SEO is evolving into AEO, Answer Engine Optimization. The goal is no longer just “rank a page and win a click.” The goal is to become the source that AI-powered answer engines extract, summarize, and cite when users ask questions.
That is the practical difference. Traditional SEO is built to win blue-link rankings and click-through. AEO is built to win inclusion in the answer itself by making your content easy to parse, easy to trust, and worth citing inside Google AI Overviews and AI-driven search experiences.
As AI summaries appear more frequently across search results, the competitive battleground shifts upward. Visibility concentrates inside the generated answer. The winning strategy becomes “earn the citation,” not just “earn the click.”
The video below breaks down a practical 6-step AEO framework any brand can implement immediately:
1. Target long-tail conversational questions
2. Prioritize low-competition AEO opportunities
3. Match informational intent, then design a conversion path that fits
4. Optimize for multi-feature SERP visibility, not one placement
5. Build brand authority through third-party mentions and citations
6. Run an AEO gap analysis to find where competitors are cited and you are not
If you want to “rank #1” in the AI era, stop treating search as a list of links and start treating it as an answer ecosystem. Publish content that is easy to extract, unambiguous in structure, and defensible with evidence. Then reinforce it with authority signals beyond your site, because answer engines learn trust from repeated third-party validation.
The winners will be the brands that become the sources AI systems cite by default. The losers will be the ones still optimizing only for yesterday’s SERP.