Is AEO changing SEO? AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) – Top 5 positions in AI search results

What is AEO?

We should start with the easiest question – what is an AEO? In a nutshell:

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the process of optimizing a website for answer engines that provide quick, specific, and clear answers directly to users in search results. AEO is not a form of SEO, but rather a new approach to ensure that AI-based search engines (such as Google SGE or ChatGPT) select your content as the best answer.

Consumers\’ search habits are changing – they no longer want to browse through dozens of websites to find the best answer to a short and specific question. Rather than checking multiple sources on their own, they are now turning to AI tools that provide the information they want instantly. For websites that aspire to become one of the sources of information recommended by AI, hearing about AEO is essential and applying its principles to their marketing strategy is extremely useful.

While keywords used to be one of the most important criteria for optimising a website, today contextual content, logical structure and clear answers are not enough. All three of these elements are part of the AEO strategy and the way to exploit the potential of AI-driven search. This reaches users who no longer use traditional Google search.

Differences between SEO and AEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has been the most important tool for achieving top 10 positions in Google search for many years. How do you achieve these results? SEO is based on the following elements: keywords, technical preparation of the website, creation of high-quality, comprehensive content and backlinks. SEO is all about ensuring that your website ranks as high as possible in Google\’s organic search results.

AEO works on a slightly different principle. Its aim is not to improve a website\’s ranking, but to ensure that AI-based search engines (such as Google SGE, Gemini or ChatGPT) choose the content of a website as the best answer for users. Unlike SEO, AEO does not focus on a page\’s position among the results, but on the clarity and context of the content.

One of the key differences between AEO and SEO is how the authority of an information source is measured. SEO optimisation does not come without quality text with targeted keywords and a network of internal links. When a website has a successful internal SEO, the ranking of the domain is strengthened by external links. AEO does not require such a strong network of external links – AI search focuses more on the content itself, its structure and its ability to accurately answer the question.

Another important difference is indexation. An SEO-optimised website is indexed by Google\’s algorithms, which analyse a wide range of requirements – from content to technical features. While the technical aspects of SEO are always important for a good user experience, an AEO-friendly website is more likely to analyse only the text and its presentation and structure.

Why is there a need for AEO?

As many as 39% of consumers already use AI applications and search engines to help them shop online. And 20.5% of people use voice search to find answers to everyday questions. This shows not only the growing importance of AI tools, but also a clear shift in consumer behaviour – from browsing individual pages to wanting a quick and clear answer.

Traditional SEO is designed for the still widely used, but slowly declining, method of search where a user types in a keyword, looks at the results and selects one or more pages of interest. With AI search, the user does not have to search for an answer – AI applications generate it instantly based on the content found in the sources.

That\’s why AEO was developed – a method that allows your content to become the response that the user hears or reads first. AI chat systems such as Gemini or ChatGPT, or voice assistants (e.g. Alexa, Siri) prioritise not only the existence of content, but also its structure, semantics and expert credibility – all of which are implemented through an AEO strategy. So if your business wants to be visible not only in search results but also in AI recommendations, AEO becomes a natural step in your marketing strategy.

Prediction: will AEO replace SEO?

Although AEO optimisation is becoming increasingly important, it is not being done today to replace SEO. It is more of a natural marketing trend dictated by new consumer habits. The two often go hand in hand, because one simply does not work without the other.

First and foremost, SEO optimisation ensures that a website has a solid technical foundation. Internal SEO is not just about keyword integration, but also about much deeper aspects of website quality. Some of these include page speed, information layout, clear navigation, user experience (UX), mobile-friendliness and even design decisions. In other words, SEO services are needed to make a website \”go\” – to make it technically sound, user-friendly and fast to load.

The AEO is built on these foundations. Once the website is running smoothly and providing value to the visitor, the AEO specialist can get on with the job of creating the semantically clear, structured content that the AI programme deems the most appropriate response. So AEO is not an alternative to SEO. It is a complementary tool that helps expand visibility beyond traditional Google search. Properly aligned SEO services and AEO solutions do not compete with each other, but rather work in unison to strengthen a website\’s position across different channels.

A unified SEO and AEO strategy: how?

Although we talk about SEO and AEO as different strands delivering different results, they should in fact work in synergy. It is true that for this duo to be effective, a certain sequence must be followed. So what should an integrated SEO and AEO strategy look like?

The first step is classic SEO optimisation, or simply internal SEO, which involves fixing the technical elements of your website and performing internal SEO. Creating an intuitive, user-friendly website structure, website tree, writing textual content, improving user experience and speed. Only with these foundations in place can a website be expected to be visible in both traditional and AI-based search.

Once internal SEO has been implemented, it is common to move on to external SEO. It is at this stage that we can also start applying AEO optimisation. While external SEO is the method by which we build backlinks and grow the authority of the website, AEO further strengthens the internal content of the website and its applicability to artificial intelligence tools.

Is it time for my business to take AEO?

AEO is no longer the future, but real marketing solutions that businesses are already using today. AI is already influencing consumers\’ decisions: some of them are choosing answers provided by AI chat, an AI application, over a traditional Google search. So it is worth taking action today. This is the moment when most competitors are still watching the new trend. And you can be the one who leverages these changes to your brand\’s advantage. Being among the first to try AEO = more time to master your strategy.

Why is AEO particularly useful? Businesses operating in a competitive market, smaller e-shops competing with the giants, and service providers who want their answers to be visible on AI chat platforms. If your customers start their search for information with ChatGPT, you must be among those recommended by AI.