What is AEO?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so it becomes the source AI answer engines quote — with clear questions, direct answers, entity clarity, and machine-readable formatting.
Who it's for
- Brands losing clicks to AI Overviews they aren't cited in
- SaaS and services fighting for consideration in AI answers
- Content teams already ranking, now optimising for citations
Outcomes to expect
- Pages structured so AI engines lift them into answers
- FAQ, HowTo, and entity schema wired site-wide
- Measured citation share across major AI engines
Topic cluster
Articles coming soonThe supporting topics that will link back to this pillar. Each will publish as a dedicated article under /blog.
- 01informational
AEO vs SEO — the honest comparison
Where they overlap, where AEO diverges.
- 02informational
How Google AI Overviews pick their sources
Freshness, entity match, and passage retrieval.
- 03informational
The answer-first content structure
TL;DR, definition, detail, FAQ, related.
- 04informational
The schema stack for AEO
FAQPage, HowTo, Article, Speakable.
- 05informational
Measuring AEO — citation share and impressions
Manual audits, tools, and dashboards.
- 06informational
An AEO content brief template
Questions, entities, and answer skeletons.
Frequently asked
What is AEO?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization. It is the practice of structuring web content so AI answer engines — Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity — extract, quote, and cite it inside their generated answers.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO optimises pages to rank in a list of blue links. AEO optimises passages inside those pages to be lifted verbatim into an AI-generated answer. Solid SEO is a prerequisite, but AEO adds structure — direct answers, entities, and schema — on top.
What content format works best for AEO?
Question-led headings with a short, direct answer in the first sentence work best. Follow up with detail, structured lists, and FAQ schema. AI engines heavily favour passages that answer a question in under 50 words.
Do AI Overviews reduce click-through?
For informational queries, yes — click-through can drop 20–40% when an AI Overview appears. For high-intent commercial and branded queries, users still click. AEO recovers value by making sure your brand is the one cited inside the overview.