AEO
Answer engine optimization is getting cited by AI, not just ranked. How to become the source ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews quote.
- What AEO is
- Per-engine signals
- How engines choose sources
- Measuring AI traffic
- Earning citations
- SEO, AEO and GEO
Answer Engine Optimization: What AEO Actually Is
Ranking and getting cited by AI are two different wins. What AEO actually means, why it matters now, and where to start.
GEO vs SEO vs AEO vs LLMO: What They Mean
Four acronyms, one axis. What GEO, SEO, AEO, and LLMO each optimize for, which are real, and which a founder should do first.
How AI Answer Engines Choose Their Sources
Retrieval, evaluation, citation: three steps decide whether AI names you. Find the one that's costing you the citation.
How to Get Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI
One cheat sheet, three engines. The per-engine signals that earn a citation from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
Schema Markup for AI: Answer-First Writing Guide
What makes a passage liftable by AI, plus the schema types that carry weight. Answer-first writing, made concrete.
How to Measure AI Traffic With No Referrer
AI sends traffic with no referrer to trace. The observable proxies that prove your AEO is working, no paid tool required.
How Each AI Engine Picks Sources to Cite
ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude don't pick sources alike. Compared on retrieval, evaluation, citation.
How to Get Cited by ChatGPT
It runs a live search, then pulls answer-first passages. The crawler to allow, and the signals that earn a ChatGPT citation.
How to Get Cited by Perplexity
It cites several sources per answer, so precision wins. What Perplexity rewards, and how to be the on-point passage it links.
How to Show Up in Google AI Overviews
Ranking is not citation. How the index feeds AI Overviews, and the passages it actually pulls, so you land in the box.
How to Get Mentioned by Google Gemini
It grounds answers in Search and differs from AI Overviews. How Gemini decides, and the signals that earn the mention.
How to Be the Source Claude Recommends
When Claude cites, and what its browsed answers reward. How to earn the recommendation, and check which engines cite you now.
Answer engine optimization is getting your page chosen as a source by AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews, not just ranked in a list of links. The goal moves from earning the click to being the source the engine quotes inside its answer.
SEO optimizes to rank a clickable link, while AEO optimizes to be cited inside an AI answer. They share the same foundation, since an engine still has to find and trust your page before it can quote you, so AEO sits on top of solid SEO rather than replacing it.
Write answer-first, make each passage self-contained and extractable, back claims with sources, and earn enough authority that engines trust you. Each engine weighs those signals a little differently, so the practical move is to be the clearest, most quotable source on the question.