THE SHORT ANSWER
AEO, or answer engine optimisation, is making your business easy for AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers to find, understand, trust and recommend. SEO helps you appear in a list of links. AEO helps you become the answer.
The simple version
Imagine you ask a friend, “Where should I get my bike fixed?” Your friend doesn’t hand you a list of ten shops. They name one, and tell you why. AI tools now do the same thing for millions of people every day.
AEO is how you become the shop your friend names. You make sure AI tools know who you are, what you do, and why people trust you, so that when someone asks, your name comes up.
AEO vs SEO: what’s the difference?
They work together. Tap each one to compare.
Answer engine optimisation
Helps AI tools pick your business as the answer to a question.
Goal: Get recommended.
Why AEO matters now
More people now ask AI tools for recommendations instead of scrolling through search results. When an AI gives one answer instead of ten links, being that answer is worth far more than being link number seven.
The businesses AI recommends today are building a lead that gets harder to catch every month.
How AEO works, in four steps
- Be clear. State plainly who you are, what you do and who you do it for.
- Be consistent. Make sure your facts match everywhere: your site, your profiles, directories.
- Be quotable. Answer real customer questions directly, in short, clear paragraphs.
- Be trusted. Earn mentions, reviews and coverage from sources AI tools rely on.
Quick self-check: are you ready for AI answers?
Tick what’s true for your business today.
Early days. AI tools may struggle to describe you. A free AI check is a great first step.
Common questions
No. AI tools lean on the same signals search engines do. Good SEO is the foundation; AEO builds on it.