TL;DR: SEO ranks your pages in a list of links, and AEO (answer engine optimization) gets your brand named inside an answer that ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and similar engines write. The two share the same technical groundwork, but AEO is measured by whether you are recommended in answers to questions, not by where a page ranks for a keyword.
The short version
SEO is about keywords, rankings and clicks. You pick a keyword, rank a page for it, and the searcher chooses from a list of results.
AEO is about questions and answers. A buyer asks an engine "what is the best email verification tool" and gets a written answer that names a few brands. AEO is the work of being one of the brands named.
It goes by other names too, like "GEO" (generative engine optimization), AI SEO and LLM SEO. These are all basically the same thing. If you want the naming breakdown, see AEO vs GEO vs SEO and GEO vs SEO. For the version of this topic written from the SEO side, there is a post on LLM SEO.
AEO vs SEO at a glance
| SEO | AEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of work | Keywords | Questions |
| Goal | Rank a page in a list of links | Get your brand named in a generated answer |
| Off-site signal | Backlinks | Mentions on the sources engines cite |
| Winners per query | Roughly one top result | Several brands share each answer |
| Success metric | Position and clicks | Share of answers that name you |
| Tracking | Rank trackers | An AEO tracker that asks the engines directly |
What carries over from SEO
Most of the groundwork is the same. Pages need to be crawlable, the content needs to match what people actually ask, and your reputation outside your own site still counts. Keywords in SEO become questions in AEO, and backlinks become mentions.
The quickest check is whether AI crawlers can reach your site at all. The AI crawler checker reads your robots.txt and tells you which bots are blocked. The AEO checker scores a page on how ready it is to be quoted, and the AI visibility audit shows how engines currently answer questions in your niche.
What the data says about specific questions
This section comes from a Peak Answer study of what kinds of pages get cited. It covers 30 niches (15 tech and 15 non-tech) and 198 questions, split into three bands: general (69 questions), medium (45) and specific (84). The report covers 3,064 classified citations and uses an authority ceiling of 45.
Each cited page is classified as first-party (the brand's own site) or third-party (publishers and directories). The table shows the first-party share of citations by band.
| Engine | General | Medium | Specific | Lift, general to specific |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 35.6% | 55.2% | 60.3% | +24.7 points |
| Google organic | 30.5% | 46.8% | 49.9% | +19.4 points |
| Google AI Overview | 29.6% | 75.0% | no data | no data |
As questions get more specific, both ChatGPT and Google organic cite more pages from the brands themselves. ChatGPT goes from 35.6% to 60.3% first-party, a lift of 24.7 points. Google organic goes from 30.5% to 49.9%, a lift of 19.4 points. Third-party publishers and directories go the other way. On ChatGPT their share is 6.0% for general questions and 1.7% for specific ones, and on Google organic it is 7.0% and 1.2%.
The pattern holds in both sectors. Tech niches on ChatGPT go from 38.5% to 50.6%, and non-tech niches go from 30.6% to 75.5%.
A Google AI Overview appeared for 12 of the 198 queries. That is 11 of 69 general questions, 1 of 45 medium questions and 0 of 84 specific questions. This is why the AI Overview row is so thin. The 75.0% in the medium band comes from a single query, and the specific band has no data at all.
Some caveats on reading the numbers:
- The Google AI Overview cells are tiny, some with fewer than 10 data points and one with none.
- First-party is a classification, and some pages sit on the line.
- The numbers are descriptive. They show what gets cited, not what causes a page to be cited.
What the numbers do show is that for specific questions, engines mostly cite the brand's own pages. A page that answers a narrow question directly has a real chance of being the cited source.
Where AEO and SEO split
Rankings still matter, since Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT's web search both pull from pages that already perform. But three things are specific to AEO.
- Answers vary. The same question can give a different answer on a different day, so AEO is measured over many runs and not by checking once.
- Several brands win. An answer names a handful of brands, so a smaller brand has a real shot at being included.
- Some questions never trigger a search. When a model answers from memory, page changes do nothing for that question. Tracking by question shows which ones respond to your work.
Because of this, teams that take AEO seriously generally use dedicated software. Peak Answer tracks the questions your buyers ask, shows which engines name you, and tells you what to change.
FAQs
SEO ranks a page in a list of links for a keyword. AEO gets your brand named inside an answer that an AI engine writes for a question. The groundwork is shared, but the target and the way you measure it are different.
No. Crawlability, clear content and a good reputation help in both. Most of your existing SEO work carries over, and AEO adds question tracking and a focus on the sources engines cite.
Yes, to a degree. Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT's web search pull from pages that already perform. Ranking helps you get considered, and being clear and direct on the page helps you get quoted.
Check whether AI crawlers can reach your site with the AI crawler checker. It is free and takes about a minute. After that, run the AI visibility audit to see how engines answer questions in your niche.