From being found to being quoted
For years, we've built websites around one core objective: help people find us through Google.
We wrote articles, optimised keywords, built backlinks, and climbed search rankings. And for a long time, that worked, because search engines behaved predictably and consistently.
But today, people do more than “search.” They ask AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and expect instant, direct answers.
Our websites now need to adapt to that shift.
Why ranking is not enough
AI systems don't act like traditional search engines. They read, summarise and quote information, sometimes with a link to the source and sometimes without one.
This means a business can be:
- fully optimised for SEO
- ranking well on Google
- publishing strong, helpful content
...and still be under-represented in AI answers.
This is where AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) come in.
What are AEO and GEO?
In simple terms:
SEO helps people find your website. AEO and GEO help AI systems understand and reuse your expertise.
AI tools behave like professional researchers:
- they read your content
- extract key facts
- summarise them
- answer questions
- and decide whether to cite you
If your content is hard to interpret, it is less likely to be included.
The term GEO comes from a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal and colleagues, which tested how changes to content affected visibility in generative engine answers. Adding citations, quotations from relevant sources and statistics improved visibility by up to around 40% in their experiments, while keyword stuffing did little.
A simple analogy: the library
Imagine your website is a book in a vast digital library.
SEO is about making the book easy to find, a clear title, a recognisable cover, and a good index.
AEO/GEO make the book easy to quote, a strong summary, clear definitions, signposted key points, and highlighted insights.
The AI becomes a librarian. When someone asks a question, it reaches for the book that's easiest to understand, and easiest to trust.
That's the one it quotes.
How it works
AI systems work best with content whose meaning is easy to extract. Good content makes it obvious:
- What question the page answers
- What the main point is
- What the key facts are
- Which concepts matter
- How trustworthy the source is
- How well the content is organised
It is worth knowing what Google itself says: its guidance on AI features states that there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that the same SEO fundamentals apply. AEO and GEO are best understood as doing those fundamentals especially well for content that answers questions. In practice, that means:
1. A short, direct summary
A clear two- or three-sentence overview that states the answer up front.
2. Natural-language headings
Questions such as:
- “What is X?”
- “How does Y work?”
- “Why does this matter?”
These align with how users phrase queries to AI tools.
3. Key takeaways
Short, scannable bullet points summarising core insights.
4. Clear definitions and named concepts
AI models recognise entities; consistent terminology strengthens understanding.
5. Structured formatting
Short paragraphs, bullet points, tables, numbered steps. This helps both humans and machines.
Why it matters
1. AI is becoming a major gateway to your brand
People aren't always clicking links, AI often answers for them. AEO/GEO help ensure those answers include your expertise.
2. Brand authority depends on how well AI understands you
Without clarity and structure, AI may:
- misrepresent you
- summarise you incorrectly
- or quote a competitor instead
AEO/GEO reduce that risk.
3. Leaders need visibility in emerging AI ecosystems
This shift may prove as significant as the move from print to digital. Early adopters can gain:
- competitive advantage
- stronger brand authority
- higher citation rates
- long-term discoverability
4. This is more than an SEO task
AEO/GEO require collaboration across:
- copywriting
- content design
- UX
- development
- brand governance
- structured data
It's a whole-site effort.
Where AEO and GEO apply across the site
Blog articles
These are ideal for AI consumption. They should include:
- question-led headings
- clear definitions
- short paragraphs
- FAQs
- structured metadata
Static pages (home, about, services)
Human-first, AI-second, but both matter.
- opening summaries
- numbered process steps
- short explainers
- FAQs where helpful
Knowledge sections
High-impact formats include:
- glossaries
- answer hubs
- how-to guides
- comparisons
- checklists
- focused question pages
These form your “brand knowledge graph.”
How trust is judged (E-E-A-T)
E-E-A-T is the framework Google's quality raters use, set out in its guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content. Because many AI answers draw on search results, the same signals matter. They are:
- Experience, Are real people behind the content?
- Expertise, Is it credible?
- Authority, Is your brand established and consistent?
- Trust, Is the content transparent and up to date?
Your site should therefore include:
- author bios
- case studies
- citations
- contact details
- verified brand profiles
These signals make your content more credible to people and to the systems that rank it.
Why user experience matters
Page experience is part of how search engines assess quality, and AI answers that rely on search results inherit that assessment.
Key signals include:
- fast load times
- mobile performance
- accessible design
- stable layouts
- minimal intrusive elements
- clear, simple menus
- HTTPS
A good experience also means people who do click through stay, read and act.
How AEO and GEO change content structure
Every page should include:
- a direct summary
- clear questions
- structured answers
- definitions
- key takeaways
Behind the scenes, support this with:
- JSON-LD schema
- accurate titles and meta descriptions
- consistent entity names
- clean, crawlable HTML
These create the “hooks” AI uses to understand your content.
Schema that supports AEO and GEO
Essential schema types include:
- Organisation
- Website
- Article / BlogPosting
- FAQPage
- HowTo
- BreadcrumbList
- Product / Service
- DefinedTermSet (for glossaries)
Schema explains what a page is, not just what it says. Note that in 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known government and health sites and stopped showing HowTo rich results, so use these types where they genuinely describe the content rather than to chase search features.
The llms.txt proposal
A proposed standard, llms.txt, suggests placing a Markdown file at the root of a site that acts as a guidebook for language models. Support is uneven: some AI tools and developer platforms use it, while Google has said it does not rely on it for Search. It is cheap to provide, but not a substitute for good pages.
It can include:
- your business description
- links to key pages
- author details
- sitemap links
- priority content
It can help AI tools that read it understand which material you consider authoritative.
Building an AI-friendly site architecture
Search engines and AI systems build a picture of what your site covers and how topics connect.
Support this through:
- descriptive URLs
- topic clusters
- internal links with meaningful anchors
- consistent naming
- a shallow, logical hierarchy
This helps AI follow your expertise more easily.
Content types that work well in AI answers
Modular formats tend to be easiest to extract and reuse:
- “What is…?” pages
- comparisons
- step-by-step guides
- checklists
- glossaries
- short Q&As
- answer hubs
These offer clean, reusable blocks of meaning.
Keeping content fresh
Out-of-date facts are a reason for any system, or reader, to prefer another source.
Best practice:
- refresh core pages every 6-12 months
- update statistics and examples
- add “last updated” labels
- keep author profiles active
Freshness supports trust, but only when the update is real: changing a date without changing the content helps no one.
A starting checklist
- Pick ten questions your customers ask, and check how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI features answer them today.
- Make sure one page on your site answers each question directly, with a summary at the top.
- Add sources, named authors and dates to that content.
- Check your Organization, WebSite and Article structured data is valid.
- Link related pages with descriptive anchors.
- Repeat the AI check quarterly and track whether you are cited. How to measure this is covered in the disappearing click.
Key takeaway
SEO helps people find your content. AEO and GEO help AI understand, trust, and quote your content.
Both matter, and they reinforce each other: the clear, credible, well-structured content that AI systems quote is the same content that ranks and converts.
