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.
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 this covers
- What AEO is
- Per-engine signals
- How engines choose sources
- Measuring AI traffic
- Earning citations
- SEO, AEO and GEO
AI SEO: The Five Rungs That Decide If You Get Cited
AI SEO has two halves. Production is solved, citation is a design standard. See the four conditions a new site has to satisfy first.
AI Generated Content SEO: Four Kinds of Evidence
AI generated content is not penalised for being generated. Learn what to add to a page so a retrieval system has a reason to quote you.
SEO for AI Search When Nothing Else Mentions You Yet
SEO for AI search starts with corroboration: something outside your domain saying you exist. Here is the build order for a brand new site.
AI SEO Audit: Finding the Copy Your Template Shipped
Run an AI SEO audit for template duplication. Find the phrasing your theme ships on every site using it, and see what that costs you.
AI Overviews and the Six Schema Types a Build Emits
AI Overviews need specific structured data. See what each build path emits by default, and which fields you have to write yourself.
AI SEO Services: Six Flex Points and Who Decides
AI SEO services run on judgement, not output volume. See the points in a real workflow where a human decision still changes the result.
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.
Questions this category answers.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
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.
How is AEO different from SEO?
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.
How do you get cited by ChatGPT or Perplexity?
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.