What it is
Answer engines don't just list links. Google's AI Overviews and featured snippets, and voice assistants reading out a result, lift a short, direct answer from a page and name where it came from.
They favour pages that state facts plainly, that are organised around the questions people actually ask, and that describe themselves in structured data machines can read without guessing. AEO is the work of being that page.
Why it matters
The answer gets the attention
When a question is answered at the top of the results, many people read that and go no further. Being the quoted source is how you stay visible when fewer people scroll down to the links.
Plain statements get quoted, vague ones don't
A page that says "We're a wood-fired bakery in Leeds, open Tuesday to Sunday" can be quoted. One that says "Crafting moments of joy since 1998" can't. Engines need to know what you do, where and for whom, near the top of the page.
Structured data removes the guesswork
JSON-LD markup tells machines your business name, type, address, opening hours, products and answers to common questions as explicit facts. Engines don't have to infer them from your design, so they're less likely to get them wrong.
People ask questions now
Searches, and especially voice searches, are increasingly phrased as full questions. Content written as questions and answers matches how people ask, and gives engines a ready-made answer to lift.
What Crawlable checks
- Structured data
- Which JSON-LD types the page has, such as
Organization,LocalBusiness,FAQPageorProduct, whether they fit what the business is, and whether they're complete. - Question-and-answer content
- Whether the page has headings phrased as questions, and answers that follow them directly.
- A clear statement up front
- Whether what the business is, where it operates and who it serves is stated plainly near the top of the page.
- Quotable statements
- Whether the page has short, factual sentences an engine could lift as an answer, rather than only slogans.
Common problems and how to fix them
No structured data at all
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"name": "Fernhill Bakery",
"url": "https://www.example.com/",
"telephone": "+44 113 000 0000",
"address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "12 Mill Lane", "addressLocality": "Leeds", "postalCode": "LS1 1AA", "addressCountry": "GB" }
}Bakery or Dentist, and only types that describe what you really are.The homepage never says plainly what you do
Answers to common questions are buried or missing
FAQPage so the questions and answers are explicit.Structured data that doesn't match the page
Questions
What's the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO is about ranking in the list of results. AEO is about being the direct answer shown above or instead of that list. Good SEO is the starting point, since answer engines mostly quote pages they can already find.
Does FAQ markup still get rich results in Google?
Google now shows FAQ rich results only for a small set of authoritative government and health sites. The markup is still worth having, because it states your questions and answers explicitly for any engine or AI tool that reads it.
Which structured data should I add first?
Start with Organization, or LocalBusiness (or a more specific type) if customers visit you in person. Then add FAQPage for a questions section, or Product if you sell products on the page.