Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Also known as: AEO, generative engine optimization, GEO
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What is Answer Engine Optimization?
AEO is the practice of shaping what AI assistants say when someone asks "what is the best tool for X?" Instead of ranking a page, the goal is to be quoted or recommended in the generated answer.
Why It Matters for AI Work
As buyers and their agents ask assistants for recommendations, citations from third-party sources decide which products get named. Matt Swulinski says the first lever founders should pull is high-quality YouTube reviews, because long-form video ranks in long-tail queries and is heavily used by answer engines. Press coverage matters mainly for the citations it creates, not for traffic. Page speed also affects crawlers.
How It Works in Practice
- Publish valuable, specific content, not mass-produced AI pages
- Earn YouTube reviews, Reddit threads and press mentions that answer engines cite
- Audit competitors' sitemaps with an agent to see what they publish
- Keep pages fast, since crawlers check load time