Core concepts
Answer engine optimization
Also: AEO
Answer engine optimization is the practice of getting your brand named and cited when AI assistants answer questions. Where SEO works to rank a page in a list of links, AEO works to be the recommendation inside the answer itself.
In more detail
AEO covers three kinds of work: making sure the facts about your brand are current in the sources assistants already trust, earning citations on those sources, and publishing pages that answer buyer questions directly enough to be quoted.
It overlaps heavily with SEO, because most assistants retrieve from the same web that search engines index. The difference is what success looks like: a ranking position versus being the brand the answer names.
How Allswap measures this
Guides that cover this
Related terms
Generative engine optimization
Generative engine optimization is the practice of improving how generative AI systems describe and recommend a brand. It is used interchangeably with answer engine optimization, with GEO emphasising the generated text and AEO the answer it forms.
Answer engine
An answer engine is a system that responds to a question with a direct written answer instead of a list of links. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Grok and Meta AI are all answer engines.
AI visibility
AI visibility is how often and how prominently a brand appears in answers from AI assistants. It is usually expressed as the share of tracked questions where an engine names the brand, weighted by position in the answer.
Citation
A citation is a link an answer engine attaches to its response to show where information came from. Citations reveal which sources shaped the answer, which makes them the clearest signal of what to work on.
Ready to Dominate AI Search?
Get started now
Allswap