AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the practice of structuring content so it can be cited by AI-powered answer engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — when those engines answer user questions. AEO is the AI-era complement to SEO.
Definition
Traditional SEO optimizes for ranking on a search results page, where the user clicks a link. AEO optimizes for being quoted or cited inside an AI-generated answer, where the user may never click through. The two practices overlap (high-quality content with clear structure helps both) but the optimization targets are different — AEO favors crisp short answers, structured data, and authoritative single-page coverage of well-defined questions.
What AEO content looks like
A page that answers a specific question in its opening paragraph (the "TL;DR"), with the longer answer below for users who want depth. Structured data (FAQPage, DefinedTerm, HowTo, Article) so the answer engine's crawler can parse the structure. Citations to primary sources where the claim depends on them. Author attribution so the engine can attribute correctly.
Schema.org structured data
JSON-LD schemas tell the answer engine what kind of content this is and how to extract the answer. FAQPage for question/answer pages. DefinedTerm for glossary/wiki entries. HowTo for procedure pages. Article wrapping everything for general content.
How it differs from SEO
SEO rewards comprehensive long-form pillar pages. AEO rewards crisp, single-question pages that fit cleanly into a one-paragraph answer. Both are still served by quality, but the format differs.
See also
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) — GEO
- Roffik — Roffik