Title - What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)? 2026 Definition
URL - https://ainora.lt/blog/what-is-answer-engine-optimization
Last Updated: 2026-05-02
Author: Justas Butkus

# What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of formatting content - specifically question-and-answer blocks, definition-first openings, FAQPage and HowTo schema, and question-format H2 headings - so that AI answer engines (Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, voice assistants, ChatGPT search) lift answers directly into their responses. AEO is a subset of GEO with extra weight on the question-answer pair as the unit of optimization.

## Engines AEO targets

- Perplexity (cleanest target - inline citations on every answer)
- Google AI Overviews
- ChatGPT search
- Voice assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri)
- Gemini in Google Search

## Signals AEO optimizes

- FAQPage JSON-LD with 8-15 entries per landing page
- HowTo JSON-LD for procedural content
- Definition-first openings (60-word answer)
- Question-format H2 headings (matching actual buyer prompts)
- Answer brevity (2-4 sentence complete answers)
- Specificity (numbers, capabilities, verifiable facts)
- Recent dateModified
- Allowed AI crawlers in robots.txt

## Five mistakes to avoid

1. Phrasing questions as keywords
2. Burying the answer
3. FAQ content without FAQPage JSON-LD
4. Too many FAQ entries per page (15+ dilutes signal)
5. Stale dateModified

## Free audit

https://ainora.lt/ai-visibility-audit