What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?

AEO in one sentence

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It is the work of getting your business named as the answer when someone asks an AI assistant, like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, for the best provider in your industry and area.

Where SEO competes for a ranking position, AEO competes to be the recommendation itself. When AI says 'you should try...', AEO is why it says your name.

How AI decides who to name

AI answer engines look for clear, structured, consistent information they can trust. They favour pages that answer questions directly, businesses whose details match across the web, and content marked up so machines can read it without guessing.

The FAQ pattern that works

The single highest-yield AEO tactic is a genuine FAQ: real questions your customers ask, answered in plain language, with matching FAQ schema in the page code. AI models lift these question-and-answer pairs almost verbatim.

Publishing this consistently is easier with a system behind it. Many agencies run their client comms and content workflows through GoHighLevel, and use Ubersuggest to find the exact questions people ask.

Three AEO moves for this month

1. Add a real FAQ to your key pages, with schema markup.

2. Publish a clear 'about' and services description using consistent wording everywhere.

3. Add an llms.txt file so AI models get a clean summary of who you are.

Some links in this article are affiliate links to tools we use and trust. If you sign up through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we actually use.