What is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so that AI-powered search engines can extract, understand, and cite it as a direct answer. Unlike traditional SEO — which aims to rank a web page in a list of blue links — AEO targets AI engines that generate direct answers: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini.
When someone asks an AI search engine a question, it does not return ten links. It returns one answer — with citations. AEO is the discipline of making your brand the one that gets cited.
How AEO differs from traditional SEO
Traditional SEO optimises for ranking position. AEO optimises for citation frequency. In SEO, you compete for position 1 to 10. In AEO, you compete to be the single authoritative source an AI engine references. The signals are different: entity clarity, direct-answer paragraphs, structured schema markup, E-E-A-T authority signals, and citation-ready prose that AI models prefer to extract.
What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the subset of AEO focused specifically on large language model (LLM) citation behaviour. Where AEO targets AI search interfaces, GEO targets the underlying models — ensuring your brand, your content, and your expertise are embedded into the source material that LLMs train on and reference. GEO strategy includes consistent publication of authoritative content, semantic entity building, and structured data signalling that makes your brand a reliable source in model knowledge bases.