SearchdFree AI visibility report

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

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

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.

Brand names here are placeholders. What the figure shows is the shape of the two outputs — ten positions you can improve within, against a shortlist you are on or off. Everything AEO does differently follows from that.

That changes what the work rewards. Ranking rewards topical depth, link authority and freshness. Citation rewards passages that stand alone when extracted, brand names that resolve to a single unambiguous entity, factual claims carrying numbers and sources, and corroboration across several independent domains.

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.

Find out what AI says about your brand.

Send us your brand and category. We run 20 buyer questions across five engines by hand and send you the transcript within 48 hours.

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What arrives
20 questions, 5 engines, every answer quoted in full
Who sends it
Snow Lee, by hand, from Seoul
Your email
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Free report · your named rateillustrative
Buyer questionEngineNamed
best Korean sunscreen for oily skinChatGPTnot named
K-beauty sunscreen that does not pillClaudenamed
Korean skincare brands sold at UltaAI Overviewsnot named
…17 more questions, with the verbatim answer and every source cited
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