AEO

What is AEO

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of making pages that AI answer engines can find, understand and cite. An answer engine replies to a question with written text instead of a list of links: ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode all work this way. Most of them search the web while they answer, read a handful of pages and link some of those pages as sources.

AEO asks what makes a page one of those sources, and most of the answers are practical. The crawler behind the engine has to be allowed to fetch the page. The page has to state its answer plainly, close to the question it answers. Claims need evidence that a reader, or a model, can check. And the facts about you (names, prices, versions, dates) have to agree everywhere they appear, because the engine may read several pages before it writes one sentence.

Google says its AI features rely on the same fundamentals as Search and need no special files or markup (AI features and your website). Other engines publish less about how they choose sources, which is why every article here shows its own.

Progress is measured by sampling answers rather than reading a rank. Teams run a fixed set of real questions against each engine on a schedule and record mentions, citations and accuracy. The AI visibility trackers in the directory automate that; the AI search and Experiments topics cover doing it by hand.

AEO vs SEO

AEO and SEO share most of their groundwork. Both need pages that crawlers can reach, that answer a real question and that people trust enough to reference. An answer engine that searches the web before it replies depends on a search index to find pages, so a site that is invisible to search is usually invisible to answers too.

The differences are in what you win and how you measure it:

• What you win. SEO earns a position in a list of links. AEO earns a mention or a citation inside a generated answer, which the reader may act on without clicking.
• What you can measure. SEO has rankings, impressions and clicks. Answer engines report little of this to site owners; Google, for example, counts clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode inside Search Console's overall web search totals rather than separately (AI features and your website). AEO teams sample answers themselves.
• What gets read. Google describes its AI features as running several related searches for one question, which it calls query fan-out, and drawing on more than one page. A passage that states one claim clearly can be used even when the page around it does not rank first.
• Who speaks for you. Answers draw on reviews, forums, documentation and press as well as your own site, so what others publish about you shapes what the engine says.

AEO does not replace SEO. It adds a second question to every page: if an engine quoted only this paragraph, would the answer be accurate?

FAQ

Is AEO the same as GEO?

Both names describe the same goal: getting content used and cited in AI-generated answers. GEO, generative engine optimization, comes from a 2023 research paper, and this publication files work under either name. See GEO.

Do I need llms.txt or special schema markup for AEO?

No engine requires either. Google states that its AI features need no special files or markup. Structured data still describes a page precisely, and llms.txt is a proposal some tools read; see the llms.txt and schema tools.

How do I know whether AEO work is paying off?

Keep a fixed set of real questions, run them against each engine on a schedule, and log whether you are mentioned, cited and described accurately. Compare trends over weeks, because single answers vary from run to run.