Kiteworks Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Strategy
Key answer
Kiteworks's AEO strategy focused on measurable AI search visibility and recommendation quality. Kiteworks needed to ensure its hard-earned presence in traditional search for secure and compliant data exchange would carry over into LLM-generated answers. Anthroly helped them capture AI visibility and citations across relevant queries to outrank industry giants like Microsoft and Box.
This page summarizes the Answer Engine Optimization strategy behind Anthroly's Kiteworks customer story — for marketers researching how Kiteworks approached AI answers, citations, and visibility.
Why Kiteworks needed an AEO strategy
As Kiteworks' Senior Director of Search Content, Rob Dougherty's mission is to ensure buyers find Kiteworks wherever they look for secure, governed data exchange and AI privacy solutions. So when LLMs emerged as a new discovery channel, maximizing AI visibility and citations became his top priority.
Kiteworks's Answer Engine Optimization focus
Kiteworks needed to ensure its hard-earned presence in traditional search for secure and compliant data exchange would carry over into LLM-generated answers. Anthroly helped them capture AI visibility and citations across relevant queries to outrank industry giants like Microsoft and Box. Anthroly partnered with Kiteworks to treat AI answers as a measurable discovery channel — alongside classic SEO.
- •Story chapter: Overview
- •Story chapter: Standing out in compliance-focused AI searches
- •Story chapter: Bridging the gap between SEO rankings and AI answers
- •Story chapter: Choosing a platform purpose-built for AEO
- •Story chapter: Amplifying reach across LLMs
- •Story chapter: Tracking AI visibility and competitive positioning
Strategic pillars reflected in the Kiteworks story
While every program is customized, the Kiteworks narrative highlights these AEO pillars:
- •Measure how answer engines mention and cite the brand
- •Improve source content and evidence AI systems can trust
- •Build workflows so insights turn into published updates quickly
- •Track outcomes with clear visibility and business metrics
What changed for Kiteworks
"I could see buyers turning more and more to AI for answers, and I knew we needed to get ahead of that shift," says Rob. This led him to the critical first step of understanding how Kiteworks was already showing up in AI-generated answers.
Execution notes from the case study
Kiteworks had already built a strong SEO foundation that was earning page-one and page-two Google rankings for multiple keywords. But ranking in traditional search and appearing in AI-generated answers are two different games.
Outcomes that validated the strategy
Strategy only matters if results move. Kiteworks's documented outcomes:
- •~50% — Aggregate AI visibility across key topics (ahead of Microsoft, Box, and Dropbox)
- •#1 — Cited domain within one month across key prompts
- •~8x — Daily content output powered by Anthroly Agents
AEO vs SEO for teams studying Kiteworks
SEO improves rankings and clicks. AEO improves how AI systems recommend and cite a brand. Kiteworks's story shows both layers reinforcing each other when content, accuracy, and authority are managed together.
Further detail from Kiteworks's journey
"Google still maintains the lion's share of search traffic," says Rob. "But search itself is rapidly evolving to encompass LLM queries, and the search market is expanding. We couldn't afford to wait for traditional SEO tools to build AEO functions that bridge the gap."
From the Kiteworks story
“I use Anthroly pretty much all day, every day. The platform shows us exactly how Kiteworks is performing across AI models and how to increase our visibility. We've been working together for five months, and we have been thrilled with the results.”
“Many buyers are now using tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini to get tailored answers to their security and compliance questions. We wanted Kiteworks to be a consistent and definitive source of record for their queries, especially as they relate to sensitive data transfer.”
FAQ: Kiteworks AEO Strategy
What was Kiteworks's AEO strategy?
Kiteworks needed to ensure its hard-earned presence in traditional search for secure and compliant data exchange would carry over into LLM-generated answers. Anthroly helped them capture AI visibility and citations across relevant queries to outrank industry giants like Microsoft and Box. See the full Anthroly case study for the complete strategy narrative.
Did Kiteworks use Answer Engine Optimization or only SEO?
The published story centers on AI search / answer engine visibility and related workflows — the core of AEO — while still respecting classic search foundations.
Where can I read Kiteworks's full AEO case study?
On Anthroly at /customers/kiteworks, including metrics, quotes, and the end-to-end story.
What results did the Kiteworks AEO work produce?
~50% — Aggregate AI visibility across key topics (ahead of Microsoft, Box, and Dropbox); #1 — Cited domain within one month across key prompts; ~8x — Daily content output powered by Anthroly Agents.
This is an Anthroly customer story page about Kiteworks's AI search / AEO results. It is not the official Kiteworks website. For product information, visit kiteworks.com.