As search undergoes its biggest shift in recent history, staying visible means evolving beyond traditional search engines. Asad Shaikh, who heads up the SXO capability (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) at Incubeta MENA, unpacks how brands can navigate the transition from conventional search to AI-led discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 16 years of experience scaling global brands and driving commercial results, Asad bridges the gap between traditional SEO and the emerging worlds of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). He shares insights on optimizing digital footprints to ensure brands aren’t just found on Google, but actively cited and recommended across platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, ensuring they remain the top choice wherever modern users ask questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How would you explain SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) to a brand leader who is hearing about it for the first time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SXO is the practice of making your brand easy to find, understand, trust, and recommend across search engines and AI platforms. It’s the umbrella strategy that combines all three (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) to drive brand visibility and customer acquisition wherever people search for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why should MENA brands care about SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MENA brands should care about SXO now because customer discovery is rapidly shifting from traditional search to AI-powered answers. Consumers are increasingly asking Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools for recommendations instead of browsing multiple websites. If your brand isn’t optimized for SXO, competitors may become the answer before customers ever reach your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How is SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) different from traditional SEO?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditional SEO focuses on helping your website rank higher in search engine results. SXO (SEO + AEO + GEO) focuses on making your brand discoverable, understandable, and recommendable across search engines, AI assistants, and answer platforms, not just driving clicks to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What kinds of brands or sectors in MENA can benefit most from SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sectors such as retail, finance, travel, healthcare, education, real estate, automotive, and B2B services. In short, any sectors where customers research, compare, and ask questions before making decisions benefit most from SXO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are the biggest challenges brands face when preparing for AI-led discovery?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest challenges are building enough authority and trust for AI platforms to recognize and recommend a brand, maintaining consistent information across digital channels, and creating content that AI can easily understand and cite. Many brands also struggle to measure AI-driven visibility and understand how they’re being represented in AI-generated answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does your team assess whether a brand is ready for SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We assess a brand’s discoverability, authority, and AI readiness by evaluating its search visibility, content quality, technical SEO foundation, consistency across digital channels, and how often it’s cited or referenced by trusted sources. We also analyze how AI platforms understand and represent the brand compared to its competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) connect with creative, media, content, and Marketing Intelligence?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SXO connects all four disciplines: creative shapes memorable brand narratives, content provides the information AI and search engines use, media amplifies visibility and authority signals, and Marketing Intelligence identifies the topics, audiences, and opportunities that drive discovery. Together, they ensure the brand is not only seen, but also understood and recommended across search and AI platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) trend should MENA brands watch for the rest of 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The key trend for the rest of 2026 is AI-first discovery becoming the default, as users increasingly get answers directly from AI assistants instead of search results. For MENA brands, this means optimizing for being cited and recommended in AI-generated answers (GEO\/AEO) alongside traditional SEO. A stronger focus will also be needed on high-quality Arabic content, structured data, and trusted third-party mentions to influence how AI systems describe brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What advice would you give to brands choosing an SXO (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) partner?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Look for a partner that goes beyond rankings and focuses on AI visibility, content authority, and brand consistency across search and generative platforms. They should understand both SEO fundamentals and how AI systems retrieve, summarize, and recommend information, and be able to show how their work improves real business outcomes, not just clicks or traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As search undergoes its biggest shift in recent history, staying visible means evolving beyond traditional search engines. Asad Shaikh, who heads up the SXO capability (SEO\/GEO\/AEO) at Incubeta MENA, unpacks how brands can navigate the transition from conventional search to AI-led discovery. With 16 years of experience scaling global brands and driving commercial results, Asad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[318,221,316,319],"approach":[],"solution":[],"industry":[50],"market":[33],"class_list":["post-18365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leadership","tag-aeo","tag-ai","tag-seo","tag-sxo","industry-global","market-mena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18369,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365\/revisions\/18369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18365"},{"taxonomy":"approach","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/approach?post=18365"},{"taxonomy":"solution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/solution?post=18365"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=18365"},{"taxonomy":"market","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incubeta.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/market?post=18365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}