AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Another name for the same job as GEO: preparing a site so answer engines can use it. The two terms are used interchangeably, with AEO emphasising the answer and GEO the generative model producing it.
Updated August 21, 2026
There is no meaningful technical difference between AEO and GEO, and no standards body has separated them. Both describe making a page reachable, unambiguous and quotable so a model composing an answer has something concrete to lift. If a vendor insists the two are different disciplines requiring separate budgets, ask them which specific checks differ. In practice the work is one list: be crawlable, state facts plainly, mark them up, and back them with evidence.
Related terms
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). The work of making your website easy for AI answer engines to find, trust and quote. The goal is not to rank a link, but to have your facts used inside an AI-generated answer.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The work of getting your pages to rank well in traditional search results. GEO and SEO share many fundamentals but aim at different finish lines.
- AI answer engine. A tool that answers a question with written text instead of a list of links, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google's AI overviews. It builds its answer partly from information it reads on websites.