Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of getting AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI to name your brand when buyers ask them questions. Search used to end with a page of links. Now it often ends with one written answer that names a few brands. AEO is about being one of those brands, and about measuring whether you are.
This guide explains what AEO is, how AI engines decide which brands to name, how AEO differs from SEO, and what to measure first. It is the starting point for the rest of this blog, so you will find links to the deeper guides throughout.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
AEO is the practice of making your brand easy for AI engines to find, understand and recommend, and then checking what they actually say. It has two halves:
- Earning the mention. Your pages, and the other sites that talk about you, give an AI engine good reasons to name you.
- Measuring the mention. You ask the engines the questions your buyers ask, over and over, and record whether you are named, where, and how you are described.
The second half matters as much as the first. An AI answer is not a ranking you can look up. It is text, written fresh each time, so you need repeated checks to know where you stand.
You will also see the term GEO, short for generative engine optimization. People use AEO and GEO for the same work. The AI search glossary defines both, along with the other terms in this guide.
Why does AEO matter now?
Buyers now ask AI engines for recommendations directly. OpenAI describes ChatGPT search as giving answers with links to relevant web sources (OpenAI, "Introducing ChatGPT search"). Google shows AI answers inside Search through AI Overviews and AI Mode (Google Search Central, "AI features and your website").
When the answer names three brands and yours is not one of them, a buyer may never visit your site. That is why AEO sits alongside SEO rather than behind it.
Which AI engines does AEO cover?
Four engines matter most for most brands today:
- ChatGPT, OpenAI's assistant, which can search the web and show sources.
- Gemini, Google's assistant.
- Google AI Overviews, the AI summary shown within Google Search results.
- Google AI Mode, Google's conversational search experience.
They do not always agree, so each needs its own check. The two Google features are close cousins but behave differently, which is covered in Google AI Overviews vs AI Mode.
How do AI engines decide which brands to name?
No engine publishes a formula, and anyone who claims to know the exact weighting is guessing. What is documented, and what holds up as general practice, comes down to a few things:
- The engine can reach your pages. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet to show up in its AI features, and that there are no extra requirements beyond that (Google Search Central). For other engines, crawler access is set in your robots.txt file. See Can AI crawlers read your site?
- Your pages answer the question plainly. Google's own advice for AI search is to focus on unique, valuable content for people and to keep structured data consistent with what the page shows (Google Search Central blog, May 2025). Short, direct statements about who you are for, what you offer and how you compare are easy for an engine to lift.
- Other sources agree with you. Engines cite reviews, comparisons, directories and forum threads. If those sources describe you accurately, or leave you out, the answer tends to follow. See AI citation gaps.
- Your facts are current and consistent. An old price or a retired feature on a third-party site can end up in an answer.
- You fit the question. "Best payroll software for a café" and "best payroll software for a hotel group" can produce different winners.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO is the work of earning visibility in search results. AEO adds a second job: measuring and improving how the AI answer itself describes you. SEO remains the base, because Google's AI features draw on pages that Google can already crawl and index.
| Item | SEO | AEO |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a page | Be named in the answer |
| Unit of work | A keyword | A prompt, which is a full question |
| What the buyer sees | A list of links | A written answer naming a few brands |
| What you measure | Rankings, clicks | Visibility, share of voice, position, sentiment, citations |
| How stable it is | Changes gradually | Can differ from one check to the next |
The full comparison, including what stays the same, is in AEO vs SEO.
What should you measure first?
Start with a small set of numbers for each engine. Everything else helps explain them.
- Visibility: the share of your checks where your brand is named at all.
- Share of voice: your mentions as a share of all brand mentions in the same answers.
- Position: where you appear in the answer when you do appear.
- Sentiment: whether the answer describes you positively, neutrally or negatively.
- Citations: which sources the answer relies on, and whether they include you.
Answers vary between runs, so one check proves very little. A repeated check, taken daily and kept as history, shows the pattern. AI visibility metrics explains each number, how to calculate it and which ones to trust most.
How do you get started with AEO?
A practical first month looks like this:
- Write your prompts. List the questions buyers ask in their own words. How to choose the prompts to track shows how.
- Take a baseline. Check every prompt on every engine before you change anything. How to track your brand in AI answers walks through the process.
- Find where rivals win. Read the answers and the sources behind them.
- Fix your own pages first. Make sure crawlers can read them, and that they state plain facts about what you offer, who it is for and how it compares.
- Compare against the baseline and pick the next subcategory to work on.
Common questions about AEO
Does AEO replace SEO?
No. Google's AI features run on pages Google already crawls and indexes, so SEO fundamentals still apply. AEO adds measurement of the AI answer itself, which SEO tools were not built to show.
Do I need special markup or files to appear in AI answers?
For Google's AI features, Google says no special schema.org markup or new AI-specific files are needed. For more on one popular file, read Do you need an llms.txt file?
How long does AEO take to work?
Nobody can promise a timeline. Answers change from day to day, so judge a change over several weeks of daily checks rather than a single answer.
Can an agency offer AEO to clients?
Yes. It fits as a measurement and reporting service alongside SEO. See AEO for agencies.
Measure your AEO with Verte
Verte checks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode talk about your brand, every day, and shows you who gets named, how often and why. It writes the prompts for your business from its name and website, and you can edit them. The results arrive each morning on the Platform, with AI visibility tracking and citations and sources in one place.
Start tracking your business or, if you manage clients, start as an agency. See current plans.