What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of shaping content so that answer systems take it over as the direct answer to a question. That includes voice assistants, highlighted search results and, today mostly, AI chats and AI search products that write an answer instead of listing links.
AEO predates the AI boom. The term was first used for featured snippets and voice assistants, where a search engine reads out or displays a short excerpt as the answer. With ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI features the meaning widened.
In practice AEO, GEO and LLMO are used almost interchangeably. Vendors tend to pick the label that fits their product. If there is a difference, it is one of emphasis: AEO stresses the single, clearly answered question, GEO the mention inside longer generated answers.
The ground rules are the same as in search engine optimization. A question is answered early and unambiguously, the paragraph holds up without the rest of the page, and the page is technically reachable for crawlers.
What it means for your website
For a website, AEO mostly means that the questions customers ask get their own pages or sections whose first sentence is the answer. Whether an answer system uses that sentence only shows in a real query. When checking, record which question was asked in which wording, because small changes in phrasing change the answer.
Related terms
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This entry contains no figures and relies on generally documented terms.
Terms help you understand. Whether AI crawlers can reach your site is something you measure.
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