AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Also known as: GEO, Generative Engine Optimization, LLM SEO
Definition
Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of structuring web content so that AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews can extract, cite, and correctly attribute it.
Why it matters
Where classical SEO optimises for a ranked list of links, AEO optimises for being the passage a model quotes. That favours self-contained answers, concrete numbers, explicit schema.org markup, and stable canonical facts over keyword density.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is used interchangeably, with slightly more emphasis on generated-answer surfaces than on retrieval.