What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)?
AEO, or answer engine optimization, is the practice of making your content easy for answer engines to find, understand and use when they respond to a question. It builds on SEO and adds clear, answer-first writing.
What counts as an answer engine?
Any system that replies to a question directly: AI assistants, AI search modes such as Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, and voice assistants. They differ in how they retrieve sources, but they all need pages they can fetch, read and trust.
What does AEO require?
- Proven The page is indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. Google states there are no additional technical requirements for its AI features.
- Proven Important content is available as text and is reachable through internal links.
- Practice Each question-style heading is followed by a direct answer in the first sentence or two, then supporting detail.
- Practice One page answers one clear intent, with a named author and a visible updated date.
- Experimental Special machine-readable files for AI. See does llms.txt work?
Is AEO different from SEO?
For Google Search, Google describes optimizing for its AI features as part of ordinary SEO. AEO is a useful lens, mainly for writing and structure, not a separate system with its own rules. See is AEO different from SEO?
Related
What is GEO? · SEO fundamentals · How to write answer-first content