citations across tracked prompts that mention their brand versus named competitors.
3. Citation Analysis
Keeping track of which domains get cited and why, especially across multiple prompts, is complex and time-consuming. HubSpot AEO provides comprehensive citation analysis that shows which domains, content types, and channels influence AI-generated answers. Marketers get competitive insights on what’s actually shaping the answers in their category.
4. Recommendations
Once gaps are visible, HubSpot AEO can suggest how to close them based on its competitive analysis, effectively automating a slice of the prioritization work: Which gaps are answerable, which are most relevant, and which are at a funnel stage worth prioritizing
HubSpot AEO doesn’t replace human judgment; a tool can’t know a brand’s ICP the way a marketer does. But it narrows the list down to an efficient, informed working set teams can build on.
Acting on findings is where Marketing Hub’s SEO software comes in. AEO in Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise uses CRM data to suggest relevant prompts to track, so the prompts a brand monitors reflect its own audience and offerings. From there, Marketing Hub helps teams turn AEO recommendations into published content, surface prioritized SEO fixes, find topics worth building out, and connect Google Search Console to see impressions and click-through rate as new content goes live.
How to Measure Progress Over Time
The real value of tracking an AEO keywords gap comes from watching the numbers move over weeks, months, year-over-year, and seasonally.
Visibility
Visibility trending upward across tracked prompts indicates that recent content and citation-building efforts are working. A flat or declining trend, even with new content published, is a signal that something in the approach needs to change, whether it’s the prompts being tracked, the content format, or the citation sources being pursued.
Citations
Citations tell a more specific story than visibility alone. A rising visibility score paired with flat or declining citations suggests a brand is being mentioned in AI-generated answers but not cited as a source, which points to a perception problem rather than a content gap. Watching which domains and content types earn citations over time shows whether content efforts are actually being recognized as authoritative or whether competitors and third-party sites are still doing the influencing.
Prompt Coverage
Prompt coverage matters just as much as any single score. Buyer language shifts, new competitors enter a category, and the questions people ask answer engines change accordingly. Reviewing and expanding the tracked prompt set on a regular cadence keeps the overall measurement effort aligned with what buyers are currently asking.
Revenue Impact
Visibility, citations, and prompt coverage have no strategic value unless they generate measurable leads, deals, or revenue attributed to AI-referred traffic.
Assisted business impact, leads, deals, and revenue that can be traced back to AI-referred traffic or citation-driven visibility turn AEO from a trend line into results worth reporting to leadership. Visibility and citations are leading indicators; pipeline and revenue are the metrics that justify continued investment.
Pro tip: Benchmark against the industry, too. A visibility score that’s flat for two months could reflect a stalled strategy or an industry-wide shift in how a given answer engine cites sources across the board. Comparing brand-level trends against industry-level data is the only way to tell the difference.
AI Search Sensor is a free, beta dashboard that tracks volatility in how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity cite brands and surface content, along with industry-level visibility benchmarks. Paired with a team’s own AEO data, it adds context for judging whether a shift in their numbers reflects a market-wide movement or a problem with their own strategy, before they react to the wrong one.
Frequently Asked Questions About AEO Keywords Gaps
What is the fastest way to validate an AEO keywords gap?
Outside of a full audit, running a handful of category-relevant prompts through ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity manually and noting whether a brand or its competitors are cited helps confirm whether a gap likely exists before committing time to a deeper analysis.
How is AEO keyword research different from SEO keyword research?
SEO keyword research prioritizes search volume and ranking difficulty for specific terms. AEO keyword research shifts the focus to the prompts, questions, entities, and answer formats behind those terms, since that’s what determines whether content gets cited rather than just ranked.
Which types of pages best close an AEO keywords gap?
Pages that answer one specific question directly, with supporting evidence and consistent entity naming, tend to perform best, especially comparison pages, definitional content, and FAQ-style pages. Vague or broadly scoped pages rarely get cited even when they technically cover the topic.
How often should you revisit your AEO keywords gap?
Revisiting AEO keywords gap quarterly is a reasonable baseline for most teams, though categories with fast-moving competitors or frequent buyer-language shifts may warrant a monthly check. The prompt set and citation landscape both change faster than a typical SEO keyword list does.
Can you measure AEO impact without ranking data?
Yes. Visibility, citation, and share-of-voice metrics are independent of traditional search rankings, since they measure whether and how often a brand appears in AI-generated answers rather than where a page appears on a search results page.
Don’t underestimate the value of AEO keyword gaps.
Buyers are already asking answer engines to make shortlists for them, and every unanswered prompt is a chance for a competitor to be the name that comes back instead.
Closing an AEO keywords gap means running a repeatable audit, prioritizing by business relevance and answerability, rebuilding content so it leads with a direct answer, and tracking visibility and citations over time rather than treating any of this as a one-time project.
I’ve seen what’s on the other side of getting this right. Clients of mine are sending out six-figure proposals sourced from leads that began with a prompt in Gemini or another AI tool, rather than a Google search.
HubSpot AEO is built for exactly this shift: Tracking visibility, comparing against competitors, and surfacing citation gaps continuously, so closing an AEO keywords gap becomes a measurable KPI and a marketing target.
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