Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) focuses on structuring content to directly answer user queries, helping it appear in featured snippets and voice search results. It enhances visibility by aligning with how modern search engines deliver quick, concise answers.

Semrush has published an article explaining Answer Engine Optimization.

Zach Paruch says, “AEO matters because it ensures visibility when the user is interacting with an AI tool that does the talking.

If your content is optimized for how AI finds and formats answers, you stand to be included in conversations that extend beyond appearing in traditional search results.

Here’s why that’s important:

  1. AI tools are cutting into traditional traffic sources. Between Google’s AI Overviews pushing links below the fold and ChatGPT sometimes answering without linking at all, users are increasingly getting what they need without ever clicking through.
  2. AI tools are changing how users discover and trust information online. Instead of clicking through to brand websites, users now rely on AI-generated summaries. AI still pulls from trusted sources, but the trust is shifting from websites to the AI tools themselves.
  3. AI traffic is more valuable than search traffic. Semrush’s AI search study found the average AI search visitor is 4.4x more valuable than the traditional organic search visitor, at least based on conversion rate.”

What Is Answer Engine Optimization? And How to Do It

Semrush