What is answer engine optimization (AEO)? A plain guide for B2B marketers

What answer engine optimization means#

A search engine returns a list of links. An answer engine returns an answer. When a buyer asks ChatGPT "What are the best CRM tools for a 50-person agency?", the reply is a short list of named companies with a reason for each. The buyer may never see a page of links at all.

Answer engine optimization, usually shortened to AEO, is the work of making sure your company is understood correctly by these AI tools and is named when it is a good fit. The main answer engines today are ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Google's AI features in Search, Claude and Perplexity.

You will also see the terms GEO (generative engine optimization), LLM optimization and AI search optimization. They describe the same goal with different words. We explain the small differences in AEO vs SEO vs GEO.

Why it matters for B2B companies#

B2B buying has always started with research. What has changed is where the research happens. A marketing leader who once typed "best attribution software" into Google can now ask an AI assistant to compare three tools for a company of their size, and get a shortlist in seconds.

Two things follow from that:

1. The shortlist is made before the visit. If an AI tool names three of your rivals and not you, the buyer may never reach your website.
2. You cannot see it happening. Website analytics show visits, not the conversations where your company was left out. This is why measuring AI answers directly matters.

How AI tools decide which companies to name#

No AI company publishes a full ranking formula, so be wary of anyone who claims to know one. What is clear from public documentation and from testing is that answers draw on two broad sources:

• What the model learned in training. Models are trained on large amounts of public text. Companies that are described clearly and often across the web are easier for a model to recall.
• What the tool reads live. ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude can search the web while answering, then read and cite pages. Here your own pages, review sites, comparison articles and directories all play a part.

In both cases, AI tools favour companies whose facts are clear and consistent, whose pages answer the question directly, and who are mentioned by other sites the tool trusts.

The four parts of AEO#

1. Let AI read your site

AI tools can only use pages they can reach. Check that your robots.txt file does not block the crawlers that power AI search, such as OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search), Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, unless you have decided to opt out. Make sure your key pages show their main text in the page itself, not only after scripts run. Our post on which AI crawlers to allow lists each one.

2. Make your facts clear and consistent

Say plainly what the company does, for whom, and how it is different. Use the same company name, description and category on your website, LinkedIn, review sites and directories. Add schema markup so machines can read your core facts without guessing. Our schema guide covers what helps.

3. Publish pages that answer buyer questions

AI tools quote pages that answer the question being asked. That usually means:

• a page for each main use case, written in the words buyers use
• honest comparison pages ("Your company vs Rival") and alternatives pages
• short questions and answers on product and pricing pages
• specific facts: integrations, prices or pricing model, named customers (with permission)

4. Earn mentions on sites AI trusts

When AI tools search the web, they often cite review sites, industry roundups, directories, partner pages and community discussions. Being listed accurately in those places makes it more likely you are named. This part takes the longest and cannot be faked.

How to measure AEO#

AEO without measurement is guesswork. A simple method:

1. Write 20 to 50 questions your buyers really ask, across the buying journey. Most should not include your company name. Questions like "best tools for X" show real visibility. Questions that name you almost always mention you.
2. Ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity.
3. Record whether you are named, where in the answer, and who is named instead.
4. Repeat on a schedule and watch the trend, not single answers. AI answers vary from one run to the next.

You can do this by hand with the Buyer-questions worksheet, run a free AI visibility check, or track it every week with Live AI Monitoring. We explain how to read the numbers honestly in How to measure AI visibility.

Where to start this week#

• Run a baseline on 20 buyer questions and note who is named instead of you.
• Fix your About page and homepage so each says in one clear sentence what you do and for whom.
• Run the free Schema Check on your homepage.
• Pick the one rival named most often and write an honest comparison page.

For a full four-week version, download the 30-day plan to get named by AI.