// definition
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
AEO is the practice of making a site readable by AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, built on top of standard SEO fundamentals.
What it is
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring your site so that AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and similar tools can read, parse, and cite your content when answering user questions directly.
How it relates to SEO
AEO is not a replacement for SEO. The majority of what makes a site perform well in AI-generated answers is identical to classic SEO: fast page loads, clear heading structure, real crawlable text, and clean HTML. AI crawlers use many of the same signals as search engine bots.
The difference is at the margin. AI answer engines place more weight on machine-readable text (not images of text), logical document structure, schema markup, and explicit signals like llms.txt files. These are extensions of good SEO practice, not a separate discipline.
Why it matters
As a growing share of searches end with a direct AI-generated answer rather than a click, visibility in those answers becomes part of your organic reach.
For a deeper look at what changes and what stays the same, see the AEO vs SEO guide.
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