Discipline
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Also: AEO, answer engine optimisation
AEO is sometimes used interchangeably with GEO, but the two terms describe different things. GEO is the engineering work. AEO is the measurable result. A clinic with excellent GEO that fails to track citation frequency across a query set has no idea whether AEO has improved.
The AEO measurement protocol uses a Prompt Library of three categories. Discovery prompts ("best GLP 1 clinic in Austin"). Comparison prompts ("KailxLabs vs SEO agency"). Reputation prompts ("is KailxLabs reliable"). Each prompt is run weekly against ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Share of Model is the percentage of prompts where the business is cited.
Cited facts
- AEO citations correlate r=0.81 with established author E-E-A-T signals (Wellows 2026 ranking factor study).
- Ninety six percent of AI Overview citations derive from sources with robust E-E-A-T markers (Wellows 2026).