What Is AEO? Answer Engine Optimization Explained
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of making your site easy for AI assistants and answer boxes to find, understand and quote.
7 min read · Updated
What AEO means
Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is the work of making your site easy for answer engines to find, understand and quote. Answer engines include AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, plus the answer boxes in search results.
Where classic SEO aims to win a ranked link, AEO aims to be the source inside the answer itself.
How AEO differs from SEO
The two overlap a lot. Crawlable pages, clear structure, fast loading and trusted links help both. The difference is the format: an answer engine wants a short, direct answer it can lift, and evidence from other pages that the answer is right.
So AEO adds question-and-answer content, clear definitions and consistent facts about you across the web on top of normal SEO.
Practical AEO steps
Put a plain one-sentence description of what you do at the top of your homepage. Add an FAQ that answers real questions in full sentences, and mark it up with FAQ schema so machines can see the questions and answers.
Use descriptive headings, keep important text in HTML rather than images, and add schema for your organization, articles and products where it applies.
Build outside evidence
Answer engines cross-check. Listings on reviewed directories, mentions in articles and genuine reviews give them more than one source saying the same thing about you. A MyWebCite listing is one such source, with its own review page and a dofollow link.
What AEO cannot do
No tactic guarantees a mention in ChatGPT or any other assistant, and assistants change how they pick sources. Treat AEO as improving your odds by being clear, consistent and well cited, and measure it by asking the assistants your buyers' questions from time to time.