Answer engine optimisation: making your site quotable by AI
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) and generative engine optimisation (GEO) make a website easy for Google AI features, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity to understand and cite. The basics are answer-first summaries, structured data, clear FAQs, cited facts and crawlable, fast pages.
Meera Joshi, Head of Design (M.Des, Interaction Design)Updated 1 min read
What changes with AI search
Assistants summarise answers instead of listing ten links. Pages that state facts clearly, in self-contained sentences, are easier to quote.
Practical checklist
- An answer-first summary of 40 to 60 words at the top of each page
- FAQ sections written as real questions customers ask
- Structured data for organisations, services, products and articles
- Named authors with credentials and visible update dates
- An llms.txt file that points AI systems to key pages
Do not forget classic SEO
AI systems still rely on crawlable, fast, well-linked pages. Technical SEO remains the foundation.