# AI visibility guide
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization is the practice of making sure AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity recommend your business when someone asks for one — the same way SEO is about ranking on a results page, except there’s no page, just an answer.
AEO vs. SEO -- what’s actually different?
SEO gets a page to rank on a results page full of links. AEO gets your business mentioned inside a single synthesized answer, with no results page and often no click at all. The skills overlap (clear content, credible mentions, being easy to find), but the scoreboard is different: rankings vs. recommendations.
Why does this matter more for agencies specifically?
Hiring an agency is a trust decision, not a transaction. When a prospect asks an AI tool for a recommendation instead of scrolling search results, whoever gets named becomes the shortlist -- often before the prospect visits a single website. If you’re not in that answer, you’re not in the conversation, regardless of how good your actual work is.
GEO, AEO, AIO, LLMO -- are these all different things?
No. The industry hasn’t settled on one term yet, so you’ll see generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO), AI optimization (AIO), and large language model optimization (LLMO) used more or less interchangeably to describe the same underlying goal: getting AI systems to cite, mention, or recommend you.
How do you actually start with AEO?
Before changing anything, find out what AI currently says. Most agencies have never actually asked ChatGPT the way a real prospect would -- so the first step isn’t a strategy, it’s a baseline: run the exact question a client would ask, see the real answer, and see where you stand against your real competitors.
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Run your free algorithm checkRelated reading: Why doesn’t ChatGPT recommend my agency? · How to get recommended by ChatGPT