What is AEO? Why it matters, and how to be the AI’s 1st Choice
What do we mean by AEO?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It is the practice of shaping your website and content so that AI systems and answer engines can find, understand, and quote you when they produce direct answers. Think of it as SEO for a world where users ask a question and get a spoken or written answer straight away, often without clicking through to ten blue links.
AEO is not a replacement for SEO. It builds on the same foundations, then adds extra layers that help language models and AI assistants recognise your brand as the best source for a concise, trustworthy answer.
Why AEO matters now
- Users are asking natural language questions and expect instant, reliable answers.
- AI assistants summarise the web. If your brand is not easy to parse or cite, you risk being left out.
- Visibility is shifting from simple rankings to being referenced inside an AI generated answer.
- Entities, expertise, and structured data now carry more weight, because machines prefer clean signals they can verify.
In short, AEO helps you win brand mentions, citations, and traffic from answer experiences across search, chat, and voice.
Core principles of effective AEO
1) Be the best short answer on the page
Create clear question and answer blocks. Start with the one line answer, then add the supporting detail below. Use headings that mirror real queries, for example:
- What is [topic]
- How to [task]
- [Product] vs [Product]
This formatting helps AI extract the key statement without confusion.
2) Prove experience and trust at every step
Expertise and credibility signals make your answers safer to cite. Strengthen:
- Author bios with real credentials and links to professional profiles
- Cited sources where appropriate
- Case studies, data, and original research
- Clear contact details, trading history, and policies
3) Structure your knowledge for machines
Add and maintain Schema.org markup across your site:
- Organisation, LocalBusiness, Product, Service, FAQPage, HowTo, Article
- SameAs links to your official profiles to reinforce entity identity
- Product and service attributes that match what customers actually search
4) Build a robust entity footprint
Search and answer engines model the world as connected entities. Make yours unmissable:
- Consistent brand naming, NAP details, and profiles across the web
- Glossaries and pillar pages that define your core topics
- Internal links that show logical relationships between ideas, products, and services
5) Keep your site easy to crawl and lightning fast
AI systems still rely on crawlable, indexable pages. Maintain:
- Clean sitemaps and robots rules
- Fast load times, image compression, and Core Web Vitals
- Canonicals to avoid duplication and confusion
6) Publish depth plus clarity
Long form resources are still valuable, but open with the distilled answer. Use tables, steps, and bullet points. Name things the way your customers do. Avoid jargon where a plain term will do.
What we do at Dijitul to lift your AEO
AEO discovery and content mapping
We identify the high intent questions your audience asks, then map them to pages and modules across your site. Expect a clear plan that pairs each question with:
- A primary page to own the answer
- Supporting FAQs and related questions
- Internal links that signal topic authority
Entity and schema engineering
We implement and maintain structured data that matches your business model. That includes Organisation and LocalBusiness markup, product and service schema, FAQPage and HowTo where appropriate, plus SameAs links that tie your brand to verified profiles.
Author, E-E-A-T and trust uplift
We help you show real people behind your content. That means author pages with credentials, citations to reputable sources, and trust pages that prove you are a legitimate operator. We also tighten your brand knowledge across directories and profiles to reinforce your entity.
Content sprints built for answers
Our writers produce answer-first content: a crisp summary at the top, followed by step by step detail, visuals, and downloadable assets where useful. We create tidy Q&A blocks, comparison tables, and short definitions that AI can quote cleanly.
Technical hygiene and speed
We keep your site quick and crawlable. From Core Web Vitals and image optimisation to clean sitemaps and canonical rules, we remove friction that prevents your pages being discovered and parsed.
Monitoring and iteration
AEO is not set and forget. We track how often your brand gets cited, which pages feed answer experiences, and where competitors gain references. We then refine headings, markup, and summaries to improve extraction and citation rates.
A simple AEO checklist to start today
- Write a 40 to 60 word summary at the top of key pages that answers the main query
- Add a short FAQ section that mirrors real questions your customers ask
- Implement Organisation or LocalBusiness schema site-wide and ensure SameAs links are correct
- Give each service page a clear purpose, a single primary question, and a concise answer
- Refresh author bios with credentials and links
- Improve internal linking between related questions and pillar pages
- Fix slow pages and remove duplicate content that dilutes authority
Ready to future proof your visibility?
AEO helps your brand earn a seat inside AI generated answers. The businesses that win are the ones that combine strong fundamentals with answer-friendly formatting, verifiable expertise, and structured signals.
If you want your company to be the source that assistants trust, dijitul can help. We will audit your current AEO posture, build an answer-first content plan, implement the right schema, and keep improving as the landscape evolves.