Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
Why it matters
A growing share of research happens in a chat box that sends few clicks. If the answer names three suppliers and a business is not one of them, that buyer never sees it. AEO does not replace SEO. The same clear, factual page can rank in search and be cited in an answer, so the effort is shared rather than doubled.
How to apply it
- Answer the exact questions buyers ask, near the top of the page, in plain words (see answer-first content).
- Name the company, products and people consistently everywhere, so a model can recognise them as one entity.
- Back claims with specific facts that are easy to verify, rather than promotional adjectives.
- Add structured data where it fits, such as FAQ or product markup.
- Earn mentions on independent sites, since models weigh agreement across the web.
- Make sure the site's robots rules do not block the crawlers of the engines you want to appear in.
What it is
An answer engine, such as Perplexity, ChatGPT with search, Google's AI Overviews or Claude with web search, does not show ten links. It reads several pages and writes one answer, usually naming a few sources. AEO is the work of becoming one of those sources.
The two names mean almost the same thing. AEO is the older term, from the days of featured snippets and voice assistants, and focuses on being the answer. GEO became popular after a 2023 academic paper on optimising for generative engines, and leans towards a brand appearing anywhere an AI composes a reply. In practice the work is identical.
Common mistakes
Starting a separate content programme. Testing one question once, when answers vary between runs. Expecting a ranking guarantee, since nobody controls what a model writes.
Measuring it
Choose a fixed set of buyer questions, run them in each engine every month and record who is cited. The result over time is a share of voice.
