Search is changing shape. More and more queries are answered by an AI summary — Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity — that sits above the traditional blue links and cites a handful of sources. Getting your site into those citations is the new front page, and it has a name: AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), closely related to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Here's what they are and how to actually do them.
AEO vs GEO vs SEO
- SEO — being found in the ranked list of links.
- AEO — being the source an answer engine cites when it summarizes the web.
- GEO — being well-represented and accurately pulled into generative AI answers.
They overlap heavily. The reassuring part: you don't need a separate playbook. The things that make you rankable are largely the things that make you citable.
Why the foundation decides whether you're cited
AI answer engines can only cite pages they can crawl, parse, and trust — the exact same foundation that earns rankings:
- Crawlable and indexable. If an engine can't reach or read the page, it can't cite it.
- Clean structure. A clear H1 and logical headings let a model locate and lift a specific answer.
- Direct answers. Pages that answer the question plainly, near the top, are easy to quote.
- Accurate structured data. Schema makes your entity and facts unambiguous.
- Trust signals (E-E-A-T). Engines favor sources that demonstrate real expertise.
A weak foundation gets skipped for a competitor the engine can actually read. A strong one earns both rankings and citations from the same work — one investment, two payoffs.
Practical AEO/GEO steps
- Put a clear, liftable answer near the top of each page.
- Keep a clean heading structure so a model can find the specific answer.
- Use accurate structured data (FAQPage, Article, LocalBusiness as fits).
- Consider an llms.txt to guide AI crawlers to your best content.
- Make sure the page is genuinely Search-Ready first — none of the above matters on a page an engine can't read.
The honest bottom line
AEO isn't a trick layered on top of SEO — it's what a sound SEO foundation earns you in an AI-mediated world. Build the foundation (this is the whole argument of Roots before lights), write content that answers the question, and you become citable as a side effect of being rankable. CommandSEO checks that foundation and verifies it's live — see what it checks.
Answer engines cite pages they can crawl, parse, and trust. AEO is mostly your SEO foundation, aimed at the AI answer instead of the blue link.