AEO is Answer Engine Optimization. It is how you write and structure a page so an answer engine can lift a complete answer, not only a link. Voice search, featured snippets, AI overviews and in-product assistants all pick one passage and speak it as if it were the result.
What is an answer engine?
An answer engine returns the answer, then maybe the source. A search engine returns sources, then you find the answer. If your page cannot be reduced to a clean answer, you are not selected.
How is AEO different from SEO and GEO?
- SEO gets the URL into the candidate set and earns the click.
- GEO makes the page usable as source material for a generated essay.
- AEO makes one passage the answer that can be spoken, boxed or quoted first.
What questions should the page answer?
- What is it?
- How does it work?
- Who is it for?
- How do I do it?
- What do I do first?
- What is the difference versus the obvious alternative?
Each of those can be an H2. The first two sentences under the heading should stand alone. If you delete the rest of the page and the answer still makes sense, you wrote for an answer engine.
How long should the answer be?
Long enough to be complete, short enough to be lifted. A definition can be one or two sentences. A procedure can be five to nine steps. Do not hide the short answer at the bottom.
Do FAQs help AEO?
Yes, when they are real questions with real answers. Use the wording of support tickets, sales calls and search queries. Put the question in the heading. Put the answer in the next paragraph. Then expand.
What stops a page from being chosen as the answer?
- The first screen is a hero with no sentence a model can quote.
- The answer is split across tabs, accordions or images.
- Two sections contradict each other.
- The page talks about solutions and never names the object.
How do I check if AEO is working?
Ask the question out loud and in writing. Note the exact sentence that was used. If it is not yours, rewrite your passage until it is shorter, clearer and more complete than theirs.
What should I change on a WordPress page today?
Open the page that should own your main question. Write the answer in plain English under an H2 that is the question. Keep that answer in HTML text. Then test the question again. Read how Emyneo works or go to plans.