AEO software: how answer-engine optimization tools actually work
AEO — Answer Engine Optimization — means being findable and accurately described when an AI assistant answers a question, instead of a link being returned. GEO — Generative Engine Optimization — is the broader version of the same idea across generative AI systems generally. Both are new enough that "AEO software" currently covers some very different levels of rigor.
The two questions a real AEO tool has to ask
Whether a model already knows about the business from training data alone, with no web access, and whether a model finds and cites the business when it actually searches the web to answer a question. These are different failure modes — a business can be well represented in a model's training data and still not get cited in a live search, or the reverse — and a tool that only checks one is only half-measuring AEO. Read the full breakdown of cold probes vs. live-search probes →
How to test this yourself, for free
Open ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity and ask an open question a customer would actually ask — not the business's own name, since that guarantees a match and tests nothing. Something like "who does emergency roof repair in Tampa" for a roofer, or "best local option for X in [city]" generally. Note whether the business comes up unprompted (a cold-probe-style result if the assistant answered from what it already knew) or whether the assistant visibly searched and cited a source (a live-search result). Doing this by hand for a handful of questions, occasionally, is a reasonable free way to get a rough read before paying for anything that automates it on a schedule.
GEO vs. AEO vs. traditional SEO — how they relate
Traditional SEO targets search engine results pages. AEO targets an AI assistant's direct answer to a question. GEO is the broader term covering being represented correctly across generative AI systems generally, of which answer engines are one case. In practice the three overlap more than they compete — a site that's technically crawlable and clearly structured (traditional SEO fundamentals) is also easier for a model's live search to find and cite (AEO), and having accurate, verifiable facts about the business (entity trust) helps both a search engine's local pack and a model's cold-probe answer be right about it.
What to be skeptical of
No AEO tool can guarantee a specific AI assistant will mention a business — the model providers control that, not any third-party tool. What a legitimate tool can do is measure the gap honestly, on a schedule, and show which specific question and which specific assistant did or didn't cite the business.