What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimization is another name for optimising to be named inside AI-generated answers. In practice it is used interchangeably with GEO.
AEO and GEO describe the same activity. AEO tends to be preferred by vendors who came from the featured-snippet and voice-search world, where an answer engine meant Google returning a direct answer rather than a list; GEO tends to be preferred by those framing the shift as generative rather than extractive.
There is no technical distinction that survives contact with the actual work. If a tool tells you it does AEO and not GEO, or the reverse, that is a positioning choice rather than a capability one.
Related
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of getting a brand named and cited inside AI-generated answers, in the way SEO aimed to get a page ranked in a list of links.
- AI visibilityAI visibility is how often, and how prominently, a brand is named by AI assistants when people ask questions in its category.
Want to know where you actually stand on this? Run a free visibility check or try the free tools.