AEO ScannerWhat is AEO? A founder's guide to Answer Engine Optimization
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the discipline of getting your brand surfaced and cited by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI assistants. Here's what it means and why it matters.
AEO — Answer Engine Optimization — is what SEO becomes when search engines stop returning links and start returning answers. Over the last 18 months ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity have eaten a meaningful share of buyer-research queries, and unlike Google they don't show your link; they generate a sentence about you. Or, if you haven't optimized, a sentence about a competitor.
The shift in one sentence
Search used to surface ten blue links. AI assistants surface one paragraph. That paragraph is the entire buyer decision.
What AEO actually optimizes for
Three things, in order of importance:
- Whether you appear at all. If ChatGPT writes a paragraph about "the best CRMs for SaaS startups" and your brand isn't in it, you're invisible — no click, no impression, nothing.
- Where you appear in the answer. Position 1 in a recommendation list is roughly four times more valuable than position 5. LLMs rarely list more than seven brands.
- How you're described. A neutral mention is worse than a glowing one. The sentence the LLM writes is the impression — and it's downstream of which sources the LLM cited.
Why this isn't just SEO
SEO optimizes for ranking against a query. AEO optimizes for being cited when the LLM constructs an answer. The signals are different. Backlinks still matter, but the composition of sources the LLM trusts matters more. A single mention in a high-authority "best of" listicle on Forbes is worth more than ten low-quality backlinks.
The 3 levers AEO gives you
- Citation density. Make sure the sources LLMs cite for your category mention you. This usually means listicles, directories, comparison pages, and authoritative reviews.
- On-site signals. Structured data, clear value props on the homepage, FAQ pages, comparison pages between you and named competitors.
- Mention density across the open web. The more places your brand is talked about — by other people — the higher your "is this brand notable?" signal to the LLM.
How to measure AEO
The metric that matters is visibility: across a representative set of buyer queries in your category, what percentage mention your brand? Then break that down by AI assistant (ChatGPT and Claude often diverge), by position, and by sentiment. AEO Scanner runs this measurement automatically and shows you exactly which sources the LLM cited when it didn't mention you.
Where to start
If you've never measured AEO before: run one scan, find the 5 queries you're missing from, and start a content brief on each. Most brands can move from 0% visibility to 15–20% in 30 days by writing comparison pages and getting on three or four category directories.