AEO and SEO: How to Get Found in AI Search
If you have been told your business needs answer engine optimization, or AEO, you are asking a reasonable question: how do we make sure customers can find us when they ask an AI tool for help?
Our view is that AEO belongs within a sound SEO and marketing strategy. The goal is familiar: make your business easy to discover, understand, and trust. AI-generated answers change how people encounter information and how we measure visibility, but they do not make the foundations of search optimization obsolete.
What are AEO and GEO?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of improving the chances that useful information about your business can appear in answers from search engines and AI tools. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is a related term often used for visibility in generative AI responses. People use these labels differently, and neither describes a guaranteed placement.
SEO traditionally focuses on being found through search engines. AEO and GEO bring attention to answers, citations, and brand mentions as well as links. For a business owner, the important question is whether the right people can find accurate information and take a useful next step.
How AI search finds information
Some AI search experiences retrieve web results to help answer a question. Google describes a process called query fan-out, in which an AI feature may run several related searches to gather information about different parts of a question. A person looking for a local web designer, for example, might prompt related searches about services, location, costs, and reviews. Google explains this in its guide to generative AI search.
That does not mean every AI product works the same way, or that search engines have no indexes. Google maintains a search index, and AI tools can use different sources and retrieval methods. An answer can also be incomplete or wrong, even when it cites a source.
Good SEO is the foundation
Google says its established SEO practices apply to its AI search features. A page must be accessible and eligible to appear in Search, but there is no special markup that guarantees a citation in an AI answer. Other platforms have their own systems, so Google’s guidance should not be mistaken for a promise about every AI tool. Read Google’s AI search guidance.
This means the work should begin with things that help customers and search engines alike:
- Make important pages clear and accessible. Explain what you offer, whom you serve, where you work, and how to contact you. Fix technical problems that prevent pages from being discovered or read.
- Answer real customer questions. Address cost factors, timelines, choices, and limitations with specific information based on your experience. A useful FAQ can help; a page full of generic questions is not a shortcut.
- Keep business information accurate. Maintain your Google Business Profile and relevant directories, including your services, contact details, and hours. Ask for honest reviews and respond thoughtfully.
- Build credible evidence beyond your site. Relevant coverage, genuine customer feedback, and useful third-party references can help people evaluate your business. Paid press releases are not independent endorsements, and claims should be accurate wherever they appear.
- Make the next step easy. Visibility matters most when a visitor can understand the offer and contact you, book, or buy without friction.
In a Build in Public conversation, SEO practitioner Harprit Singh makes a similar argument: many tactics newly packaged as AEO or GEO have long been part of SEO. He also discusses the need to consider how AI answers vary by context and how a business appears on third-party sources. We agree with the emphasis on fundamentals, while treating individual tactics and claims about AI citations as things to test rather than guarantees.
What should a small business measure?
Start with search visibility, qualified visits, calls, inquiries, and booked work. Review the questions customers actually ask, and periodically check how your business is described in relevant AI answers. Results can vary by tool, location, timing, and conversation, so a handful of prompts is a useful diagnostic, not a complete ranking report.
Where available, Search Console’s generative AI reports can provide another view of visibility in Google’s AI features. Google says these reports are rolling out to a subset of sites, and they do not measure every AI platform. See Google’s announcement.
Do you need a separate AEO service?
Not necessarily. If someone is looking for AEO help, we would start by reviewing their website, search presence, business information, and the questions customers ask. Then we would prioritize the work that improves visibility and helps people choose the business. That may include AI-specific monitoring or platform considerations, but it should connect to the broader marketing plan.
Explore our SEO and marketing support or talk with us about where your business is—and is not—being found.