What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
A label, not a specification. There is no AEO standard, no AEO markup and no AEO body — Google's documentation states no additional technical requirement exists for AI features beyond being crawlable, indexable and useful. The underlying work is real: be retrievable, be specific, be the clearest document on the question.
short answer · 51 words · inspected 10 / 03 / 2026
01section 01
What the term covers that is real
Three practices sit under the label, and each predates it. Be retrievable — crawlable, indexable, readable without JavaScript execution. Answer one question per page, completely, which is information architecture. And state specifics: a price, a date, a named standard.
The second has a reference in Google's creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. The third is the one that changes outcomes and has no standard behind it: an assistant assembling an answer quotes what is quotable, and adjectives are not.
- be retrievable
- crawling and indexing docs
- one question per page
- helpful-content guidance
- state specifics
- nothing to cite — editorial
sources
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first contentGoogle Search Central
02section 02
What to refuse to buy
AEO schema. It does not exist. Structured data has a published vocabulary, Google's structured data guidelines require markup to match visible content, and the search gallery lists the types that actually do something.
An AEO audit scored out of 100 — against what specification? And guaranteed citation: nobody controls retrieval, and we do not sell it either.
What the label is useful for is naming the shift from rank a page to be the answer that gets quoted. That is a real change in what a page should contain. It is not a new technical discipline, and the agencies pricing it as one are repricing work they were already selling.
sources
- Structured data general guidelinesGoogle Search Central
- Structured data markup that Google Search supportsGoogle Search Central
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inspected · chief engineer