What Is AEO?
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring and writing content so it’s more likely to be selected and surfaced by AI-powered answer engines — tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews — that generate direct answers rather than a list of links.
How It Differs from Traditional SEO
Traditional SEO optimizes primarily to rank a page within a list of search results a user then clicks through. AEO optimizes for being the source an AI system draws from (and ideally cites) when generating a synthesized answer directly in response to a query, which shifts the goal from “get clicked” toward “get cited and trusted as a source.”
How It’s Shaping Search
In practice, AEO overlaps heavily with strong existing SEO fundamentals: clear, well-structured content that directly answers specific questions, credible sourcing, and content organized in ways that are easy for both humans and AI systems to parse and extract accurate information from. Content that already performs well for featured snippets tends to be well-positioned for AI answer engines too, since both reward clear, extractable, directly responsive content.
WRITTEN BY
Annabelle Cochrane
MANAGING DIRECTOR & SEO SPECIALIST
Annabelle holds a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from QUT and works directly with every ALC Consulting client. She’s based on the Sunshine Coast and works with businesses across Australia.
Not sure where your site stands?
Get a free audit from the person who’d do the work.