What is AEO, and how do I get my business cited in AI answers?

AEO is AI engine optimization (also called answer engine optimization, GEO or AI SEO). It means getting your business, or your client's business, cited in AI answers: the AI overview Google shows above the search results, and the answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, Claude and other AI tools.

Why it matters: the AI summary now sits above the traditional results and pushes them more than halfway down the page, and more people ask AI tools than scroll through search results. Being cited in the answer is free traffic, and it is easier to get into the answer than to climb the rankings for every keyword. Votel recommends focusing on AEO rather than traditional SEO. SEO and AEO are different things.

How it works:

1. Reverse engineer what is already cited. Look at what ranks and is cited for your terms, which sites and platforms (for example YouTube) those answers cite, and find the terms to target.
2. Create content where AI answers look, such as Reddit answers, LinkedIn articles, YouTube and blogs. The more content you have out there, the better.
3. Write facts, not keyword stuffing. AI answers cite factual, almost boring, white paper style content full of specific facts, such as the average lifespan of an HVAC unit or a specific result a business reached within ninety days.
4. Keep going. The authority of the source matters less than with SEO: a LinkedIn account with 100 connections can be cited as readily as a large established site.

AEO is mostly done outside Votel. Your websites and blog live in Votel, and the AI assistant can help with research, writing content and building pages, but it does not do AEO for you automatically. You can give a step by step AEO guide to an AI tool and work through it one step at a time, starting with the audit. You can also reuse your social content by expanding it into blog posts and linking them.

AEO is an ongoing process, like SEO. Expect small results in the first month and more in the second and third months. It can take one to three months or more before traffic grows, and the more often AI cites you, the more free traffic you get.

Local items such as Google Maps and Google Business Profile are covered in the niche and offer days of the 5 Day Challenge.