Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Answer engine optimization is the practice of getting a brand named and accurately described inside the synthesised answers produced by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, rather than ranked in a list of links.
AEO and SEO share a technical foundation — a page a crawler cannot reach is invisible to both — but they optimise for different outputs.
Search · a ranked list
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Ten places. Position two hundred still exists.
Assistant · one written answer
For oily skin the ones usually recommended are Brand A, Brand B and Brand C — all high-SPF, all low on the finish most people dislike.
3 sources
A shortlist. There is no second paragraph to be in.
That changes what the work rewards. Ranking rewards topical depth, link authority and freshness. Citation rewards four different things:
| What citation rewards | Where this site defines it |
|---|---|
| Passages that stand alone when they are extracted | citability |
| A brand name that resolves to one unambiguous entity | entity resolution |
| Factual claims carrying numbers and sources | what makes a passage get cited |
| Corroboration across several independent domains | corpus |
The practical consequence: a page can rank fourth and be quoted constantly, or rank first and never be quoted at all.
Related: generative engine optimization, citability, named rate.