Short answer: AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) means optimising your content so that search engines and assistants use it as the direct answer to a question. It shares its foundations with SEO and overlaps with GEO, which focuses on AI-generated answers.
What AEO means
AEO comes from a change in behaviour: many searches no longer end in a click but in an answer shown in the search engine itself (featured snippets, answer boxes, voice assistants and AI answers). Optimising for AEO means preparing your pages to be that answer.
In Google Trends (Spain, last 12 months), “aeo” appears among the rising related queries within the “geo seo” group, which suggests professionals and companies are starting to search for the term.
AEO, GEO and SEO: how they split the ground
- SEO: visibility in classic search results.
- AEO: being the specific answer to a specific question (snippets, assistants, voice).
- GEO: being a source in answers generated by AI models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude).
The borders are blurry and practitioners use the acronyms differently. What matters is what you do: clear answers, structure and credibility.
How to write “answerable” content
- One question per section. Use an H2 or H3 with the question as a person would ask it.
- The answer in the first two sentences. Define, answer, then add nuance.
- Lists and tables when there are steps, comparisons or requirements: they are easy to extract.
- Verifiable data: figures with sources, dates, timeframes or real examples.
- Self-contained sentences: understandable without the rest of the text.
The technical side
- Structured data: FAQPage, HowTo (where it applies) and Organization.
- A single H1 and a clean heading hierarchy.
- Performance and crawling without unnecessary blocks.
- Consistent information about your company across the site and your profiles.
A practical note: Google has reduced FAQ rich results in search, but frequently asked questions remain useful for people and for AI systems. Treat them as content, not as a markup trick.
How to measure it
There is no single metric. Combine queries with impressions in Search Console (especially question-style ones), appearances in featured snippets, referral traffic from AI assistants and regular tests: ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the same things your customer would, and note whether they cite you and how.
Frequently asked questions
Are AEO and GEO the same thing?
They overlap a lot. AEO usually refers to being the answer in search engines and assistants; GEO, to being a source in AI-generated answers. The actions are almost the same.
Do I need AEO if I already do SEO?
If your content already answers real questions well, you already do part of AEO. It is worth reviewing structure, direct answers and structured data on your key pages.
How long does it take to show?
It depends on your starting point and the competition. Technical changes are crawled soon; authority and mentions take longer.
If you want us to review your key pages, see our SEO and GEO service or write to us.
