01 / AEO
What Is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)?
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the work of structuring content so answer engines - featured snippets, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity - can lift a direct answer from your page and credit you as the source. In practice it means answer-shaped passages, question-led headings, FAQ markup and unambiguous entity references.
The core AEO unit is the extractable passage: a heading phrased as the question, followed by a 40-70 word answer that stands alone without the surrounding text. Every H2 on this page opens that way, deliberately. Around the passage sit the supporting signals: FAQPage and Article schema, a clear author entity, dated updates and internal links that confirm topical depth.
The demand data backs the shift. We publish our own research on this in our answer engine optimisation statistics report, updated for 2026, covering AI Overview coverage rates and how often answer engines cite the #1 organic result versus lower positions.