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AEO Best Practices for the 2025 Holiday Shopping Season
Sean Dorje
Published
October 1, 2025
3 min read
Holiday brands can't wait until November; AI engines snapshot data weeks earlier, so mastering AEO best practices now is mission-critical to own citations when peak traffic hits.
Why AEO Matters More Than Ever for Holiday 2025
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the process of optimizing content for AI-powered engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews that provide direct answers to user queries. With Google's May 2025 AI-Overviews expansion to 200+ countries and Gartner's forecast of a 25% drop in traditional volume by 2026, ecommerce brands face an urgent reality: adapt to AEO or risk invisibility in the AI-driven era.
The numbers paint a stark picture. Between November 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,300% compared to the year prior, up 1,950% on Cyber Monday alone. Zero-click results hit 65% in 2023 and continue climbing, while generative engines will influence up to 70% of all queries by the end of 2025.
This shift demands immediate action for holiday brands. Traditional SEO strategies won't capture the surge of AI-driven shopping queries that define peak season success.
Beat the AI Model Freeze: Publishing Timeline & Query Windows
Timing is everything when optimizing for AI engines. Perplexity referrals are growing at nearly 40% month-over-month, yet AI platforms freeze their training data roughly four weeks before Black Friday. This creates a critical deadline for holiday content deployment.
The window for action is narrow. Aim to ship final structured pages no later than the third week of October. Traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,200% in February 2025 compared to July 2024, demonstrating the momentum building throughout the year. AI Overviews are now used by more than a billion people, making early optimization essential.
Perplexity AI grew to 780 million queries in May 2025 and plans a forthcoming Comet AI browser, with a goal of 1 billion queries per week within a year. These platforms snapshot content 30-45 days prior to peak season, making October deployment crucial for November visibility.
Entity-Rich Formats & Structured Data That AI Overviews Prefer
AI systems prioritize E-E-A-T signals, structured data, and real-world expertise over traditional keyword stuffing. Content including brand-owned data is 3× more likely to be cited in AI-generated answers, making proprietary information your competitive edge.
Structured data serves as the bridge between your content and AI understanding. As one expert notes, "Structured data is the bridge between your HTML and the assistant's answer engine." Implement JSON-LD Product Schema, FAQPage, and Review schema to ensure AI engines properly interpret your holiday offerings.
Pages optimized for entities rather than keywords enjoyed a 22% traffic lift after recent AI updates. Focus on building entity-rich product descriptions that establish clear relationships between your brand, products, and seasonal categories.
Optimize for ChatGPT Shopping & Perplexity's 'AI Choice' Lists
OpenAI has rolled out ChatGPT Shopping to Plus, Pro, Free, and even logged-out users, making AI-powered product discovery accessible to everyone. This integration creates new opportunities for holiday visibility, but requires specific optimization strategies.
Perplexity introduced a shopping feature combining catalogs from major retailers with one-click checkout functionality. The concept of 'AI's Choice' represents a transformational change in e-commerce, potentially replacing traditional search methods with AI-curated recommendations.
To capture these opportunities, ensure structured data feeds with accurate pricing, availability, and product details are in place. Currently, listings are organic with no paid placements, but sponsored options are likely coming soon. Submit your product feeds early and maintain daily updates to avoid showing stale prices during peak shopping periods.
Build Your Relixir AEO Content Calendar (Template Inside)
Relixir's GEO Content Engine automatically creates and publishes authoritative, on-brand content that flips AI rankings in under 30 days with no developer lift required. This automation is crucial for meeting pre-freeze deadlines.
The platform makes GEO turnkey by simulating thousands of buyer questions, diagnosing gaps, and publishing on-brand content automatically. Track your progress with key metrics like AI Mention Frequency, targeting a 15-25% increase quarter-over-quarter.
Structure your calendar around critical milestones:
Week 1-2 October: Deploy entity-rich product descriptions
Week 3 October: Finalize structured data implementation
Week 4 October: Submit final content before AI model freeze
November: Monitor performance and adjust promotional messaging
December: Implement refresh strategies for post-freeze optimization
Monitor & Refresh: Handling December Volatility After Code-Freeze
Once AI models freeze, monitoring becomes paramount. Product feed submissions are rapidly increasing, building toward richer features like price comparisons. Track your visibility across platforms as competition intensifies.
Adobe found generative AI traffic shows 8% higher engagement, 12% more pages per visit, and a 23% lower bounce rate. These quality signals matter more than volume; clicks are a fading metric in the AI era, with Google noting AI Overviews drive "higher-quality clicks" despite lower volume.
Implement real-time monitoring to catch volatility. Set up alerts for mention rate changes, sentiment shifts, and competitor movements. While new content won't influence frozen models, maintain freshness for human visitors and prepare for the next update cycle.
