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Answer engine optimization

Answer engine optimization, usually shortened to AEO, is the work of getting your brand into answers rather than into results. The distinction sounds like marketing until you notice there is no list to be tenth on.

What changed

A search engine returns twenty links and lets the reader choose. An answer engine returns one paragraph and chooses for them. Everything that followed from being visible at position eight stops applying, because there is no position eight.

What carries over from SEO

More than the name suggests. A page a crawler can read, a clear statement of what you do, and mentions on sites that already get retrieved all serve both. The technical groundwork is the same groundwork.

What does not carry over

Ranking tactics aimed at a list have nothing to grip. Keyword density, position tracking and click-through optimisation are all built around a results page. An answer engine has no results page, so the metric you report on has to change too, from where you rank to whether you were named.

How to measure it

Ask the assistants the questions your buyers ask and record which ones name you. That is the scoreboard, and it is the one worth keeping.

Questions

Is AEO the same as GEO?

Close enough in practice. Generative engine optimization is the term from the academic side and answer engine optimization is the term from the marketing side. Both describe getting named in a generated answer.

Should I stop doing SEO?

No. The pages that make you retrievable are the pages that make you findable, and search still sends most of the traffic. This is an addition to the work, not a replacement for it.