AEO and GEO: preparing a company website for AI answers

First, the scale of the shift: a growing share of searches gets a direct, generated answer before the ten blue links. The person who used to google “web agency” now asks an assistant — and reads a single answer.

The mechanics, though, are less mysterious than they sound: generative systems do not invent sources. They read, synthesise and cite existing content — and they cite what is clear, specific and attributable. Vague pages with no author and no perimeter give the system nothing to cite.

And here is the good news: the work largely coincides with good SEO and good content. If your site is already clear, you start ahead; if it is generic, you just found one more reason to fix it. Let's see where to begin.

Step one is making yourself recognisable as an entity: who the company is, what it offers, where it works, who it helps, what proof it can show. Sounds obvious — but read your site the way a system that does not know you would: how much of that is explicit, and how much is assumed?

That information needs to be made explicit in the content, the internal links and — where useful — the structured data: Organization with name, location and contacts, Service for services, BlogPosting with an author for resources.

And don't stop at the website: name, description and perimeter should match across site, LinkedIn, directories and profiles. Generative systems cross-reference sources, and every inconsistency dilutes your identity.

Step two: give the system something to cite. FAQs help but are not enough — every page should explain its topic well and anticipate the reader's next question.

The winning format is the same one that works for a reader in a hurry: the direct answer in the first lines of a section, then context, examples and nuance. Pages that circle the point for three paragraphs help neither people nor AI.

If you look closely, it is the structure we use in these guides too: answer, context, practical application. Short answers hold up when solid sections, proof and links to more specific pages sit underneath them.

Last step, with a warning: there are no shortcuts. Generative systems reward content that is clear, attributable and consistent with the rest of your online presence; markup describes what exists, it does not create it.

You need the technical base of always — the one in our technical SEO checklist: crawlability is the prerequisite for AI systems too — plus specific content, trust signals and internal links that make your perimeter of expertise clear.

Recapping the path: service pages that answer real commercial questions, correct structured data, an identifiable author, verifiable proof, consistency on and off the site. Then, in a few weeks, repeat the test from the beginning — ChatGPT's answer might already include your name.