AI search
What is Answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring your website so AI-powered answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google’s AI Overviews) can read it, quote it, and cite your business when they answer a user’s question.
Classic SEO optimises for a ranked list of links. AEO optimises for being the source inside a written answer, because a growing share of buying research now ends in a chat window instead of a results page. The two overlap heavily (crawlable pages and real content help both), but AEO adds its own requirements: pages that answer the question in the first two sentences instead of warming up for four paragraphs, structured data that tells engines exactly what you are, and technical access for AI crawlers, which mostly do not run JavaScript and therefore see nothing on client-rendered sites.
The terms AEO and GEO (generative engine optimization) are used near-interchangeably; GEO leans slightly more toward being cited in generated answers, AEO toward being the answer. In practice one discipline serves both, and it splits into thirds: technical readability (server-rendered pages, schema, llms.txt, a robots policy that welcomes AI crawlers), quotable content (direct answers, real numbers, honest comparisons), and off-site consensus (the reviews, directories, and mentions engines cross-reference before trusting a claim).
The measurable part is real: AI engines send referral traffic you can see (chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai appear in analytics as referrers, and ChatGPT tags its outbound links), and you can audit your share of voice by asking the engines your money questions monthly and recording who they cite. We run this exact loop on our own sites, which is where our conviction (and our GEO service) comes from.
Frequently asked
- What is the difference between AEO and SEO?
- Classic SEO optimises for a ranked list of links. AEO optimises for being the source quoted inside a written AI answer, because a growing share of buying research now ends in a chat window. They overlap, crawlable pages and real content help both, but AEO adds answering the question in the first two sentences, structured data, and technical access for AI crawlers that mostly do not run JavaScript.
- Is AEO the same as GEO?
- The terms are used near-interchangeably. GEO, generative engine optimization, leans slightly more toward being cited in generated answers; AEO leans toward being the answer itself. In practice one discipline serves both, splitting into technical readability, quotable content, and off-site consensus.
- Can you measure whether AEO is working?
- Yes. AI engines send referral traffic you can see, chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai show up as referrers in analytics, and you can audit your share of voice by asking the engines your money questions monthly and recording who they cite. We run that exact loop on our own sites.
Wondering where this fits in your business?
The free AI audit maps your operations and shows the three systems we would build first, in plain language like this.
