Module 01 — AEO addon
When someone asks an AI who to call, be the answer.
Your next client may never see a search results page. They’ll ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overview “who’s a good agent in Farragut?” — and get one name, maybe three. Answer engine optimization is the work of being one of them.
What is answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring a website so that AI assistants and answer engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews — can understand who you are, trust the information, and cite you when someone asks a relevant question. It builds on traditional SEO but optimizes for being quoted in an answer rather than ranked in a list.
How it’s different from SEO.
Wins a position.
Wins a citation.
Rewards keywords.
Rewards clear, direct, verifiable answers.
Is about your page.
Is about your entity — who you are, where you work, what you do, and whether every source on the web agrees.
What I actually do.
Entity clarity
One consistent, unambiguous description of you across your site, your brokerage page, Google Business Profile, and social profiles. AI assistants cross-check sources; disagreement costs you the citation.
Structured data
Person, RealEstateAgent, Service, FAQPage, and Article schema on every page. This is the machine-readable version of your site.
Direct-answer content
Every page answers a real question in its first lines, in plain language, before the marketing. FAQ sections written the way people actually ask.
Citation-worthy pages
Neighborhood guides and market pages with specific, checkable facts. AI assistants cite specificity; they skip fluff.
Machine-readable signals
llms.txt, clean sitemaps, pages that render without JavaScript — so AI crawlers can read the page at all.
Honest expectations.
AEO is new and nobody controls the models. I can make your site the easiest thing on the internet for an AI to understand and cite. I can’t guarantee a specific assistant will name you on a specific day, and anyone who guarantees that is guessing.
What I can say: the sites that get cited are the ones that are clear, specific, structured, and consistent — and that’s buildable.
Straight answers.
Is AEO the same as GEO?
Same idea, different acronym. Generative engine optimization, AI search optimization, LLM optimization — they all mean being understood and cited by AI answer engines.
Does AEO replace SEO?
No. It sits on top. A site that's invisible to Google is usually invisible to AI assistants too, since most of them search the web to answer.
How do I know if it's working?
Ask. Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask the questions your clients would ask. That's how I check, too.
Can you do AEO on my existing site?
If the site can hold structured data and clean content, yes. If it's a locked-down template, sometimes the honest answer is a rebuild.
Ask me what an AI says about you right now.
Send me your name and market. I’ll ask the major assistants the questions your clients would ask, and send you what they said — screenshots and three sentences on where you stand.