Answer engine optimization
Help AI search find the right answer on your site.
Answer engine optimization (AEO) makes your public content easier for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to understand and cite.
Why good sites get missed
Clear writing is the foundation of AEO.
AI search tools look for direct answers from sources they can understand. If the answer is buried, vague, or scattered across the site, your organization is easier to overlook.
The answer is implied. People may understand the page, but an AI tool has to piece it together.
The useful detail is buried. Definitions, facts, and next steps sit deep in a PDF or a long page.
The site contradicts itself. Several pages give different versions of the same answer.
How AEO works
This page is built the way we build yours.
Here is the first question on this page, exactly as published, and the three places a machine can find the same answer.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization helps AI search tools understand and cite your website. The work starts with clear answers on the page, supported by useful headings, structured data, and consistent information across the site. AEO applies to tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude.
- 01
Visible page copy
The answer sits in the questions near the bottom of this page, where people read it.
- 02
Structured data
The page sends Service, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList schema, so the question and its answer are labeled for machines.
- 03
llms.txt
The site’s llms.txt file lists this page under Services, with a one-line description of AEO.
AEO in plain English.
What answer engine optimization covers, how it relates to SEO, and how to check whether the work is helping.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization helps AI search tools understand and cite your website. The work starts with clear answers on the page, supported by useful headings, structured data, and consistent information across the site. AEO applies to tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude.
How can I tell if AI tools are citing my website?
Start with a repeatable list of questions your organization should be able to answer. Search for them in tools that show sources, such as Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, then record which websites they cite. Results can change, so the useful signal is whether your site appears more consistently over time.
What is the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO helps a page appear in traditional search results. AEO helps an answer engine understand the page well enough to use it as a source. The two rely on the same fundamentals: useful content, clear page structure, crawl access, and trustworthy information. AEO adds direct answers, structured context, and citation checks.
Make your expertise easier to find and cite.
We will review the questions your organization should answer, the pages that answer them now, and the gaps worth fixing first.