Explainable: Why AI Recommends Some Brands & Ignores Others

Search grew up. Most marketing hasn't caught up yet.For decades, success in search meant rankings, traffic, and clicks. Today, search engines don't just point people to answers, they decide what the answer is. And they decide which brands are trustworthy enough to include. If AI assistants are already answering questions about your industry but never mentioning your company, this book explains why and what to do about it.Explainable is a practical guide to two emerging disciplines every marketer needs to understand: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Written in plain language, it shows how they build on SEO rather than replace it.Inside, you'll learn:Why the "10 blue links" model broke and what replaced itHow AI systems decide which brands to recommend and which to ignoreWhy clarity now beats cleverness, and authority comes before optimizationHow to create content that gets cited, not just clickedHow to measure success when influence happens before trafficThe most common GEO and AEO mistakes and how to avoid themReal-world applications across B2B, DTC, enterprise, and local businessesThis book is for you if:You're a marketer, founder, or business leader who has noticed that the rules are shifting but hasn't found a practical guide that explains the new ones without requiring a technical background. Everything in this book can be implemented by a team of two with no specialized tools and no agency retainer.About the author:Jarred Smith has spent nearly 20 years in marketing across industries including environmental services, healthcare, public media, and retail. He currently heads marketing at an international environmental services company. He started writing this book after noticing that AI assistants were answering questions about his industry, but never mentioning the company he worked for. The more he researched, the more he realized most marketers were facing the same invisible problem.The brands AI recommends aren't always the biggest or the best-known. They're the ones that are easiest to explain.The question isn't whether search has changed. It's whether your marketing has changed with it. Read more