For twenty years, being visible online meant ranking in a list of ten links. That is changing: a growing share of searches now ends in an answer written by a language model — in ChatGPT, in Claude, in Gemini, or inside the search engine itself. Users no longer pick a link: they receive a synthesis. The commercial question becomes a different one: which sources is that synthesis built from?
AEO in one sentence
Answer Engine Optimization is the work of structuring your digital presence so answer engines find you, understand you and cite you as a source when they answer your customers' questions.
How it differs from SEO
SEO optimizes for an index that ranks links; AEO optimizes for models that read, understand and write. They share fundamentals — quality content, clean structure, authority — but AEO rewards different things: direct answers to concrete questions, structured data (schema.org), consistency across sources, and clear signals of who you are and why you know what you're talking about.
Where to start
First: inventory the questions your customers ask before buying from you, and answer them on your site with specific, clear, dated pages. Second: mark up your content with structured data so machines don't have to guess. Third: keep your name, your offer and your facts consistent everywhere. Fourth: measure — ask the engines about your category and record whether you appear, how, and cited from where.
AEO doesn't replace SEO: it extends it to where attention moved. And as with every new discipline, the advantage goes to those who start before it becomes standard.