What is AI Visibility Optimisation (AVO)?

Short definition

AVO (AI Visibility Optimisation) is the engineered discipline of being selected, cited and recommended inside the answers generative AI systems give to their users. It is the successor to SEO for the era of AI-mediated discovery.

Why AVO exists

Search is no longer the only - or even the primary - discovery surface. Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude direct questions and act on the named answers. The brands that appear in those answers are shortlisted; the brands that do not, are not.

Traditional SEO optimises for ranking on a results page. AVO optimises for inclusion in a generated answer. The two surfaces overlap but reward different signals, and the gap is widening fast.

The four AVO levers

• Entity clarity: machine-legible definition of who you are, what you do, for whom.
• Cross-platform coherence: consistent signal across website, schema, knowledge graphs, directories and review sources.
• Third-party authority: independent corroboration in press, professional bodies, datasets and benchmarks.
• Intent-aligned content: structured answers to the actual questions buyers ask AI, in the shape AI prefers to cite.

AVO vs GEO vs AEO

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) describe overlapping subsets of AVO. GEO emphasises generative LLM citation. AEO emphasises direct-answer surfaces. AVO is the practitioner term that covers both, plus the entity, corroboration and coherence work that makes either possible.