Answer Engine Optimization

Also called AEO, GEO, and Generative Engine Optimization

Answer engine optimization (also called GEO, generative engine optimization): making your content the source that AI assistants and answer engines cite when people ask questions, rather than optimizing for a list of blue links.

Why it matters

As founders and buyers increasingly ask AI instead of searching Google, being the answer it gives is becoming a real acquisition channel. AEO is early and evolving, but ignoring it risks going invisible in how people now find things.

For example

A startup writes clear, structured guides so that when a founder asks ChatGPT 'best tool for X', its product is named in the answer, not buried on page two of Google.

Worth your time

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): How to Win in AI Search Backlinko · article This is the clearest plain-language explainer of what GEO actually means: getting your content cited when ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews answer a question, instead of just ranking a blue link. Backlinko keeps it concrete with steps you can test yourself (paste your own prompts into ChatGPT and see who gets cited), so you learn the practice by doing, not by buying a tool. A good first read to understand the shift before you decide how much of it applies to you. Open backlinko.com →

Related terms

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Growing and marketing, part of the Starting Up hub.

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