What is AEO (answer engine optimization)?

AEO — answer engine optimization — is structuring your content so it can be lifted directly into an answer: by AI assistants, featured snippets, and voice search. It's the content layer of AI search, alongside AIO (the machine-readable layer) and GEO (the citation layer).

The craft is answering the actual question in the first sentence, then supporting it — the inverse of the traditional blog post that builds to a conclusion. Answer engines quote openings, not conclusions.

A useful test: for each page, ask "if a machine read only the first two sentences, would it have the answer?" If not, the page is optimized for a reader you no longer have.