Answer Engine Optimisation
Answer Engine Optimisation, engineered as a discipline.
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) services across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews.
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of becoming the answer rather than ranking inside a list of links. AVO is the UK agency engineering AEO as a measurable, sequenced programme across every major answer engine.
- 4
- answer engines we measure on day one
- +58pt
- average AEO score uplift in 60 days
- 100%
- of work resolves to a measured number
What is Answer Engine Optimisation?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the discipline of engineering a brand's visibility inside the synthesised answers produced by AI systems. It encompasses ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google's AI Overviews and the increasing surface of voice and assistant interfaces that draw on the same underlying models.
Where SEO targets a list of ten links read by a human, AEO targets a single paragraph written by a model. The signals that move each surface are categorically different.
The four levers of AEO
- Interpretability: making the entity legible to AI through clear definition, schema and structured data
- Coherence: removing the signal conflicts across web, Google profile, social and directories that suppress model confidence
- Authority: constructing third-party corroboration that AI weights far above first-party claims
- Intent alignment: engineering content to match the actual questions buyers ask AI assistants in your category
AEO vs GEO vs AI SEO
AEO, GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and AI SEO are largely synonymous terms describing the same emerging discipline. AVO (AI Visibility Optimisation) is our preferred frame because it captures the full surface (selection, citation and recommendation) across every major AI system rather than a single platform or query type.
Whichever name your team prefers, the work is the same: engineered, sequenced, measured.
Answer Engine Optimisation FAQs.
What is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)?
AEO is the discipline of engineering a brand's inclusion inside the synthesised answers produced by AI systems and answer engines, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google's AI Overviews.
Is AEO the same as GEO?
Largely yes. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) describe the same emerging discipline using slightly different framing. AVO is our preferred term because it scopes the full AI surface.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO optimises for placement in a list of ten links read by a human. AEO optimises for inclusion inside a single synthesised answer written by a language model. Different decision-maker, different signals, different format.
Which AEO ranking factors matter most?
Our controlled experiments rank the levers as: interpretability (entry condition), authority (largest continuous lever), coherence (multiplier), intent alignment (precision). Sequence matters; running them in parallel dilutes the result.
How is AEO measured?
We measure probability of inclusion in AI responses across all major answer engines on a fixed set of buyer-shaped queries, decomposed into the four AVO dimensions and benchmarked against a competitive named-set.
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