When customers ask AI for a recommendation, you should be in the answer
More buyers now start with ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI answers instead of a list of links. In an AI answer there is no page two: you are either mentioned or you are not. AEO is how I make sure you are.
How I run AEO
SAGE is the repeating cycle I use for AEO. The rule is simple: do not skip a stage. Content written before you know the gaps is a guess.
Setup
Decide which topics and customer questions matter, and build a baseline we trust: the prompts we track, the AI engines we check, and the Search Console signals that show where Google is answering instead of sending clicks.
Analyze
Find the gaps. Which questions mention competitors but not you, which sources the AI engines cite in your space, and which of your pages are close to being cited but not quite there.
Generate
Close the gaps with content written to be quoted: direct answers, clear facts, structured data, and pages that cover a topic fully. Plus work on the outside sources AI engines lean on.
Engineer
Turn what works into a system that runs every month, so visibility compounds instead of depending on one-off pushes.
What is included
- A tracked set of customer prompts across the major AI engines.
- Search Console analysis to find questions Google now answers directly.
- Content and schema changes so your pages are easy to quote.
- A map of the outside sites AI engines cite in your industry, and a plan to show up on them.
- AI referral traffic tracked in Analytics and reported monthly.
AEO for local businesses.
Google is rebuilding the Business Profile around AI. Customer questions are now answered by an AI tool in Maps, and profile impressions are split between the classic map pack, AI summaries and AI Overviews. Standard local SEO still moves rankings. What I add is consistently teaching AI how to recommend your business and why.
Common questions
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
AEO is the work of getting your business cited and recommended in answers from AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews. Traditional SEO is about ranking a page so someone clicks it. AEO is about being included in the answer itself.
Is AEO different from SEO?
It builds on SEO rather than replacing it. AI assistants pull heavily from pages that already rank and from sources they consider trustworthy, so strong SEO is the foundation. AEO adds tracking of AI answers, content written to be quoted, and work on the third-party sources AI engines rely on.
How do you measure AEO?
Two ways. First, signals in Google Search Console, such as question pages with lots of impressions but few clicks, which usually means Google is answering the question directly. Second, tracking a set of prompts your customers would ask and recording whether AI assistants mention or cite you, and which sources they use instead.
Does Google penalize AI-written content?
Google has said it cares whether content is helpful and original, not how it was produced. New rules like the EU AI Act require AI output to carry a machine-readable marker, but that is a transparency requirement, not a ranking penalty.
Curious what AI says about your business?
Tell me your business and the question your customers ask most. I will check what ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers say today.