By Ethan LafranceFounderUpdated ·
What is AEO?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization: making your business the answer AI gives. When a customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google’s AI who to call, the assistant answers with a few names, not a page of links. AEO is the work of being one of them.
The shift
Customers now take the answer
Customers stopped clicking through results and started taking the answer. 45% of consumers now use AI tools to find local businesses, up from 6% a year ago.[1]
The answer they get is short, and most businesses are not in it. ChatGPT recommends just 1.2% of local business locations.[2] The rest are invisible to that customer, and the call goes to whoever was named.
Head to head
AEO vs SEO
SEO is being a result Google lists. AEO is being the answer AI gives. They sound similar. They reward different things.
SEO
Being a result Google lists
- Ten blue links, and you fight for position
- Page two exists, and some people keep scrolling
- The customer clicks through and decides
AEO
Being the answer AI gives
- Two or three names, spoken with confidence
- No page two. You are in the answer or you are not
- The customer takes the answer and calls
Winning at one does not mean winning at the other. Fewer than half of the businesses leading traditional local search are also among the most AI-recommended.[3]
There is no page two.
You are in the answer, or the call goes to someone else.
How it works
How AI decides who to recommend
AI assistants do not guess. They look for evidence that a business is real, good, and easy to verify, and they build the answer from that.
In plain English: they read your listings and check that they agree with each other. They weigh your reviews, including how many, how recent, and whether you respond. They read your website, if AI tools can read it at all. And they look for your name in sources they trust, like local directories and news. Weak or contradictory evidence on any of these, and the assistant moves on to a name it can verify.
Who's the best plumber near me?
AI assistant
Based on reviews, listings, and local sources, I’d start with:
1. Harbour Lane Plumbing
- Steady recent reviews, and they respond to every one
- Same phone and hours on every listing
- Their site answers the questions people actually ask
Illustrative answer. Your analysis shows the real ones.
The work
What actually moves your score
The work itself is not mysterious. It is a short list, done properly:
- Listings that agree: the same name, address, phone, and hours everywhere AI looks
- A steady stream of reviews, with responses, instead of a pile from three years ago
- A website AI tools can actually read, top to bottom
- Fresh content shaped like answers to real customer questions. AI assistants cite content 25.7% fresher than what traditional search ranks[4]
- Your name showing up in the sources AI already trusts
Where you stand
How to find out where you stand
You measure it. We run a full analysis of how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google answer when your customers ask who to call, and how often your name comes up. That analysis is free, and we walk you through the results on a 15-minute call.
Questions
Common questions
Is AEO the same as SEO?
No. SEO is about being a result Google lists; AEO is about being the answer an AI assistant gives. They weigh different evidence, so a business can win one and lose the other. Fewer than half of the businesses leading traditional local search are also among the most AI-recommended.
Which AI assistants does AEO cover?
The ones your customers actually use: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews. Each reads its own mix of sources, so a business can show up in one and be invisible in another, which is why the work is tested across all of them.
Can I do AEO myself?
Parts of it: claim your listings, keep your name and hours consistent, ask for fresh reviews. The harder parts are knowing which fix moves your visibility first and tracking what AI says over time, which is what a structured analysis is for.
Find out if AI recommends you
Book a 15-minute call and we’ll walk you through your full analysis, live, and show you exactly where you stand.