AEO: answer engine optimization

What answer engines need

Answer engines, from featured snippets to AI assistants, look for content that answers a question without needing to be reconstructed. The question is: can a system extract a useful answer from your page as it is?

How to write answerable content

• Use the questions your customers actually ask as headings.
• Start each answer with a direct reply of one or two sentences, then add detail.
• Keep answers specific and self-contained.
• Mark up genuine FAQ sections with FAQPage structured data.
• Link answers to the pages that go deeper.

What to avoid

Questions followed by marketing copy that never answers them, answers buried several paragraphs down, and FAQ sections written for keywords rather than for people. These look like answers but give engines nothing to quote.