What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

AEO is optimizing your brand and content so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity mention and recommend you in their answers. It combines trusted third-party mentions, machine-readable content, and consistent entity information.

How do I get my business mentioned by ChatGPT?

Earn mentions on reputable third-party sites and directories, collect genuine reviews, add clear schema and entity data to your site, and keep your name, location, and services consistent everywhere. Models reward trusted, consistent sources.

Is AEO different from SEO?

They overlap but differ in goal. SEO earns the click from search engines; AEO earns the recommendation from AI answer engines. Strong SEO fundamentals help AEO, but AEO adds a focus on reputation signals and machine readability.

Can I measure AI citations?

Yes. Ask the assistants the questions your buyers would ask and record whether you're mentioned, and track referral traffic from AI platforms in your analytics — an increasingly significant channel.

How to Get Your Business Cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity (AEO Guide)

When a customer asks ChatGPT 'who's the best SEO agency in Montreal?' or asks Perplexity to compare web developers, the businesses that get named win a recommendation no ad can buy. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of making sure that name is yours.

How language models decide who to mention

Chat assistants don't pull from a live ranking the way Google does. They draw on their training data and, increasingly, on real-time web retrieval. Both routes reward the same thing: being frequently and consistently described, in trustworthy places, as a leader in your category.

The AEO playbook

1. Get mentioned on sources AI trusts

Earn coverage and listings on reputable third-party sites, directories, and 'best of' roundups.
Encourage genuine reviews on Google, Clutch, and industry platforms — AI reads reputation signals.
Pursue digital PR: being quoted or featured builds the associations models learn from.

2. Make your own content machine-readable

Answer real questions directly and completely, in plain language.
Use clear entities: your business name, location, and services stated explicitly and consistently.
Add Organization, LocalBusiness, and FAQ schema so machines can extract the facts cleanly.
Publish an llms.txt and keep your site fast and crawlable for AI retrieval bots.

3. Be consistent everywhere

Models reward consistency. Your name, category, location, and value proposition should read the same across your site, your profiles, and third-party mentions. Contradictory information dilutes the association.

Traditional SEO gets you the click. AEO gets you the recommendation — and a recommendation from a trusted AI is the closest thing to a referral at scale.

How to measure it

Track it directly: periodically ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity the questions your buyers would ask, and note whether you're mentioned and how you're described. Watch for referral traffic from AI platforms in your analytics, which is now a measurable and growing channel.

We build AEO into every engagement — from schema and entity consistency to the digital PR that earns trusted mentions. Curious whether AI already knows your brand? We'll check as part of a free teardown.