AI visibility
What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is writing and structuring content so that search features, voice assistants and AI tools can lift a direct answer from your page. It means leading with the answer, using question headings and clean structure, and marking the page up so machines understand it.
What an answer engine wants
Featured snippets, “People also ask” boxes, voice assistants and AI summaries all do the same job: find a short, correct answer and show it. Pages that make that easy get used.
Practical steps
- Put the question in a heading and the answer right under it. Aim for 40 to 60 words that stand on their own, then add detail.
- Use real questions. Take them from your support emails, sales calls and search suggestions, not from guesswork.
- Use simple structure. Short paragraphs, numbered steps for processes, and tables for comparisons.
- Add structured data that matches the page. Article and BreadcrumbList are safe choices. See structured data explained.
- Keep answers current. Show a reviewed date and update pages when facts change.
A note on FAQ markup
Since 2023, Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known government and health sites. FAQ markup can still help machines read a page, but do not expect a snippet. The traffic comes from the page ranking for the question.
How SageRank helps
The free SageRank report scores any domain for SEO, AEO, GEO and security, adds one overall score, and lists what to fix first. Type sagerank.io/ in front of any address to run it.