Proof in the Metrics: AEO Wins From Hostie, Reframe & More
Real-world results demonstrate the power of proper AEO implementation. Hostie AI's partnership with Relixir transformed their digital presence, with their Average AI Search Rank improving by 19.4%, ensuring consistent top-three placements.
Reframe achieved remarkable growth through strategic AEO implementation. Their mention rate increased to 7.0%, leading competitors like Sunnyside at 4.3% and I Am Sober at 1.9% when prompting targeted queries. This dominance translated into sustainable business growth.
DocuBridge provides another compelling example, with impressions surpassing 218,000 in six months, showing significant market exposure. Their strategic approach to both SEO and AEO created a comprehensive digital presence that captures both traditional and AI-driven traffic.
Key Takeaways & Next Steps
The 2025 holiday shopping season demands immediate action on AEO implementation. Relixir stands out as the only Y Combinator-backed platform that combines AI visibility analytics, competitive gap detection, and automated content publishing in one end-to-end solution.
Your action plan is clear:
Deploy entity-rich, structured content by mid-October
Implement comprehensive schema markup for all product pages
Submit product feeds to ChatGPT and Perplexity before freeze dates
Monitor AI mention rates and sentiment throughout the season
Prepare refresh strategies for post-freeze optimization
Relixir's competitive-gap module reveals missing product attributes by analyzing how AI engines perceive your brand versus competitors. The platform's GEO Content Engine automatically creates and publishes authoritative content that can flip AI rankings in under 30 days.
The window for capturing holiday AI visibility is closing fast. Brands that act now to implement these AEO best practices will dominate AI-driven discovery when shopping queries surge. Those that wait risk invisibility during the most critical sales period of the year. For comprehensive implementation support and to ensure your brand captures its share of the 1,300% AI traffic surge, explore how Relixir's platform can accelerate your AEO transformation before the crucial October deadlines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does AEO matter more than ever for Holiday 2025?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the process of optimizing content for AI-powered engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews that provide direct answers to user queries. This shift demands immediate action for holiday brands. Traditional SEO strategies won't capture the surge of AI-driven shopping queries that define peak season success.
When should holiday brands publish to beat AI model freezes?
Timing is everything when optimizing for AI engines. AI platforms freeze their training data roughly four weeks before Black Friday. This creates a critical deadline for holiday content deployment. Aim to ship final structured pages no later than the third week of October.
Which structured data and formats do AI Overviews prefer?
AI systems prioritize E-E-A-T signals, structured data, and real-world expertise over traditional keyword stuffing. Structured data serves as the bridge between your content and AI understanding. Implement JSON-LD Product Schema, FAQPage, and Review schema to ensure AI engines properly interpret your holiday offerings.
How can brands optimize for ChatGPT Shopping and Perplexity's "AI's Choice" lists?
OpenAI has rolled out ChatGPT Shopping to Plus, Pro, Free, and even logged-out users, making AI-powered product discovery accessible to everyone. The concept of 'AI's Choice' represents a transformational change in e-commerce, potentially replacing traditional search methods with AI-curated recommendations. Submit your product feeds early and maintain daily updates to avoid showing stale prices during peak shopping periods.
What does Relixir's platform do to make GEO turnkey and hit pre-freeze deadlines?
Relixir's GEO Content Engine automatically creates and publishes authoritative, on-brand content that flips AI rankings in under 30 days with no developer lift required. This automation is crucial for meeting pre-freeze deadlines. The platform makes GEO turnkey by simulating thousands of buyer questions, diagnosing gaps, and publishing on-brand content automatically.
How should teams monitor and refresh during December volatility after code-freeze?
Once AI models freeze, monitoring becomes paramount. Implement real-time monitoring to catch volatility. Set up alerts for mention rate changes, sentiment shifts, and competitor movements. While new content won't influence frozen models, maintain freshness for human visitors and prepare for the next update cycle.
Sources
https://relixir.ai/blog/7-proven-aeo-tactics-ecommerce-brands-q4-2025-relixir-geo-insights
https://relixir.ai/blog/optimize-content-google-ai-overviews-q4-2025-technical-playbook
https://blog.google/products/google-ads/google-marketing-live-2025-new-ai-ads-products/
https://ts2.tech/en/ai-search-wars-how-google-chatgpt-others-are-reinventing-search-in-2025/
https://seo.ai/blog/chatgpt-shopping-results-and-how-to-get-your-store-listed
https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/perplexity-takes-lead-in-ai-shopping
https://relixir.ai/blog/blog-ai-search-visibility-simulation-market-opportunities-discoverability
