The short answer
AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — is the discipline of structuring your website so that AI answer engines (Claude · ChatGPT · Perplexity · Google's AI Overview) can extract your content, attribute it correctly, and recommend you when buyers ask them questions.
SEO got your site in the search-results list. AEO gets your site quoted in the AI's answer.
Why AEO matters now
A growing percentage of buyer research starts with an AI assistant, not a search engine. The buyer asks Claude or ChatGPT a question. The assistant produces an answer. The answer either includes you — or it doesn't.
When you're included, you're effectively pre-recommended. When you're not, you're invisible. There's no second page on an AI answer.
The 6 simple steps to optimise for AEO
Step 1 — Build a JSON-LD entity graph. Add structured data to every page using Schema.org JSON-LD. Identify your organisation, your people, your products, your articles. Cross-link them.
Step 2 — State facts machine-readably. Don't bury facts in marketing language. State them directly.
Step 3 — Define your terms. Every business has terminology — products, methods, processes, frameworks. Define each as a DefinedTerm in your schema, on a dedicated standards page.
Step 4 — Make every claim verifiable. AI engines penalise sites that make claims they can't verify. Anchor your claims to sources.
Step 5 — Build for citation, not just retrieval. Authority comes from external validation — press coverage · academic references · industry recognition.
Step 6 — Re-run the AEO audit monthly. AI engines update constantly.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO optimises for search-engine ranking. AEO optimises for AI-engine citation.
Both still matter. AEO doesn't replace SEO. AEO sits on top — making sure the content your SEO has already optimised is also extractable, attributable, and citable by AI engines.
How does RAMMP help?
RAMMP runs the diagnostic on the entity graph and the authority signals — the two things most businesses haven't structured for AEO. The Brand Trust Score includes an AEO-readiness component as part of the Marketing milestone.
What to do next
Run the free scan → `/rammp-web-dude`. The diagnostic surfaces your AEO-readiness as part of the Marketing milestone score.
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