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What is AEO? A plain guide for business owners

AEO, or answer engine optimisation, is the work of making your business easy for AI tools to understand, trust and mention. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI who to choose, AEO improves your chances of being part of that answer, though no one can guarantee it.

Smartz · Published

Why does AEO matter for a small business?

People increasingly ask AI tools for recommendations and may never visit a list of ten blue links. An answer usually names only a few options. If the tool cannot find clear information about you, it is more likely to name someone else.

How do AI tools decide what to say?

The exact workings differ and are not fully public. In general, tools that search the web look for relevant pages, then write an answer from what they can read and trust. Clear facts, consistent details and mentions on other sites all help them.

What is the difference between SEO and AEO?

SEO aims to rank your page in search results so people click on it. AEO aims to have your business quoted or named inside the answer itself. Most of the groundwork is shared, which is why it makes sense to do them together.

An AEO checklist you can start today

What should you avoid?

Avoid fake reviews, invented statistics and pages stuffed with near-identical city names. They can damage trust with people and platforms alike. Be careful with anyone promising a guaranteed mention in ChatGPT, because nobody controls that.

Want this done for your business?

Smartz handles AEO alongside SEO and website design for Indian businesses.

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AEO: common questions

Is AEO replacing SEO?

No. AEO builds on SEO. Google AI Overviews draw on Google’s index, and other AI tools use web search and their own crawlers. A site that cannot be found or read well by search engines also starts at a disadvantage with AI tools.

What is the difference between AEO and GEO?

They are close to the same idea. GEO, or generative engine optimisation, is another name for getting content used in AI-generated answers. People use the two terms almost interchangeably, so focus on the work rather than the label.

Does llms.txt make ChatGPT recommend me?

There is no evidence it does that on its own. llms.txt is a proposed file that gives AI tools a clean summary of a site. It is cheap to add, and it is not an official standard, so treat it as a small extra.

How do I check whether AI tools mention my business?

Write down ten questions a customer would ask, then run them in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google every month. Note who gets named and which sources are cited. Answers vary between runs, so look for patterns over time.