AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) targets answer systems: services that give an answer instead of only a list of links. That can be a featured snippet in Google or an AI assistant writing a summary. At Outseen, AEO stands for the practical work on your own pages: clear answers to questions about cost, differences, use and suitability.
Google mentions AEO and GEO in its guide to generative AI features and writes that optimising for those features is still SEO.
Why does it matter?
An answer system can only use an answer that is stated clearly somewhere. A page that only gets to the point after three paragraphs of introduction is harder to use, for a visitor and for a search engine.
Example
Suppose a roofer is often asked about the difference between bitumen and EPDM roofing. On the roofer’s page, under the heading “What is the difference between bitumen and EPDM?”, a two-sentence answer comes first, followed by a table comparing material, maintenance and typical use.
Common mistake
Adding an FAQ block only to get expandable questions in Google. Google stopped showing the FAQ rich result from 7 May 2026, according to the Google Search Central changelog entry of 8 May 2026. A question and answer only help when they answer a real customer question.
Read on in Writing content that AI assistants can cite and An FAQ that helps customers, Google and AI assistants.