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Glossary Attract more customers 2 min read

What is answer engine optimisation (AEO)?

Short answer

Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the work of getting your business mentioned in answers from AI tools like ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews. Where SEO aims to get you ranked in a list of links, AEO aims to get you quoted in the answer itself. It relies on clear, well-structured content that AI tools can easily understand and trust.

Also known as: Generative AI, AEO

Contents

Why it matters

More and more people ask AI tools for answers instead of scrolling through search results. They'll ask "who's a good marketing consultant in Bristol?" or "what's a value proposition?" and get a neat paragraph back. If your business isn't in that paragraph, you're invisible to them.

The good news is that a lot of AEO is just good writing. AI tools tend to pull from pages that answer a question directly and clearly. That's exactly the kind of content your customers want anyway. (It’s how we’ve structured these glossary pages, but shush, don’t tell anyone.)

It's still early days. Nobody fully knows how each AI tool picks its sources, and it changes often. But the businesses getting cited now are the ones being clear about what they know and who they are.

  • Thinking it replaces SEO.

    Many AI tools lean on search results to find their sources. Good SEO is still the foundation, and AEO builds on top of it.

  • Burying the answer.

    If the reply to a question is in the fourth paragraph, an AI tool may skip past it. Put the answer first, then the detail.

  • Writing for robots.

    Stuffing pages with keywords or awkward phrasing doesn't help. AI tools are trained on how people write, so write like a person.

  • Blocking AI tools by accident.

    Some websites stop AI crawlers from reading their pages, sometimes without anyone realising. Check with whoever looks after your site.

How to get started

  • List the questions your customers ask. Think about what they ask on sales calls or type into Google. Each one could be a page or a section.
  • Answer each question in the first couple of sentences. Make that answer make sense on its own, without the rest of the page around it.
  • Use clear headings. Questions make great headings, because they match how people ask AI tools for help.
  • Show who's behind it. Add author names with a line about their experience, plus the date the page was last updated. It helps AI tools (and people) decide whether to trust you.
  • Get mentioned elsewhere. AI tools look beyond your own website. Reviews and articles that mention you both help.
  • Test it. Ask a few AI tools the questions you want to be known for, and see who they mention. Check again every few months.

FAQs

What's the difference between AEO and SEO?

SEO (search engine optimisation) is about ranking in search results, like Google's list of links. AEO is about being used as a source in AI-generated answers. They overlap a lot. Content that's clear and well organised helps with both.

Is AEO the same as GEO?

Pretty much. GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. The field's so new that people haven't settled on one name yet, so you'll see both used for roughly the same thing.

Can I pay to appear in AI answers?

Not for a mention in the answer itself. You earn that with good content and a solid reputation.

How do I know if AEO is working?

It's harder to measure than SEO. Some visitors will arrive from AI tools, which you may see in your website analytics. Beyond that, regularly asking AI tools about your topic and noting whether you're mentioned is a simple, free check.