Short definition
Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of structuring content so it can be lifted directly as the answer in AI assistants, voice search, and featured snippets.
In depth
AEO overlaps heavily with GEO but focuses specifically on the question-answer transaction: a user asks a natural-language question, and an AI returns a single best answer, often with attribution. AEO requires writing in question-and-answer form, leading every page with a 40–60 word direct answer, deploying FAQPage schema, ensuring statistics carry sources, and cross-linking related answers. The overlap with voice search SEO is significant since both depend on conversational, definitive responses.
Example
A site adds an /answers/ section with one URL per buyer question. Within months, several entries are read aloud by Google Assistant and Alexa for the same queries.