AEO (answer engine optimisation) is the work of making your content something that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can quote and cite when they generate an answer to a question. Showing up in those answers takes a solid SEO foundation, a clear question-and-answer structure, structured data and trustworthy brand signals.
More and more people solve problems not by typing keywords into a search box but by asking an AI assistant a full question, such as 'How long does it take to get a corporate website built in Kocaeli?'. The assistant compiles an answer from several sources and links to some of them. This article explains, without hype, what you can do to become one of those sources.
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO aims to rank a page high in classic search results; AEO aims to get content quoted in a direct answer to a question; GEO (generative engine optimisation) aims to have generative AI systems mention your brand accurately in their responses. AEO and GEO do not replace SEO; they are built on top of it.
- —SEO: goal is ranking and clicks on the results page. Metrics: position, impressions, traffic.
- —AEO: goal is being the source for a featured snippet, a voice assistant or an AI answer. Metrics: citations, brand visibility.
- —GEO: goal is systems like ChatGPT or Gemini mentioning your brand in the right context with the right facts. Metrics: how often and how accurately you're mentioned.
- —Common ground: a crawlable, indexable, fast and trustworthy site. Google states that no special optimisation is needed for AI Overviews beyond being indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet.
What kind of content gets cited in AI answers?
Content cited in AI answers is usually content that answers the question directly in its first sentences, is split into clear headed sections, contains concrete facts and numbers, and makes it obvious who wrote it. Because AI systems can lift a single paragraph out of context, sections that make sense on their own are a major advantage.
- —Direct answer: if the question is in the heading, the answer is in the first 40–60 words.
- —Self-contained paragraphs: sentences that repeat the subject instead of openers like 'this' or 'it' that lean on the previous sentence.
- —Concrete information: ranges, steps, comparisons; honest, verifiable facts rather than invented statistics.
- —Structure: question-style H2s, lists, step sequences.
- —Freshness and authorship: published and updated dates, who the business is and why it speaks on the topic.
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How do you write content in a question-and-answer structure?
Writing in a question-and-answer structure means turning the questions your customers actually ask into headings, and placing a short, definitive answer under each heading before the detail. That structure helps readers find what they need quickly and makes it easier for AI systems to quote the answer from the right paragraph.
- —Collect questions: list what sales staff hear most often by phone and WhatsApp; check question-style queries in Search Console.
- —Give each question one page or one section; don't answer the same question on several pages and compete with yourself.
- —Answer first, explain second: the first paragraph should be correct even when read on its own.
- —Give honest ranges for open-ended questions: instead of 'price depends on the project', say 'the typical range is X, and it varies with these factors'.
- —Collect frequently asked questions in a separate section at the end, without repeating the body word for word.
How does schema (structured data) help AEO?
Schema, meaning structured data in JSON-LD format, describes what a page is, who published it and which questions it answers in a form machines can interpret unambiguously. Structured data alone does not guarantee citations, but it helps search engines and AI systems classify content correctly and match entities such as your business accurately.
- —Organization and LocalBusiness: business name, address, phone, opening hours, social profiles (sameAs).
- —Article or BlogPosting: headline, author, published and modified dates.
- —FAQPage: the questions and answers on the page. Since 2023 Google has largely limited FAQ rich results to government and health sites, but the markup is still valid and meaningful to machines.
- —BreadcrumbList: where the page sits in the site hierarchy.
- —Service or Product: a clear definition of what you offer.
On 404 Ajans's own site, for example, every page writes its JSON-LD into the static HTML at build time, so crawlers that don't execute JavaScript can still read the structured data.
How do brand signals affect AI visibility?
Brand signals show how consistently and credibly your business is mentioned outside its own website. When recommending a business, AI systems may also draw on the Google Business Profile, customer reviews, industry directories and news sites; if the information across those sources conflicts, the chance of your business being recommended drops.
- —Google Business Profile: correct category, current hours, real photos, regular posts and replies to reviews.
- —Consistent NAP (name, address, phone): identical spelling on the website, business profile, social media and directories.
- —Genuine customer reviews: consistency and professional replies matter more than volume; fake reviews create lasting risk.
- —Third-party mentions: local news sites, industry associations, partners' reference pages.
- —A clear service definition: what you do, which regions you serve and who you serve should be described the same way everywhere.
What is llms.txt, and does every site need one?
llms.txt is a text file placed at a site's root that summarises the site's most important pages for large language models in plain Markdown. llms.txt is a convention proposed via llmstxt.org; it is not an official standard adopted by Google, and there is no reliable evidence that it affects rankings or citations on its own.
Still, it is cheap to create, harmless, and may help some AI tools understand a site faster. On the 404 Ajans site, llms.txt is generated automatically from the page list on every build, with a UTF-8 BOM prepended so Turkish characters render correctly in browsers. The priority, however, should always be the quality of the actual content.
Can AI crawlers actually read your site?
Whether AI crawlers can read your site is the most overlooked technical prerequisite of AEO. robots.txt rules, CDN and firewall settings, or content that only loads through JavaScript can mean the crawlers used by systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity never see your pages. Content they cannot see, they cannot cite.
- —Check robots.txt: don't unintentionally block search-oriented crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot. Training crawlers (GPTBot, for instance) are a separate decision.
- —The Google-Extended setting controls Gemini training; Google states it does not affect inclusion in Search or AI Overviews.
- —If you use Cloudflare, check its AI bot blocking settings; on some accounts blocking may be switched on by default.
- —Main content should be present in the initial HTML response: prerendering or SSR lets crawlers that don't run JavaScript see it too.
- —Keep pages fast and available; pages that time out can't be crawled.
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A step-by-step AEO plan for your business
An effective AEO plan for a business first secures technical access, then turns customers' real questions into pages that give clear answers, and finally makes brand information outside the website consistent. Most of these steps strengthen classic SEO too, so none of the effort is wasted.
- —1. Check robots.txt, CDN bot settings and whether pages return their content in the initial HTML.
- —2. List the 20 questions your customers ask most often.
- —3. Map each question to an existing service page or a new guide article.
- —4. Add a 40–60 word direct answer at the top of each page.
- —5. Add and validate Organization, LocalBusiness, Article and FAQPage markup.
- —6. Align NAP details on your Google Business Profile and directories.
- —7. Ask for genuine customer reviews regularly and reply to them.
- —8. Add llms.txt if you like, but prioritise content quality.
- —9. Each month, ask your target questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google and note who gets cited.
AEO results are harder to measure than classic SEO, because AI answers can vary by person and over time. Rather than fixating on a single query, it is more meaningful to test the same set of questions at regular intervals and to track referral traffic from AI platforms in your analytics tool.