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Glossary

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

Answer engine optimization is the practice of structuring content so AI answer engines and chat assistants can find, cite, and accurately summarize it. Where SEO targets ranked links, AEO targets the synthesized answer itself, optimizing for clear definitions, structured data, and machine-readable source files.

Synonyms: AEO, generative engine optimization, GEO, AI search optimization

Answer engine optimization assumes the reader is often a model, not a person scanning links. That changes how content is written and marked up: lead with a crisp definition, expose structured data so machines can parse facts unambiguously, and publish machine-readable indexes that let crawlers and agents discover the canonical version of a page. The goal is to be the source an answer engine quotes and attributes, rather than a link buried beneath a synthesized response.

Frequently asked questions

How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO optimizes to rank as a clickable link on a results page. AEO optimizes to be selected, quoted, and cited inside an AI-generated answer, which rewards precise definitions, structured data, and clean machine-readable feeds.
What signals help an answer engine cite a page?
Definition-first writing, valid schema.org structured data, an llms.txt index, FAQ markup, and stable canonical URLs all make content easier for an answer engine to retrieve and attribute.
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