ChatGPT processes over 2 billion queries per day. Perplexity has tripled its volume in less than a year to reach 780 million monthly searches. When a prospect asks "what is the best accounting software for an SMB?", your company appears in the generated response, or it doesn't exist in their eyes.
SEO taught you to fight for Google's first page. AEO teaches you to fight to be THE answer.
This guide won't serve you yet another Wikipedia definition. We're going to dissect the real mechanisms that make an AI decide to cite you — or to cite your competitor. Because understanding how these systems work is the only way to influence them intelligently.
AEO is not rebranded SEO
Answer Engine Optimization refers to all practices aimed at optimizing a brand's visibility in responses generated by conversational AIs. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google's AI Overviews — all these systems constitute what we now call "answer engines".
The fundamental difference with SEO can be summed up in one sentence: SEO aims to generate traffic, AEO aims to generate mentions.
When you optimize for Google, your goal remains to get the user to click to your site. When you optimize for ChatGPT, the user will probably never click — they want a direct answer. Your goal becomes to be the source that the AI cites, recommends, or draws inspiration from to formulate its response.
This distinction may seem subtle. Yet it radically changes the approach. Content optimized for SEO can be long, detailed, designed to keep the visitor on the page. Content optimized for AEO must be structured so that an AI can extract relevant information and correctly attribute it to your brand.
Today's "answer engines" include:
- ChatGPT (OpenAI) — 800 million weekly users, market leader with 81% share
- Perplexity — 22 million active users, 450% growth in 18 months
- Claude (Anthropic) — Estimated 52 million monthly users
- Gemini (Google) — Integrated into Google Search, 300 million+ potential users
- Copilot (Microsoft) — Integrated into Bing, Edge, Windows, Office
- Google AI Overviews — Present in 55% of informational queries in the US
How do AIs "decide" to cite you?
To understand AEO, you need to understand how these systems actually work. An answer engine doesn't "search" the web like Google. It operates in two distinct modes:
1. Pure parametric mode (no web search)
ChatGPT without "Browse" activated, Claude without web access — these AIs answer solely from their training data. They've ingested billions of web pages, and your brand is either well-represented in this data, or it's invisible.
In this mode, your visibility depends on:
- The volume of online mentions of your brand
- The quality of sources mentioning you (authoritative sites count more)
- The relevance of context (being mentioned alongside terms related to your industry)
- The recency of the data (training cutoff varies)
2. Augmented mode (RAG - Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
ChatGPT with "Browse", Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — these systems perform real-time web searches to enrich their responses. The process:
- The AI transforms your question into search queries
- A search engine returns relevant results
- The AI extracts information from these pages
- It synthesizes a response by citing its sources
In RAG mode, SEO factors regain importance — but with a twist. It's not about ranking #1, it's about providing content that the AI will want to extract and cite.
The 4 pillars of AEO
Pillar 1: Authority and credibility
AIs are designed to favor authoritative sources. Concretely:
- Third-party mentions: Being cited by recognized media, scientific journals, industry sites counts more than your own content
- Author expertise: Author pages with credentials, links to LinkedIn profiles, past publications
- Structured data: Schema.org markup (Organization, Person, Article) helps AIs understand your legitimacy
- Backlinks: Remain relevant — they indicate the confidence other sites place in you
Pillar 2: Content structuring
AIs extract information more easily from well-structured content:
- Direct answers: Start paragraphs with a clear answer before elaborating
- Explicit lists: Numbered lists, bullet lists — easily extractable format
- Descriptive headings: "5 best practices for..." rather than "Our approach"
- Data and figures: "87% of..." is more citable than "most..."
Pillar 3: Topical consistency
To be cited on a topic, you must be associated with it in the AI's training data:
- Semantic clusters: Multiple pages covering related aspects of your expertise
- Internal linking: Logical links between your expert pages
- Consistency: Same terms, same positioning across your entire presence
Pillar 4: Technical accessibility
Your content must be technically accessible to AI crawlers:
- robots.txt: Don't block AI bots (GPTBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot, etc.)
- JavaScript rendering: Critical content should not depend on JS
- Page speed: Slow sites are indexed less frequently
- llms.txt: New emerging standard to guide AIs on your site
AEO action plan
Step 1: Audit your current visibility
Before optimizing, measure. Test how AIs currently respond when asked about your industry:
- Search for "[your industry] best companies"
- Search for "[specific problem you solve]"
- Search for "[your brand name]"
Document current mentions, tone, competitors cited. This becomes your baseline.
Step 2: Identify your "citation triggers"
Analyze queries where you SHOULD be cited. These are queries where:
- Your solution directly answers the need
- You have legitimate expertise
- Your competitors are already being cited
Step 3: Create "AI-optimized" content
For each identified trigger:
- Create a reference page that directly answers the question
- Structure with clear headings and lists
- Include specific figures and data
- Cite recognized sources to reinforce your credibility
Step 4: Build external authority
Sustainable AEO is based on third-party signals:
- Guest contributions on industry sites
- Press releases for significant news
- Interviews and podcasts mentioning your expertise
- Academic or industry collaborations
Step 5: Monitor and iterate
Track your visibility evolution:
- Monthly or weekly checks on the same queries
- Compare with competitors
- Adjust strategy based on results
Common AEO mistakes
Mistake #1: Thinking only about SEO
Optimizing for Google doesn't mean you'll be cited by ChatGPT. A #1 page that starts with a long introduction before answering the question is a bad AEO candidate.
Mistake #2: Neglecting authority
Content without cited sources, without author, without external validation will not be favored by AIs designed to avoid misinformation.
Mistake #3: Blocking AI crawlers
Some companies block GPTBot and others via robots.txt. Result: invisible in responses. Unless you have a specific legal reason, it's counterproductive.
Mistake #4: Expecting instant results
AIs are trained periodically. Improvements made today will only impact pure parametric responses after months. RAG is more reactive, but still requires time.
The future of AEO
AEO is still in its early stages. Emerging trends:
- Personalization: AIs will remember user preferences and adapt their recommendations
- Multimodal: Images, videos will become sources to optimize
- Real-time: More and more RAG systems, less pure parametric
- Regulation: AI Act and other regulations will influence how AIs cite sources
Companies that build their AEO strategy now will have a sustainable competitive advantage. Others will wonder why they're invisible while doing "good SEO".
Conclusion
AEO is not a replacement for SEO — it's a necessary complement. In a world where an increasing share of searches go through AI, not being cited is not being considered.
The key principles to remember:
- Build real authority, not just content
- Structure for extraction, not just reading
- Think about mentions, not just traffic
- Measure, test, iterate
The question is no longer "are you on the first page?" but "are you in the answer?"
