Answer engine optimization (AEO)

also known as: AEO

Optimizing content to be selected as the answer by answer engines — systems that respond with one composed answer instead of a list of links: Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT with search. AEO overlaps heavily with generative engine optimization; AEO emphasizes being the extracted, cited answer, while GEO names the broader practice across generative surfaces. In use, the two terms are often interchangeable.

In AI Search API

Measuring AEO requires knowing not just that a page was retrieved but that it was cited: evidence.sources gives every source a role — cited, retrieved or related — and charRanges tie each cited source to the exact span of the answer it supports. That is the difference between "the engine saw you" and "the engine used you."

Envelope — a cited source with its answer span

"sources": [
  {
    "id": 2,
    "url": "https://…",
    "role": "cited",
    "cited": true,
    "charRanges": [[0, 58]]
  }
]

Related terms

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Surface coverage →

Every definition here is enforced in the Envelope contract — run a capture and read the fields yourself.

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