What Is AEO? Answer Engine Optimization Explained (2026)
What is AEO?
AEO — answer engine optimization — is the practice of making your business the answer AI assistants give: when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for a recommendation, yours is the business it can verify and cite. A plain-English guide, no hype.
The one-paragraph definition
Answer engine optimization means structuring your public web presence so answer engines — AI assistants that reply with composed answers instead of link lists — can find, trust and cite your business. If SEO was about ranking, AEO is about being quotable.
AEO vs SEO vs GEO
SEO: rank in search results. AEO: get cited in AI answers. GEO (generative engine optimization): the newer name for essentially the same thing as AEO. The practical work overlaps heavily — clear facts, structured data, consistent listings, crawlable pages.
What AEO actually involves
One clear business identity in plain text. Services and prices stated, not implied. JSON-LD structured data and llms.txt for the machine readers. A consistent name, phone and website across every directory. Pages AI crawlers are allowed to read — check robots.txt first.
What AEO can't do
It can't force a recommendation. Answer engines weigh sources you don't control — reviews, press, directories — and change their models without notice. AEO maximizes your citability; it doesn't purchase placement.
Check your answer-readiness
The free AgentEligible scan checks the AEO inputs on your site and scores them out of 100 — then shows you exactly what to fix first.
See what your website communicates
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