Ai search optimization

AI Search Optimization (GEO / AEO)

Answer engines synthesize a response and cite a handful of sources. Your goal is to be one of those sources. Crucially, the set of cited pages does not perfectly match the classic organic top 10 — so being citable is its own discipline on top of ranking well. This skill assumes the page already passes technical and content fundamentals (route gaps back to seo-technical-audit / seo-content-brief).

How answer engines pick sources (working model)

They favor content that is:

1. Extractable — the answer is stated plainly, early, in self-contained units.
2. Trustworthy — clear authorship, citations, accuracy, real expertise (E-E-A-T).
3. Specific & current — concrete facts, numbers, dates; not vague filler.
4. Well-structured — headings, lists, tables, Q&A that map to a sub-question.
5. Corroborated — entities and claims that match what other authoritative sources say (consensus and external mentions matter).
6. Accessible to crawlers — not blocked to AI crawlers you want to allow; key content in the initial HTML, not JS-only.

What to do to a page

1. Lead with the answer

For each key question, put a direct, complete answer in the first 1–2 sentences of its section, then expand. Answer-engine extraction grabs the concise statement; burying it loses the citation.

2. Structure for extraction

• One clear H2 per sub-question, phrased the way people ask it.
• Use definition sentences ("X is …"), comparison tables, step lists, and genuine FAQs (only real Q&A — coordinate with seo-schema-builder).
• Keep paragraphs tight and self-contained so a snippet stands alone.

3. Make entities & facts unambiguous

• Name people, places, products, organizations explicitly (no vague "we"/"it").
• State facts with numbers, dates, and units. Attribute and cite primary sources — engines reward verifiable claims and may follow citations.

4. Demonstrate authority

• Real, credentialed author + bio. About/contact transparency.
• Earned external mentions/links and consistent entity info across the web (NAP, brand name, sameAs) raise the odds of being treated as authoritative.

5. Add original value

Answer engines compress the obvious; they cite sources that add something: first-hand experience, original data/tests, expert judgment, local specifics. Generic restated content rarely earns a citation.

6. Manage crawler access deliberately

Decide which AI crawlers you allow (e.g. Googlebot for AI Overviews vs. GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended) and set robots.txt intentionally. Allowing them is a prerequisite to being cited by that engine; blocking is a valid business choice but forfeits that visibility.

What NOT to do

• Don't fabricate FAQs, stats, quotes, or sources to look citable — answer engines and Google's spam systems penalize this, and it's dishonest. (Hard-blocked by seo-quality-gates.)
• Don't keyword-stuff "for the LLM". Write for the human; structure for extraction.
• Don't assume AEO replaces SEO — it's additive. The same index and trust signals feed both.

Output

An annotated optimization plan or revised page: the up-front answers, the extraction-friendly structure, entities/facts to make explicit, citations to add, and crawler-access recommendations. Genuine FAQ/structured data → seo-schema-builder; final check → seo-quality-gates.

See references/answer-engines.md for engine-specific notes and a measurement approach.