Answer engine optimisation (AEO)

What answer engine optimisation is

Answer engine optimisation is the work of being the answer, not one link among ten. An answer engine is any search tool that replies with one answer instead of a list. Google's featured snippets were the first common case: a box above the results that quotes one page. Voice assistants read out a single answer. AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews now write an answer and cite a few pages.

In each case, the engine needs a sentence it can lift and trust. AEO is about writing and structuring your pages so that sentence is yours. It sits on top of ordinary search engine optimisation (SEO), because every answer engine starts from pages it has crawled and indexed.

How answer engines pick an answer

Answer engines pick from pages they have indexed, then choose the passage that answers the question most directly. You cannot mark a page as the answer; the engine decides.

• Google says its systems decide whether a page would make a good featured snippet and, if so, elevate it. You can't mark a page as a featured snippet yourself. (Google Search Central)
• For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, with no additional requirements and no special markup. (Google Search Central)
• AI tools outside Google use their own crawlers. OpenAI says sites that block OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. (OpenAI)

So the first job is access and indexing. After that, the page that states the answer plainly, early and with checkable detail has the best chance of being quoted.

What AEO changes on a page

AEO changes where the answer sits on a page and how plainly it is said. Most of the work is editing, not code.

The answer comes first

Each page opens with who you are, what you do, where and for whom. Each section opens with its answer, then gives the detail. An engine quotes the sentence that answers the question, so that sentence should not sit under three paragraphs of history.

Headings use the customer's question

A heading such as "How much does a hot water system replacement cost in Parramatta?" matches the way people ask. The first sentence under it should answer it.

One page per service and area

A single page that tries to cover every service answers no question well. A page per service, and per area where it matters, gives each question one clear source.

Facts an engine can check

Prices from, hours, suburbs served, licence numbers and response times give an engine something concrete to quote. They should read the same on your site, your Google Business Profile and every directory that lists you.

Markup that matches the page

Structured data is code that states the same facts in a fixed format. It helps engines read the page, but it does not replace the visible answer. FAQ markup no longer shows rich results for most sites; our FAQ schema guide explains what still helps.

Our guide How do you write a page that answer engines quote? goes through each of these with examples.

An example: one service page, before and after

Here is how AEO changes the opening of a typical service page. The business is made up; the pattern is one we see often.

The after column answers who, what, where and how fast in two sentences. An engine asked "who does small business tax returns in Hobart?" now has a sentence it can quote.

AEO, GEO and SEO

AEO, generative engine optimisation (GEO) and SEO overlap. SEO gets a page into the index and up the list. AEO makes it the answer. GEO focuses on being named and cited inside AI-written answers. Our generative engine optimisation page covers GEO, and our guide AEO vs GEO vs AI SEO compares the three terms. We sell the work as one service: AI SEO.

What we found on Australian business websites

Many local business websites we checked skip the basics that answer engines rely on. 25% have no meta description on the home page, so Google writes the summary itself. We check these sites ourselves; the method is on our local data page.

For AEO, the missing summary and the missing structured data are the same problem. The site never says plainly, in words or in code, what the business is and where it works. That is the first thing we fix.

What our AEO work includes

Our AEO work is part of our AI SEO services, described from the answer side. It covers:

• checking that Google and the AI search crawlers can reach and index every page that matters;
• rewriting the opening of each service page so it answers the customer's question first;
• writing page titles, meta descriptions and question headings in the words customers use;
• adding structured data that matches what the page says;
• reporting each month on the searches you appear for and where answer engines quote you.

Every engagement starts with a check of your site and is scoped and priced upfront. You approve every page before it goes live.

What AEO can't promise

Nobody can promise that an engine will quote your page. Google decides which page becomes a featured snippet, and every AI engine writes its own answers. What AEO can do is make your page the clearest answer available, then measure what changes each month.

AEO by location

AEO is part of our AI SEO work in every area we cover. Each page below shows what we found when we checked that area's local business websites, and what we would fix first.