Answer engine optimization
Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is the work of making a site legible and citable to AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews. It overlaps with SEO but leans harder on structured data, plain crawlable prose and answer-first writing.
The outcome people actually want: a site that search engines and AI assistants can read, understand and quote.
Ranking first and still invisible.
More buyers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews before they click a link. Those tools answer from sources they can read and trust. If your answers are hidden in images, vague headlines or scripts, and your business details don't match across the web, you're left out of the answer — however good the work is.
- An AI assistant describes your business wrongly, or not at all.
- Competitors show up in AI answers for questions you're better placed to answer.
- Your name, address or services differ between your site and your listings.
- Your pages rank, but never get quoted.
What you get, in order.
A search and AEO review
How search engines and AI assistants currently read your key pages, which questions you're not answering, and what on the site is getting in the way.
On-page optimization
Page titles, meta descriptions, headings, content structure, internal linking and image alt text — improved page by page.
Answer-first structure
Content restructured so the direct answer comes first, with FAQ and service structured data wherever it describes what's really on the page.
Recommendations as we go
Keyword and content recommendations, and technical observations on the pages we work on, so improvements keep coming.
Who this is for.
Businesses people research before they call: professional services, healthcare, home services, B2B. Especially if you already have good content that answer engines are ignoring.
It's a poor fit if the site has no real content yet. AEO works on answers you've actually written, so we'd start with the site.
What makes it bigger or smaller.
Smaller
- Solid existing content
- A handful of core services
- One location
- Listings already consistent
Bigger
- Content written from scratch
- Many services or locations
- Inconsistent details across listings
- A site crawlers can't read
No numbers here — we'll put one in writing after we've seen it.
Before, during, and after.
Review, about two weeks
We look at how your key pages read to search engines and AI assistants, and run a set of real buyer questions to see who's being cited. You get a prioritised list either way.
Improve page by page
On-page fixes, answer-first restructuring and structured data, starting with the pages that matter most.
Keep optimizing
Ongoing optimization and recommendations through an ongoing creative engagement. Larger programs — extensive keyword research, content production, major technical remediation — are scoped on their own.
What people ask about answer engine optimization.
What is answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is the work of making a site legible and citable to AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews. It overlaps with SEO but leans harder on structured data, plain crawlable prose and answer-first writing.
Is AEO different from SEO?
It builds on it. SEO gets a page ranked; AEO gets its answer quoted. The foundations overlap — crawlable pages, clear structure — but AEO leans harder on structured data, direct answers and consistent business details across the web.
Do we need lots of new content?
Usually not at first. Most sites already have useful answers buried in long pages or hidden in images. We restructure what exists before writing anything new.
How long does AEO take to show results?
Some changes are picked up within weeks. How AI assistants describe you can take months and depends on factors outside anyone's control, which is why we treat AEO as ongoing optimization rather than a promise with a date.
Can you guarantee rankings or AI citations?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. Rankings and AI answers depend on factors no agency controls. We commit to the work — clear, well-structured, well-optimized pages — and to honest reporting on what changes.
Is SEO/AEO part of ongoing creative work?
Yes. On-page SEO and AEO is part of every ongoing creative engagement when it fits the reserved capacity. Larger search programs are scoped separately.