Glossary
What is Answer Engine Optimization?
Also called: AEO
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of making your business show up, and be described accurately, inside answers generated by AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews.
Traditional search gives people a list of links. Answer engines give them a written answer, often naming a few businesses, products or sources. AEO is about being one of those names.
How AEO works
AI tools build answers from two places: what they learned during training, and what they find by searching the web in real time. To show up, your business needs:
- Clear, quotable content: direct answers, definitions, comparisons and FAQs on your own website.
- Consistent information across the web: reviews, directories, social profiles and partner sites that all describe you the same way.
- Technical access: pages AI crawlers are allowed to read, that load fast and don’t depend on JavaScript.
AEO vs SEO
SEO aims to rank a page in search results. AEO aims to be included in the answer itself. They share most foundations, so good SEO is the starting point for good AEO.
Want help with this? See AEO & AI search consulting.