Glossary · Digital Transformation
What is answer engine optimisation (AEO)?
Short answer
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so AI-powered answer engines, such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Copilot, can find it, understand it and quote or cite it accurately when answering a question. It favours direct answers, clear structure, structured data and trustworthy, up-to-date sources.
How answer engines choose sources
Answer engines combine a language model with search: they retrieve pages relevant to the question (much like RAG), extract the most useful passages and write an answer, often with links to the sources. Pages that state the answer clearly, in a passage that makes sense on its own, are easier to extract and cite.
Practical steps
- Answer first: open with a 40–60 word answer to the page’s main question, then go deeper.
- Question-shaped headings: use the questions people actually ask as H2s, and add an FAQ section with concise answers.
- Structured data: mark up articles, FAQs, how-tos, products and breadcrumbs so the page’s meaning is explicit.
- Definitions and glossaries: short definition pages for key terms are frequently quoted.
- Evidence and freshness: named authors, dates, data and sources; update pages when facts change.
- Access: make sure the crawlers behind the answer engines you care about are allowed in robots.txt and that content renders in plain HTML.
AEO, GEO and SEO
“Generative engine optimisation” (GEO) is often used for the same idea. AEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it: answer engines still rely on pages they can crawl, index and trust.
Measuring it
Look for referral visits from AI assistants, impressions for question-style searches in Search Console, and manual checks of whether answers cite your pages. Expect some value to show up as brand awareness rather than clicks, because of zero-click search.
Frequently asked questions
Is AEO different from SEO?
It extends SEO. Technical SEO, good content and authority still decide whether your pages are found; AEO adds answer-first writing, question-based structure and structured data so AI systems can extract and cite the right passage.
