AEO
AEO is the practice of structuring your website so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews quote you when they answer a question. Where SEO chased rankings on a results page, AEO chases citations inside the answer itself.
Why it matters
A growing share of your buyers never see a results page: they ask an assistant and act on the answer. If the assistant names a competitor, or describes you wrongly, you lose the deal before you knew it existed. AEO is how you show up, accurately, in that moment.
How it works
Answer engines skim pages for claims they can lift cleanly: a direct answer near the top, one idea per section, plain headings that mirror real questions, named authors, and evidence attached to assertions.
AEO work restructures your most valuable pages into that shape, keeps your facts consistent everywhere machines read, and measures whether the engines cite you.
What to do about it
Start with an answer audit: ask the major assistants the twenty questions your customers ask, and record who gets cited and what gets said about you. The gaps and errors you find become the work list.
