Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): How to Get Cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity
Traditional SEO optimizes for ranking in a list of ten blue links. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) optimizes for being the specific sentence an AI assistant — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — pulls into its answer. The two overlap heavily but aren't identical, and most company websites are still built only for the first one.
Structured data is no longer optional
AI answer engines rely heavily on schema.org markup — particularly Organization, ProfessionalService, FAQPage and Article schema — to understand what a page is actually claiming, not just what it says in prose. A page with clean JSON-LD schema is dramatically easier for an AI crawler to extract a confident, citable fact from.
Write direct, quotable answers near the top of the page
AI engines favor content that answers a specific question in one or two clear sentences, not paragraphs of marketing buildup before the actual answer. An FAQ section with direct question-and-answer pairs is one of the highest-leverage additions you can make to any service or product page.
Be the source, not the summary
Original data, named case studies, and specific numbers ("-80% invoice processing time" beats "significant efficiency gains") get cited more often because they're harder to find anywhere else. Generic marketing language gets ignored because every competitor says the same thing.
Keep technical SEO fundamentals solid
AEO doesn't replace technical SEO — fast load times, mobile-friendliness, clean URL structure, and a submitted XML sitemap all still matter, because AI crawlers largely reuse the same indexing infrastructure as traditional search.
Monitor what's actually being cited
Periodically ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overview your own target questions ("AI agents for construction companies", "IT outsourcing Hong Kong") and see who gets cited. If it isn't you, that's a content gap to close — usually with a more direct, schema-backed answer than what's currently ranking.
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