Answer Engine Optimisation: the half of search most agencies still ignore
What AEO actually is
Answer Engine Optimisation is the practice of structuring pages so that AI-driven answer surfaces (most notably Google's AI Overviews) cite them when answering user questions. It is not a parallel ranking system. It uses many of the same signals as regular SEO, but rewards different patterns: direct answers in the first 50 words, tight FAQ structures, citable statistics, structured data, and clean section hierarchies that AI engines can lift verbatim.
AEO is not magic. Most of it is good editorial discipline plus deliberate schema. The reason it works as a competitive advantage is that most agencies have not updated their content templates since 2022 and still write the keyword-stuffed throat-clearing intro that AI engines ignore.
Why it matters now, not in 2027
Three numbers, with sources.
- ~30 per cent of Google searches now trigger an AI Overview (SE Ranking, November 2024 study; BrightEdge corroborated). On informational queries the figure is closer to 50 per cent.
- Click-through on the #1 organic result drops by 30 to 50 per cent when an AI Overview is present (Authoritas, Ahrefs studies, 2024). That is a material loss for any page that ranks #1 on a query now triggering an AI Overview.
- ChatGPT search alone is at ~250 million weekly users (OpenAI, late 2024). The audience reading AI-generated answers about your category is no longer a fringe segment.
The agencies still arguing that AEO does not matter yet are usually the agencies still selling 2018 SEO playbooks. The math no longer supports their position.
What to actually do on a page
Six concrete moves we make on every page during AEO optimisation.
- Answer-first lead paragraph. The first 50 words contain the direct answer to the page's primary query. No throat-clearing. No "in today's digital landscape". The first paragraph is what AI engines lift.
- Structured FAQ section with real questions people actually ask, each answered in 2 to 4 sentences, with proper FAQPage schema. AI engines disproportionately cite FAQ-shaped content.
- Citable statistics with sources and dates. Engines reward pages that cite verifiable third-party data. We add at least one such statistic per major section and refresh them quarterly.
- Tight section hierarchy (H2 → H3, no jumps). AI engines parse document structure to identify topical scope; messy hierarchies get ignored.
- Internal linking with descriptive anchor text. AI engines use link graphs to determine topical authority. Generic "click here" anchors do not help.
- Schema enrichment. Beyond the basics: Article, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage, Service, Person (for E-E-A-T), LocalBusiness. Each schema is a signal that helps the AI engine understand what the page is and who wrote it.
How we measure AEO performance
Three layers, all in the monthly report on our retainers that include the AEO add-on.
- Surface coverage tracking. We run your target queries weekly and record whether an AI Overview appears, and whether your pages are cited. The report shows percentage of target queries with citation.
- AI-referred traffic. GA4 referrer filtering catches traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude. Less reliable than Google referrer data but improving.
- Prompt testing. Quarterly we test category prompts ("best emergency plumber Northern Beaches", "SEO agency Sydney for tradies") against ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. The output is a coverage matrix showing which engines recommend you by name and what they say.
AEO vs GEO: where the line is
We treat AEO and GEO as complementary halves of the same job.
- AEO: optimisation for Google's AI Overviews specifically. Tightly bound to Google ranking factors. Schema-heavy. Source-dependent.
- GEO: optimisation for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Bing Copilot and emerging generative engines. Less schema-dependent (these engines crawl differently). More dependent on third-party citations, podcast mentions, Wikipedia presence, and "reputation across the open web".
The GEO pillar covers what we do specifically for the non-Google engines.
The one opinion that matters
Every retainer client we onboard from another agency in 2025 has the same gap: zero AEO work on their existing pages. The previous agency has either decided AEO does not matter yet, or has not updated their content template in three years. Both are version of the same problem. The cost of catching up later is roughly double the cost of building it in from the start.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between SEO and AEO?
SEO optimises pages to rank in regular search results. AEO optimises the same pages to get cited by AI Overviews and answer engines. The two are complementary, not alternatives. Most pages that rank well do not automatically get cited; AEO is the specific work that earns the citation.
How is AEO different from GEO?
AEO covers Google's AI Overviews (the AI summary that appears at the top of many Google results pages). GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and other generative AI assistants. The optimisation tactics overlap substantially but the engines crawl and cite differently, so we measure and tune them separately.
Can I do AEO without doing SEO first?
Mostly no. AI Overviews pull citations from pages with reasonable organic authority. If your page is not findable in the regular index, the AI engine rarely cites it. AEO is layered on top of SEO foundations, not a replacement for them.
How do you measure AEO performance?
Three layers. Surface coverage: which target queries trigger AI Overviews and whether your pages get cited in them. Click-through: traffic from AI-cited mentions (measurable through GA4 with referrer filtering). Brand recall: prompt testing against ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude to see whether the engines recommend you by name for category queries.