Table of contents

• What is AEO?
• Why is AEO important?
• The advantages of AEO at a glance
• AEO and SEO: the differences and similarities
• How does Answer Engine Optimisation work?
• How Onder helps you with AEO
• Starting with AEO yourself
• AI SEO checklist
• Frequently asked questions about AEO

What is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization and is thus part of AI SEO. AEO focuses on your brand's visibility in answer engines rather than just search engines. Where SEO helps you rank higher in search results, AEO ensures that your content appears directly in Google's answer boxes, featured snippets and AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bing Copilot and voice assistants.

Instead of long stories, AEO is all about compact, clear and reliable answers. Think short blocks of text that get straight to the heart of the question.

Example:

Search user:
"What is the best smartphone for seniors?"
SEO approach: Article: "The best smartphone for seniors"

This is a comprehensive article with explanations, comparisons and keyword optimisation. The goal is to rank well in Google by using relevant keywords, such as smartphone seniors, best phone elderly and user-friendly smartphone. The article contains a lot of context, images, and links to buying options.

AEO approach: Answer (as an AI assistant or voice search would give):

"The Samsung Galaxy A32 is one of the best smartphones for seniors, thanks to its large screen, simple interface and long battery life."

Additional context may follow:

"Other user-friendly options include the Doro 8100 and the Nokia G22, both designed with accessibility in mind." The difference:

• SEO focuses on findability in search engines.
• AEO focuses on providing direct, clear and relevant answers to the user's concrete question.

Why is AEO important?

Users want a clear answer right away, especially when they onderweg quickly look something up on their smartphone, ask a question via voice assistants like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant, or use AI tools like ChatGPT AEO makes sure your content is visible at those very moments. If your brand appears in an answer box or AI response, you will be seen as an expert, which increases the chances of people clicking through to your website. The result: more visibility, more trust and more visitors

Results: more visibility, more trust and better conversions.

The advantages of AEO at a glance

• Direct visibility: Appear in featured snippets, answer boxes and AI answers.
• Better user experience: Compact and clear answers better suit mobile and voice search.
• More traffic and conversions: Those who answer directly are more likely to attract attention and inspire confidence.
• Competitive advantage: Many companies are not yet working on AEO - this is your chance to lead the way.
• Stronger position of authority: Being mentioned regularly in answer boxes confirms your expertise.
• Flexibility with changing search behaviour: You are prepared for the evolution of search engines and AI.

AEO and SEO: the differences and similarities

Although SEO and AEO are often mentioned in the same breath, there are clear differences:

Similarity: Both require relevant, reliable and well-structured content. Together, they form a powerful combination for your online visibility.

How does Answer Engine Optimisation work?

AEO is all about demand: "How do I make sure my content gets picked up in response?"

This is done in four steps:

1. Demand-driven content creation
   Start from your target audience's questions. Tools like AnswerThePublic or Google's "People also ask" will help you find those questions.
2. Using structure and markup
   Make use of clear headings, bullet points and schema markup so that search engines and AI models better understand your content
3. Formulating direct answers
   Start your content with a short, clear answer of 40-60 words. Then elaborate with details, context and examples.
4. Optimising for voice search and AI
   Keep in mind natural, spoken questions (e.g. "What are the best running shoes for beginners?").

How Onder helps you with AEO

We translate Answer Engine Optimization to a strategy that works for your brand.

We onderry out what questions your target audience is asking and make sure your content answers them directly and convincingly. In doing so, we pay attention to structure, compactness and reliability. This way, your information will be picked up by search engines, AI tools and voice assistants.

Whether it's improving existing content, writing new FAQs or adding structured data, we make sure your brand is visible in LLMs! We can also see how your brand performs against competitors in LLMs, such as ChatGPT (see image hereonder).

The image shows a list of domain names and a row of terms at the top:

• Pages: Number of pages of this domain.
• #used: Total number of times links from this domain were found in all responses.
  If the same page is linked multiple times in different answers, each entry is counted afzonderimes.
• Avg used (AVG used): The average number of times links of this domain occur per response.
  Example: If there are 100 answers and this domain is linked a total of 50 times, the average usage is 0.5.
• Cover (Cover): The percentage of responses containing at least one link from this domain.
  Example: If 25 out of 100 answers mention this domain, the coverage is 25%.
• Mentions: The total number of mentions of the selected brand within the content of all pages of this domain used as sources for the answers.
  Example: If this domain has 5 pages and the brand is mentioned twice on each page, the total value is 10.

Starting with AEO yourself

Want to get started with AEO yourself? Start with these steps:

• Analyse questions from your target audience: Use tools like AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked or Semrush.
• Write FAQs: Provide each frequently asked question with a compact answer.
• Optimise for snippets: Place summaries, tables or lists at the top of your articles.
• Use structured data: Add schema markup (FAQPage, HowTo, Product).
• Test your content: Ask your own questions in Google or AI tools and see if your content appears.
• Keep combining with SEO: AEO works best alongside a strong SEO strategy.

AI SEO checklist

Frequently asked questions about AEO

1. Is AEO a replacement for SEO?
No, AEO does not replace SEO. It enhances SEO and ensures you are visible in both search engines and response engines.

2. How soon can I expect results with AEO?
Sometimes within just a few weeks, depending on your niche and competition. Often it takes several months to become structurally visible.

3. Does AEO also work for small businesses?
Yes, smaller companies in particular can benefit because they can adapt content faster and respond to specific queries.

4. Should I rewrite my existing content for AEO?
Not always. You can often extend existing pages with short summaries, FAQs and schema markup.

5. What tools help with AEO?
AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked, Semrush, Ahrefs and Google's own "People also ask" are good starting points.