Definition
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the subset of GEO focused specifically on grounded answer surfaces - the ones that retrieve live URLs and quote them in the answer. AEO emphasises extractability: leading with a direct answer in the first 200 words, structuring with question-style H2s, adding FAQ schema, and making sure the page is fast and crawlable.
Why it matters
AEO sits in the "Core concepts" layer of the AI search stack. Teams that handle it well get cited more, recommended more, and earn more of the AI-mediated revenue in their category. Teams that ignore it spend a year wondering why their content investment never moves the needle inside ChatGPT or Perplexity.
Related terms
- GEO - The practice of optimizing brand and content so generative AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok) mention, recommend, and cite you.
- LLM SEO - Optimizing for Large Language Models - making sure ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok know about, cite, and recommend your brand.
- AI Overviews - Google's generative-AI answer box at the top of search results, powered by Gemini. Now appears for more than half of qualifying US queries.
- Extractability - How easily an LLM can lift a clean, summarisable answer from your page. High extractability dramatically increases citation rate on grounded surfaces.
- Citation share - Percentage of cited sources in an LLM answer that come from your domain. Only meaningful on grounded surfaces (Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, AI Overviews).
Apply it
The LLM SEO playbook ties every concept in this glossary into a single operating model. If you want to see how your brand performs across all the LLMs at once - mention rate, citation share, sentiment, rank - start with the free GEO audit or skip straight to a free Livesov account.