A clear-headed guide to AEO

Search did not disappear. It changed shape. People now put their questions to AI assistants, and the reply is a single composed answer instead of a list of links.

What changed

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the work of making sure your brand is present, accurate, and preferred in those answers.

The unit of competition is different. You are no longer competing for a position on a results page. You are competing to be the claim an engine chooses to repeat.

Where SEO still helps

Answer engines pull from the open web, so the basics still matter: pages that can be crawled, a clear structure, and content with real authority.

What SEO does not cover is how an answer gets assembled, which is why a top ranking no longer guarantees a mention.

How answer engines work

• A prompt is expanded into several sub-queries, often called query fan-out.
• Each sub-query retrieves candidate pages from search indexes, licensed data, and what the model already knows.
• The model writes one answer and cites a handful of sources, usually favouring recent content.
• Being mentioned in that answer tends to bring more visits to your site in the days that follow.