Answer engines · definitions
What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?
Last updated 5 September 2026
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your content and signals so answer engines cite you directly in the answer — rather than listing you as one link among many. It covers Google's AI Overviews and featured snippets, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and voice assistants.
The basics
What does AEO stand for?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. An answer engine resolves a question on the spot instead of handing back ten blue links. Ask it for the best accountant in Clapham and it does not present a list to work through — it names a few and moves on.
That changes what winning looks like. Ranking wins the click only if a click still happens. When the answer sits at the top of the page, most people never scroll. AEO is the work of being inside that answer.
Where it shows up
Where answer engines are deciding for people
- Google AI Overviews — a written answer above the results, often with only two or three businesses named
- Featured snippets — the boxed answer lifted from one page
- ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity — asked directly for a recommendation, increasingly with live web search behind them
- Voice assistants — where there is no list at all, only a single spoken answer
- Maps and local packs — the shortlist most people act on for anything nearby
The pattern is the same everywhere: fewer options presented, chosen for the user rather than by them. Being one of the few named matters more than it used to.
How it works
What signals influence AEO?
- Answer-first content — the question asked plainly, then answered in a self-contained paragraph a machine can lift whole
- Structured data that states what you are, where you are and what you offer, without ambiguity
- A consistent entity — the same name, address and description everywhere you appear
- Genuine expertise on the page, with a named author and a real trading address
- Corroboration elsewhere — reviews, directories and mentions from sources the engine already trusts
- Freshness, so the engine can see the business is active and the information current
Citable works the controllable signals first — schema, entity and answer content on assets you own — because those move fastest and cost nothing but craft. Earned third-party citations are the slower, harder layer.
FAQ