Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) To Fuel Growth
Positioning a volume home builder to appear as a trusted source in AI-driven search results
The Challenge
The digital search landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift. With the rapid emergence of AI-powered search experiences, including Google’s AI Overviews and conversational platforms like ChatGPT, traditional SEO alone is no longer sufficient to ensure visibility.
Sonar partnered with Simonds Homes at a critical moment in this transition.
As consumer behaviour evolved from short keyword searches to more complex, conversational queries, Simonds needed to ensure it remained visible not just in search rankings, but within AI-generated answers themselves.
The challenge was clear. ‘How do you position a mid-market home builder to appear as a trusted source in AI-driven search results, especially in a category dominated by larger, more established competitors?’
The Solution
Sonar developed a comprehensive Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) strategy designed to align Simonds’ digital presence with how AI systems discover, interpret and surface information.
The process began with a large-scale long-tail query analysis, where Sonar investigated hundreds of real user search behaviours. Over half of these queries were already triggering AI-generated responses, highlighting a significant opportunity.
The analysis focused on multiple dimensions including product-specific queries such as home designs, inclusions and pricing considerations, location-based intent at both regional and suburb level, question-driven searches built around how, what, when and why, and subjective or comparative queries such as “best home builder” or “is it worth building versus buying.”
From this, Sonar identified critical content gaps and opportunities where Simonds could become a preferred source for AI-generated answers.
Execution focused on reshaping how content was structured and delivered. Content architecture was refined to better align with how AI models parse and prioritise information. New content was developed with an answer-first approach, ensuring long-tail and conversational queries were addressed clearly and directly, often in multiple variations to reflect how users phrase questions differently.
At the same time, Simonds’ authority as a trusted entity in residential construction was strengthened through consistent, high-quality content. Scalable frameworks were introduced so that content could address multiple permutations of user intent while maintaining clarity and consistency.
Rather than focusing solely on keyword rankings, the strategy centred on ensuring Simonds became the answer, positioning the brand as a reliable source for AI-generated responses across a wide range of building-related queries.
The Results
The impact of the AEO strategy was both immediate and significant.
Traffic from ChatGPT increased by nearly 300% in the second half of the year.
Importantly, this traffic was highly qualified, with users converting in line with overall website performance.
Simonds also became the second most cited website in AI-generated responses for relevant residential building queries, ranking just behind the market leader. This was achieved despite Simonds being only the twelfth largest home builder in Australia, demonstrating a clear ability to outperform significantly larger competitors in AI visibility.
Key Takeaway
By shifting focus from traditional SEO to Answer Engine Optimisation, Sonar enabled Simonds Homes to punch above its weight in the AI search era. The case demonstrates that success in AI-driven search is not determined by brand size, but by the relevance, clarity and authority of content.
