What is AEO and why does it already matter for your business?

More and more people no longer put their question to a search engine, but to an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Perplexity. AEO — answer engine optimization — is about whether a business appears in that answer.

A different approach to SEO

Traditional SEO optimises for a list of ten blue links. AEO optimises for the moment an AI model summarises one answer from multiple sources — and whether a business is named in it or not. That requires a different approach: clear, standalone answers an AI model can adopt verbatim, structure that matches how people ask questions, and content that is factual and quotable rather than marketing language.

A simple test

This isn't a far-off theory. A simple test proves it: search a generic question in your own industry and look at who is and isn't mentioned. For most small businesses the answer today is: none of them. That gap is an opportunity as much as a problem — whoever steps in now builds a head start before it becomes the norm.

This is exactly why AEO is built in from the start, not bolted on later. Read how that works on /ai-en-automatisering. More background at the definition: /kennisbank/wat-is-aeo.