The field guide
Learn to be the answer.
Plain-spoken guides to Answer Engine Optimization: how AI assistants pick the brands they recommend, how to measure it, and what to change on Monday.
Start here · Fundamentals
What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) gets your brand named and cited in AI answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google. What it is and where to start.
Read the guide · 6 min →
- 02FundamentalsAEO vs SEO: What's Different and What Isn'tAEO vs SEO: how answer engine optimization differs from classic SEO in goals, signals and metrics, what carries over, and how to run both as one program.6 min →
- 03EnginesHow to Get Cited by ChatGPTHow to get cited by ChatGPT: how ChatGPT search finds sources, which OpenAI crawler to allow, and the content and authority work that earns citations.6 min →
- 04TechnicalAI Crawlers and robots.txt: Which Bots to Allow or BlockAI crawlers explained: search bots vs training bots vs user-triggered fetchers, how to allow or block each in robots.txt, and why your CDN may block them.7 min →
- 05TechnicalWhat Is llms.txt, and Do AI Engines Use It?llms.txt explained: what the proposed file is, an example of the format, how it differs from robots.txt and sitemaps, and whether AI engines use it.6 min →
- 06MeasurementHow to Measure AI VisibilityHow to measure AI visibility: build a prompt set, track mentions, share of voice, position, citations and sentiment across engines, and report real trends.7 min →
- 07AgenciesAEO for Agencies: How to Package, Price and Report ItAEO for agencies: how to package answer engine optimization as a service, structure retainers, run the onboarding audit and report AI visibility to clients.6 min →
Engine by engine
How each engine picks its sources.
ChatGPTYour buyers asked ChatGPT. It named someone else.Read →PerplexityPerplexity shows its sources. Make sure one of them is you.Read →GeminiGemini is Google Search with opinions. Find out what it thinks of you.Read →ClaudeClaude quotes its sources. Give it a sentence worth quoting.Read →Google AI OverviewsThe answer now sits above your #1 ranking. Get into it.Read →Google AI ModeAI Mode does the searching for your buyers. Be what it finds.Read →
Glossary
The words, defined.
- AI crawler
- An automated bot run by an AI company that fetches web pages to train models, build a search index, or answer a user's question in real time.
- AI Mode
- Google's conversational search mode, where a Gemini-based model answers complex questions with a cited, multi-part response and supports follow-up questions.
- AI Overviews
- AI-generated summaries that Google shows at the top of some search results, built from its index and linking to supporting web pages.
- AI Visibility Score
- A 0–100 score summarizing how prominently AI engines mention and cite a brand across a set of tracked prompts.
- Answer engine optimization (AEO)
- The practice of making a brand easy for AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to find, understand, mention and cite.
- Answer-first content
- Writing that states the direct answer in the opening sentences, then adds supporting detail, so readers and AI engines can lift it cleanly.
- Average position
- The average rank of a brand's first mention among tracked brands in AI answers that mention it, where 1 means named first.
- Citation
- A link an AI engine attaches to its answer to show which web page supports a statement, usually shown inline or in a sources list.
- Citation share
- The share of all sources cited in AI answers for your tracked prompts that link to your brand's own domain.
- Entity
- A distinct, identifiable thing such as a company, product, person or place that search and AI systems recognize and connect to facts about it.
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