A marketing proposal shows up with a new line on it: AEO, at a monthly fee. The pitch is that homeowners now get answers instead of links, and your company needs to be in them.
They're right that homeowners get answers now. Whether that work needs its own line on the invoice is another matter.
What does answer engine optimization mean?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is getting your business into the direct answers Google and AI assistants give, not only the list of links under them. An answer engine is any search tool that replies with an answer instead of a page of links.
Google's own guide uses the term. It says AEO and GEO describe work aimed at being seen in AI search, and that for Google this is still SEO.[1]
Where does a homeowner see a direct answer?
In several places, and each one picks its sources its own way. Our guide to AI search for home service companies compares them.
- Featured snippets: a box in Google's results that shows a quote from one page before its link. Google chooses the page, and you can't mark yours for it.[3]
- AI Overviews: a written summary above the results, with links to pages that support it. Google shows one only when it adds something, so many searches don't get one.[2]
- AI Mode: Google's search mode for questions that need more exploring or comparing. It may use different models from AI Overviews, so its answers and links can differ.[2]
- ChatGPT: it can search the web when a question needs current information, and its answers can include links to sources.[4]
When Google showed an AI summary, users clicked a traditional result about half as often: 8% vs. 15% of searches.
Source: Pew Research Center · (opens in a new tab) · March 2025 browsing data
So when Google shows an AI summary, fewer people click the regular links under it. A homeowner who reads a clear answer may never scroll down to yours.
Is AEO different from SEO?
Only in what you aim at. Google says its AI features are built on its core ranking and quality systems, so SEO best practices still apply.[1]
To show up as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.[2] Google's newer guide adds that your site must be included in its AI features in Search Console, and inclusion is the default.[1][6]
Classic SEO aims at a ranked link. AEO aims at the sentence that answers the question, so put that sentence on the page, near the top, where a reader sees it first.
Only about 8% of local-intent searches show an AI Overview, versus about 21% of all keywords.
Source: Ahrefs AI Overview triggers study · (opens in a new tab) · 146M desktop SERPs, Sept 2025
So most local searches show no AI Overview at all. It's one more reason to treat AEO as part of SEO rather than a project of its own.
What does AEO change for a home service company?
It changes how the pages you already have begin. The first lines of each service page should answer the question a homeowner types, in the words they use.
One question, two ways to open the page
- The question: “How long does a tub-to-shower conversion take?”
- Before, the page opens with: “Welcome to our family-owned company, proudly serving Columbus with quality craftsmanship since 2009.”
- After, it opens with: “Most of our tub-to-shower conversions in Columbus take four to six working days. Custom glass doors can add a week or two to order.”
- Only the second opening answers the question, so only the second one is worth quoting.
Illustrative example
Here's the order I'd work in:
- List the questions. Write down the ten questions customers ask on the phone before they book, in their words.
- Answer each one at the top of the right page. One or two plain sentences, then the details. How to write a service page walks through the layout.
- Fill in your Google Business Profile. Google says a Business Profile can help your services show up in AI responses as well as regular results.[1] This checklist goes field by field.
- Keep the facts the same everywhere. Hours, phone, services and service area should match on your site, your profile and your listings.
- Make sure Google can read the page. It has to be indexed, and robots.txt or your host can't be blocking crawlers.[2] In Search Console, check that the Search generative AI setting still includes your site.[6]
Which AEO offers can you skip?
Skip anything sold as a special file or special code that Google needs for AI answers. Google says you don't need AI text files, new markup or special schema to appear in its AI features.[1] Our post on llms.txt files covers the best-known one.
Skip offers to chop your pages into small chunks or rewrite everything for AI. Google lists both among the things you can ignore, and says there's no ideal page length.[1]
Be careful with any AEO tool or service that claims Google approved it. Google says it doesn't evaluate third-party services, and that their tools can't guarantee performance.[5]
How does AEO fit with GEO and LLMO?
They're three names for overlapping work. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is making sure assistants like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, plus Google's AI Mode, can find your business, trust it and cite it when they write an answer.
Large language model optimization (LLMO) is the same work seen from the model's side. Plain, consistent facts about your services, prices, service area and reviews, on your own site and on the sites the models read.
We do all three together with local SEO, because AI answers lean on the same Google, Maps and listing data. If you run a roofing company, this comparison shows which part comes first.
How can you tell whether it's working?
Ask the questions yourself. Once a month, type the questions from your list into Google and ChatGPT from your own town, and write down who gets named.
Google's guide also points to a generative AI performance report in Search Console, which can show how people find your pages through its AI features.[1]
For a one-time look, our AI search visibility audit records what assistants say when your customers' questions are put to them. What an AI visibility audit includes is spelled out in a separate post. The Expert Action Plan ($149) is that complete report plus a 30-minute consultation on what to fix first.
For monthly help, see our AI search optimization plans. Every month we run the same buyer questions across the AI assistants we test (currently ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity) and report what the answers said.
What Google and OpenAI say about placement
No one controls which page Google quotes or which company an assistant names. Google says it may not crawl, index or show a page even when the page meets every requirement.[1] OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search isn't guaranteed either.[4]
What you can control is whether your pages answer real questions plainly, and whether your facts match everywhere. Start the list of ten questions this week.