Plain answer
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of getting your business cited and recommended inside AI answers — the responses people now get from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini.
Traditional SEO gets you ranked in a list of links. AEO gets you named in the answer itself. As more buyers ask AI before they ever reach a search results page, being the answer is becoming the whole game.
Get your Free AI Visibility AuditAEO matters now because buyers have stopped starting at a list of links. They ask an AI, read the answer it gives, and act on what it recommends — often without ever clicking through to a website.
The shift is already measurable. 89% of B2B buyers now use generative AI somewhere in their purchase journey. If the engine doesn’t name you, you are invisible at the exact moment a decision is being shaped. Ranking #1 still matters, but a #1 result the AI never cites doesn’t get you into the conversation.
This isn’t a replacement for search — it’s a new front layered on top of it. The businesses that win are the ones earning a place in both the blue links and the answer above them.
AEO and SEO chase the same goal — visibility where buyers look — but in different places. SEO earns you a ranking in a list of links a person clicks through. AEO earns you a citation inside the single answer an AI hands back.
You need both. I cover both — that’s the whole point.
You win at AEO by becoming a source the engine trusts: provable authority, unmistakable entities, machine-readable facts, open access for AI crawlers, and citations across the web the model already reads.
AI engines favour sources with demonstrable experience, expertise, authority, and trust. Named authors, real credentials, original analysis, and citations from places the model already trusts are what get you pulled into an answer.
The model has to know who you are, what you do, and how you relate to other things it knows. Consistent naming, an entity-style description, and clean internal linking tell the engine exactly what to associate with your brand.
Schema markup (Organization, FAQPage, Article, Product) hands the answer engine machine-readable facts instead of asking it to guess. This page uses FAQPage schema on purpose.
GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, and Google-Extended can only cite what they can reach. Robots rules, render-blocking, and slow pages quietly lock you out of answers you should be in.
Being mentioned across the sources AI already reads — directories, reviews, reputable publications — compounds. The more the web agrees on who you are, the more confidently an engine names you.
Evergreen Growth Marketing is the independent SEO and AI search consulting practice of Jeremy Starke in Raleigh, NC, helping businesses get found in Google and AI answer engines.
The work spans AI Search Visibility (AEO / GEO), technical SEO, structured data, and the authority-building that makes an engine confident enough to recommend you — done by the consultant himself, not handed off. See the full services, or start with a free audit of how you show up across Google and AI today.
Quick answers
Close, and the terms are often used interchangeably. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is about getting cited inside the answer an AI gives. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the same goal framed around generative engines specifically. In practice you do the same work: clear entities, real authority, structured data, and crawler access. I cover both.
The ones your buyers actually use: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. Each pulls from slightly different sources, so the work is to be a trusted, citable presence across all of them rather than chasing any single one.
Traditional SEO gets you ranked in a list of links so a person can click through. AEO gets you named inside the answer itself, so the engine recommends you before a results page ever loads. You need both — SEO authority is part of what makes AEO work.
It varies by how much authority and technical foundation you already have. Crawler access and structured data can show up in weeks; building the entity clarity and citations that make an engine confident enough to recommend you is a few months of consistent work. It is durable once it lands.
No. They share a foundation — authority, clean technical setup, content that answers real questions. Investing in AEO almost always strengthens your traditional search presence too. The smart move is to optimise for both at once, which is exactly how I work.
I’ll show you exactly where you stand across Google and the AI engines — and what it takes to get cited. No pitch, no obligation.
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