AEO (answer engine optimisation)

AEO is making your business the answer AI assistants give. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI a question in your market, AEO work decides whether you are mentioned in the reply. It rewards clear, factual, well-structured content that machines can quote confidently.

How AEO differs from SEO

Classic SEO competes for a position in a list of links. AEO competes to be inside the answer itself, where there is no list and usually no second place.

The mechanics overlap more than the names suggest. Both reward content that is accurate, well structured and clearly about one thing. The difference is in what counts as a win. An SEO win is a ranking. An AEO win is a citation: the assistant names your business while answering someone else’s question.

What answer engines appear to reward

  • A direct answer near the top. Machines quote openers. A page that spends four paragraphs clearing its throat gives them nothing to lift.
  • Facts that agree with each other. If your address, founding date or service list differs across your site, your social profiles and directories, an assistant has no reason to trust any single version.
  • Structure a parser can follow. Real headings, real lists, real tables, and structured data that says what the page is.
  • Something specific to say. Answer engines summarise the consensus. Being quoted usually means having a number, a method or a definition that the consensus does not already contain.

How Searchlings works on AEO

Scout tracks which questions in your market are being asked of assistants, not just of search engines. Herald tracks the other end: when an assistant names your business, it logs the citation. Between them you can see which content earned a mention and which was ignored.

Related terms

GEO generative engine optimisation

GEO is the practice of earning citations from generative AI systems: chat assistants, AI overviews, and answer engines. GEO overlaps heavily with AEO and the terms are often used interchangeably. Both come down to being the source machines trust enough to quote.

LLM SEO

LLM SEO is optimising content so large language models can find, understand and cite it. In practice: direct answers near the top of the page, consistent facts about your business across the web, and structured data machines can parse. The newest branch of search work, and the fastest growing.

AI citations

AI citations are moments when an AI assistant names your business in an answer. Citations are the AEO equivalent of a first-page ranking: they cannot be bought, only earned through content machines trust. Herald tracks yours and logs every one.