What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?

Answer engine optimization, AEO, is the practice of structuring content so AI tools that answer questions directly, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, quote or reference it as the source of their answer.

It centers on writing the first sentence of an answer as the direct answer itself, since that is the sentence most likely to get extracted and quoted by an AI system.

AEO and GEO are used almost interchangeably by most marketers, describing the same underlying shift toward content built to answer a question cleanly rather than just rank in a list of results.

Every page an SEO automation platform publishes leads with a direct answer for exactly this reason.