Answer engine optimisation

In practice it is a way of writing plus some technical housekeeping. Each page answers one question, and the answer sits in the first sentence rather than the third paragraph. Under it come the explanation, the numbers, a date and an author name. Add structured data and tidy headings. AEO is done by whoever writes your content, just with a different habit: answer first, story second.

Picture someone asking what a corporate video costs. They used to open three sites and compare. Now a language model gives them a range and sometimes says where it came from. If that answer includes you, you have earned trust before the first click. If it does not, that person never learns you exist, even if you rank second on Google. Organic traffic is falling even for companies that did nothing wrong.

How it is done: take the twenty questions clients ask you on the phone and write a page or a paragraph answering each one directly. Add concrete figures and ranges, because those get quoted most readily. First movement shows in weeks, not days. From you we need access to the CMS and an hour with someone from sales. They know those questions better than any keyword tool does.

Let us be straight about it, AEO does not replace SEO, it sits on top of it. Without a technically sound, reasonably fast site it will not help. And be careful with agencies selling a monthly retainer of several thousand euros promising guaranteed citations. Nobody knows how the models choose, and nobody can guarantee it. It also earns little if you sell a local service people look up on a map.

We check AEO with a twenty minute test. Put five questions your customer would genuinely ask into two different AI tools and write down who showed up in the answers. Repeat once a quarter and you have an honest picture of movement. A rule you can borrow today: every new article must answer the question in its own headline within the first two sentences.