Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): The Complete Guide

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of optimising content so AI assistants — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Perplexity — select it, quote it, and cite your brand when they answer user questions.

AEO vs SEO

SEO optimises for position on a list of links. AEO optimises for inclusion inside a generated answer. SEO measures rank; AEO measures citation frequency, answer position and how many assistants cite you.

How to do AEO

Map real questions buyers ask AI, answer them in the first paragraph, keep pages extractable with clean HTML and structured data, and earn third-party mentions on reputable sites.

How to measure AEO

AEO needs purpose-built metrics: AI Visibility Score (0–100 composite of volume, position and assistant diversity) and AIGVR, the percentage of AI prompts that mention your brand. CiteWatch tracks both across five major assistants.