SEO & AEO
What is AEO? Answer engine optimization, plainly explained
AEO (answer engine optimization) is the practice of making a business easy for AI assistants — ChatGPT, Google's AI answers, and similar tools — to find, understand, and mention accurately when someone asks a question like "who's a good electrician nearby." It's an emerging field, not a mature, standardized one.
AEO vs. SEO
| SEO | AEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank in a list of search results | Get cited or mentioned in an AI-generated answer |
| What it optimizes for | Keywords, backlinks, page structure | Clear, structured, verifiable facts about the business |
| Maturity | Decades of established practice | New, still forming, no fixed playbook |
| Measurability | Rank tracking, click-through data | Hard to measure directly — this is honest, not a knock on it |
What actually helps, concretely
Strip away the hype and four practices are what genuinely support AEO today:
- Structured data — schema.org / JSON-LD markup that explicitly tells machines what a business is, what it offers, and where
- Consistent NAP (name, address, phone) across every place the business appears online
- An llms.txt file — a plain-text summary aimed at AI crawlers, similar in spirit to robots.txt
- Genuine, real customer reviews — AI systems draw on the same trust signals humans do
What to be skeptical of
No one can guarantee a business will be mentioned in a specific AI answer — the underlying models change constantly and nobody outside the AI companies controls them. Be wary of any pitch promising guaranteed AI visibility or a specific placement. The honest version of AEO work is building the structural foundation well and staying patient, the same way local SEO does.
FAQ
Related questions
Will I actually rank on Google after this?
We build the on-page foundation that ranking depends on — fast load, mobile-friendly, proper local structure and data, clear service and location signals. Ranking then compounds over weeks as Google trusts the site, pairing it with a Google Business Profile speeds it up. We're honest about this: it's a foundation, not an overnight #1.
Is AEO different from SEO?
They overlap more than they differ. SEO is about being findable in a list of links; AEO is about being quotable in an answer. The same foundations — accurate structured facts, real content, consistency — serve both.
Which AI engines does this apply to?
Any tool that answers rather than lists: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI overviews, and the assistants built into browsers and phones. The techniques aren't engine-specific, which is the point.
Can you guarantee my business appears in AI answers?
No, and no one can. AEO is an emerging, foundational practice — we build the structure that makes a business easy to read and verify. What any engine chooses to say is not for sale.
What is structured data?
A machine-readable layer of your page — schema.org markup in JSON-LD — that states plainly what the business is, what it offers, where it operates and what people have said about it, instead of leaving it to be inferred from prose.
Is AEO worth doing for a small local business?
It's cheap groundwork: the four practices that matter — structured data, consistent NAP, an llms.txt file, genuine reviews — are the same ones that help ordinary search. You're not betting on a channel; you're making your facts legible.