GEO and AI answers

What is AEO (answer engine optimization)?

Updated on November 6, 2026

AEO is an older name for the same goal as GEO: being the source an answer engine picks when it answers a question directly, from featured snippets to AI assistants.

The term appeared with voice assistants and featured snippets, when a search engine started answering a question on its own instead of listing pages. The method is the same as today: one question per page or section, the answer in the first sentences, facts that can be checked.

Since 2024 most agencies say GEO, or AI search optimisation, for the work aimed at ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI features. The two words describe one job, and an agency that sells AEO sells the same thing as one that sells GEO.

Frequently asked questions

Is AEO different from GEO?

In practice no. AEO is the earlier name, born with featured snippets and voice assistants; GEO is the name used since AI assistants started writing answers. Both mean being the source an engine quotes.

Which name should a company look for?

Look for the work, not the acronym: client cases where the brand was cited by an assistant, and a method to measure it. On SeoGeoMap both are listed under the GEO specialities.

Related terms

GEO (generative engine optimization)

GEO is the work of making a brand present in the answers written by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews, through citations with a link and mentions by name.

Featured snippet

A featured snippet is the box at the top of some Google results that shows an extract of a page answering the query directly: a paragraph, a list or a table, with a link to the source.

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