Glossaire
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
Optimising to be the source an AI keeps when it writes a direct answer to a question.
Definition
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is the practice of optimising content for answer engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Where classic SEO aims to rank a page in a list of results, AEO aims to be the cited source when an engine composes a direct answer to a question.
Why it matters
More and more users get their answer without clicking a result: the engine writes it for them, drawing on a few sources. Not being one of those sources means being invisible on those queries, even if your page ranks well in the blue links. AEO addresses this shift.
In practice
- Answer the precise question in the first one or two sentences of the page.
- Structure content as questions and answers (interrogative headings, FAQ).
- Use structured data (schema.org) to help engines extract the answer.
- Cite verifiable facts and real sources, which signal reliability to an AI.
- Stay factual and concise: an extractable answer beats a long, vague text.