Answer Engine Optimization: making a website easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to find, read and quote.

How is AEO different from SEO?

SEO aims to rank a page in a list of links; AEO aims to have your content quoted inside the answer itself. They share foundations, such as crawlability and clean HTML, and AEO adds signals like AI crawler access and llms.txt.

How long does AEO take to work?

Technical fixes take effect when AI crawlers next visit, usually days to weeks. Being cited depends on content and reputation and builds over months.

The AEO checklist: 7 fixes to get your site into AI answers

The technical groundwork for Answer Engine Optimization, in order of impact.

What AEO is

People increasingly ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews instead of clicking through ten blue links. Answer Engine Optimization is making sure those assistants can reach your site, understand it, and quote it. SEO gets you ranked; AEO gets you into the answer. Most of the groundwork is the same, plus a few AI-specific signals.

1. Let AI crawlers in (robots.txt)

If GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot are disallowed, those assistants can't read your pages. Also check your CDN: "block AI bots" toggles override your file. Full guide to robots.txt for AI crawlers.

2. Describe yourself with JSON-LD

Add schema.org markup, at least Organization or LocalBusiness on the home page and Article or FAQPage on content pages, so machines don't have to guess who you are. Copy-paste JSON-LD examples.

3. Get the meta basics right

A unique <title> of roughly 10–70 characters.
A meta description of roughly 50–160 characters that answers "what is this page?".
A <link rel="canonical"> pointing at the preferred URL.
og:title and og:description, which many AI tools and link previews read.

4. Structure content so it can be quoted

Exactly one <h1>, then <h2> and <h3> in order, without skipping levels.
Phrase headings as the questions customers ask, and answer in the first sentence below.
Add a real FAQ section: question-and-answer pairs are the easiest thing for an assistant to lift.

5. Publish /llms.txt

A short markdown summary of your site and its key pages, written for language models. Cheap to add, and agents increasingly look for it. How to write an llms.txt, with an example.

6. Publish a sitemap and point to it

Serve /sitemap.xml listing every page you want found, and add Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml to robots.txt. Submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools; Bing's index also powers several AI assistants.

7. Serve real HTML, fast

Most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript. If your content only appears after a JavaScript framework renders it in the browser, crawlers receive an empty shell. Use server-side rendering or static generation, and aim for a response well under five seconds. Test with curl https://yoursite.com/: if your main text isn't in the output, crawlers don't see it either.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to show up in AI answers?

Technical fixes count from the next crawl, usually days to weeks. Being cited depends on whether your content is the best answer and whether other sites mention you, which builds over months.

Is AEO replacing SEO?

No. AI assistants lean heavily on search indexes, so good SEO remains the foundation. AEO is the extra layer that makes your content easy to extract and attribute.

Can I check all seven at once?

Yes: Aeoray scores every item on this list for any URL, for free and without an account.

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