Answer engine optimisation (AEO) and search engine optimisation (SEO) are digital marketing strategies that help businesses improve their online visibility. SEO has been around for decades, while AEO is a newer strategy that emerged as AI adoption grew.
With the idea spreading that SEO is dead and AEO is replacing it, it helps to understand how the two strategies differ and whether they are related. This guide will help you tell AEO and SEO apart by covering the following topics:
- What is AEO?
- What is SEO?
- What are the main differences between AEO and SEO?
- AEO and SEO trends
- AEO vs SEO: frequently asked questions
AEO vs SEO: key points
- AEO focuses on optimising your presence on AI platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity and so on), while SEO focuses on improving rankings in search engines such as Google and Bing.
- The main difference is that AEO targets conversational and voice searches, while SEO targets typed queries on traditional search engines.
- AEO favours short, structured formats such as FAQs, featured snippets and schema markup, while SEO favours long-form, keyword-rich content.
- Businesses should use AEO and SEO together, because combining them maximises visibility across search engines, AI tools and voice assistants.
What is AEO?
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is an optimisation strategy focused on giving search users direct, concise answers to their queries. The concept is spreading quickly, as several search engines now give users instant, summarised answers that keep them on a single page.
Optimising your content and website for AEO makes your brand visible on AI answer engines such as Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Perplexity. It also aligns your content with new ways of searching, so that it can appear in Google AI Overviews, voice assistants and structured data results.
AEO prepares your website for the shift towards AI search tools and improves the user experience. Optimising for AEO builds on established SEO best practice, such as the use of keywords and the production of original, high-quality content.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is the method used since the 1990s to help websites achieve better rankings in search engines, attract more traffic and generate leads and conversions.
SEO helps businesses increase their organic visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs) of traditional search engines such as Google and Bing. A well-built SEO strategy works at every stage of the marketing funnel, from bringing in qualified traffic at the awareness stage to improving results at the conversion stage.
What are the main differences between AEO and SEO?
AEO and SEO have several things in common, but they also differ, from their main goals and focus to the way they are implemented. Below we look at the main differences in detail.
This table sums up the main differences between AEO and SEO:
| AEO | SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus and goals | Provide direct, concise answers | Improve rankings in search results and traffic |
| User targeting | Voice search and conversational queries | Traditional text-based search |
| Content focus | Structured, concise answers | Detailed and keyword-focused |
| Devices targeted | Voice assistants and AI chatbots | Traditional desktop and mobile search engines, such as Google and Bing |
| KPIs and metrics | Visibility in featured snippets, AI Overviews and People also ask | Better keyword rankings, organic traffic and click-through rate |
1. Goals and purpose
For two decades the main goal of SEO has been to rank pages higher in traditional search engines and drive organic traffic to websites. AEO, by contrast, focuses on giving direct, precise answers to users of AI search engines.
AEO differs from SEO because it does not aim to send users to websites. Instead, it optimises content to appear in featured snippets, Google AI Overviews, knowledge graphs and voice search answers. These results offer summaries that do not require users to click through to the website.
AEO puts more weight on user experience than SEO, which is structured around specific keywords that help pages appear for relevant queries. With SEO you can bring users to your website and generate leads and conversions; with AEO you can build trust and authority by giving users quick, direct answers.
2. Optimisation methods
SEO offers many proven optimisation techniques that can help generate more than 40% of revenue. Websites use the following SEO tactics to improve their rankings and online visibility:
- Strategic keyword research and placement to match user queries
- Backlinks and link building to increase domain authority
- Metadata optimisation to attract relevant traffic
- User experience (UX) improvements, with fast loading and mobile optimisation.
AEO borrows many tactics from SEO, but adds some specific techniques that help your content and website appear in answer engines. It is about optimising content for AI language models and natural language processing in the following ways:
- Aligning content with modern search behaviour
- Structuring content so that it gives the answer up front
- Focusing on giving users value rather than building content around keywords
- Establishing authority with clear, concise, well-structured content
- Adding structured data such as schema markup to help answer engines index your content.
3. Content formats
SEO focuses on long-form content, such as blog posts, articles and webinars, where you can work in keywords and optimise every detail. AEO, on the other hand, favours short content, or sections of content, that AI language models find easy to summarise, such as:
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs): a set of common questions and answers about products, services or the company. They reduce support requests and improve the user experience.
- Featured snippets: a short extract shown at the top of Google's results pages. You optimise for it by answering questions directly, in concise language, and by making content easy to scan with lists and tables.
- People also ask (PAA): this section shows related questions and answers. You can optimise to appear in it by including an FAQ, or by using question-based headings followed by concise answers.
- Schema markup: also called structured data, schema markup is code added to a website's HTML to help search engines understand and index its pages.
SEO leaves room for detailed content that covers several angles, while AEO aims to give users clear, concise answers. Optimising for AEO also means writing short, clear headings and easy-to-scan elements such as lists and tables.
4. Search behaviour
AEO exists to adapt to changing search behaviour, which is moving away from traditional typed searches towards voice searches and more conversational queries. AEO aims to meet these contextual searches with direct, concise answers.
SEO, by contrast, suits keyword-based text searches by a broad audience looking for detailed information and willing to explore a website's topic in depth. AEO favours users of mobile voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Home, or AI chatbots.
AEO and SEO trends
AI keeps changing the way people search for, consume and interact with content on traditional search engines, social media and AI search engines. These are some AEO and SEO trends that will shape search over the next few years:
- AEO keeps pace with changing search behaviour, driven above all by growing demand for voice search content: voice searches already exceed one billion a month.
- AI-based algorithms will improve the contextual relevance of search results.
- Machine learning helps search engines better understand user intent and narrows the gap between AEO and SEO.
- More than 65% of Google queries now end as zero-click searches.
- Google will keep drawing on search results for AI Overviews, which appear above the organic results and offer more visibility.
AEO vs SEO: frequently asked questions
Below are some of the most common questions and answers about AEO and SEO.
Can AEO and SEO work together?
Yes. AEO and SEO work together because they are complementary strategies. Businesses should combine both, often with the help of professional AEO services, to maximise their online visibility and reach readers wherever they are.
So how do you use them together? Start with SEO for keyword research, then use AEO to define search intent and provide concise, contextually relevant content.
Is AEO replacing SEO?
No, AEO is not replacing SEO. It builds on the core principles of SEO to give more direct, concise results to people using AI chatbots and voice search.
What are the benefits of using AEO alongside SEO?
Optimising for both AEO and SEO means your content can appear on traditional search engines, AI search engines, social media search and voice assistants. That way businesses can aim for more visibility everywhere.
Should I prioritise AEO over SEO?
If you have already done the work on SEO, it is worth prioritising AEO for a while, to keep up with the trend and stay ahead of your competitors.
Get results from AEO and SEO together
Combining AEO and SEO strategies helps you gain more online visibility and a competitive advantage. If you want more visibility across search engines, AI platforms and social networks, you can ask for our AI SEO service.
We will help you optimise for AEO, SEO and generative engine optimisation (GEO) at the same time, saving time and resources. Get in touch to find out how we can help you bring AEO and SEO together.
