What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)?

Why AEO suddenly matters

People have started asking AI instead of searching. In BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey, 45% of consumers said they used AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to find local businesses in the past year — up from 6% a year earlier. ChatGPT alone passed 900 million weekly users in early 2026, and Google now shows an AI Overview on roughly 60% of US searches.

When an AI answers “who’s the best plumber near me?”, it names a handful of businesses. There is no page two. Either the AI says your name, or it says your competitor’s — that’s the entire game AEO plays.

AEO vs SEO — what actually changes

The two overlap more than they compete. A technically healthy, well-linked site is raw material for both — but AEO adds work SEO never asked for, because an AI needs to verify facts about your business, not just rank your page.

What AEO work actually involves

• Audit — ask the engines the questions your customers ask and record who gets named, so you know your starting point.
• Structured data (schema) — machine-readable facts on your site: what you do, where you serve, prices, reviews, FAQs.
• Citations and listings — your name, address and phone consistent across Google Business Profile, Bing Places and the directories AI models read.
• Question-shaped content— pages that answer real customer questions plainly, because that’s what LLMs quote.
• Monitoring — AI answers shift as models update, so you re-test the same questions over time and watch your mention rate.

AEO, GEO, LLMO, AI SEO — are these different things?

No. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), LLM Optimization (LLMO) and “AI SEO” all describe the same practice: making a business visible to AI systems that answer questions. The industry hasn’t settled on one name yet. We use AEO and GEO interchangeably.

Is AEO replacing SEO?

Not yet, and maybe never fully — Bain & Company found 56% of consumers still mostly start with a search engine. The honest framing: SEO defends the channel you already have, AEO builds the one your customers are moving to. Local businesses that set up now are being recommended while their competitors are still invisible, which is exactly why we’d rather you start early. The numbers behind that shift are here.

Can you do AEO yourself?

You can — but go in with your eyes open: done properly it’s a 20-step jobspanning schema markup, listing cleanups, content rewrites and outreach, and most of those steps rate hard or moderate on difficulty. It’s a second job until it’s done. Our guide lays out all 20 steps with difficulty ratings, and this comparison weighs honestly when grinding through it yourself makes sense and when paying someone does.