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Visibility • 1 February 2026 • 10 min read

AEO vs SEO: understanding AI answer engines

Differences between traditional SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). How to adapt to AI engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini. A combined content strategy.

AEO vs SEO: understanding AI answer engines | Kanexio

Introduction: two perspectives, one foundation

SEO and AI search share foundations
Shared foundation
  • Discoverability Indexing, internal links and crawler access.
  • Useful content A clear answer to a real intent.
  • Consistent information Organisation, author and verifiable data.
  • Measurement A reproducible protocol and explicit limitations.
These checks make access and understanding easier. They guarantee neither rankings nor citations.

SEO aims to make a website discoverable and understandable to search engines. AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is a market term for visibility in synthesised answers. It is neither an official standard nor a channel independent of SEO.

Google states that its AI features rely on the usual search fundamentals. There is no AI-specific markup, minimum length or special file that guarantees inclusion.

💡 Key point

A useful, accessible and correctly indexed page serves both objectives. AEO primarily adds a discipline of verification, clarity and measurement.

What is SEO?

SEO encompasses practices that help engines discover, crawl, understand and present relevant content. It includes indexing, architecture, internal links, editorial quality, performance and consistency of information.

Its effectiveness is not limited to a ranking. We also measure impressions, clicks, queries, landing pages and observable conversions.

What is AEO?

AEO applies these fundamentals to interfaces that directly formulate an answer, with or without clickable references. The display format, choice of sources and presence of a link vary according to the platform, query and time of the test.

We therefore cannot promise that content will be used. We can, however, improve its discoverability, precision and the ease with which a reader or system can verify its facts.

Useful differences between SEO and AEO

1. The measured objective

SEO: impressions, clicks, rankings, qualified traffic and conversions.

AEO: mentions observed through a documented protocol, displayed references, referral visits and attributable conversions. A one-off screenshot is not enough to establish a trend.

2. The form of the answer

SEO: the page must answer the intent and offer a complete experience.

AEO: important passages benefit from being explicit, contextualised and sourced. However, there is no ideal word count or guaranteed sentence format.

3. Technical checks

SEO: indexability, sitemap, canonicals, internal links and rendering remain priorities.

AEO: the robots.txt policy also deserves review for the crawlers published by OpenAI or Perplexity. Allowing them enables access without guaranteeing a citation.

4. Structured data

Schema.org can help engines interpret certain information when it matches visible content. Google states that no special structured data is required for its AI features. Adding a type or FAQ solely to “speak to AI” is therefore not a strategy in itself.

One shared method with six checks

1. Check discoverability

Check HTTP statuses, indexing directives, canonicals, the sitemap and internal links. An inaccessible page does not become more visible because it contains extra markup.

2. Answer a real intent

Start with a clear answer, then detail the conditions, limitations and exceptions. Length should follow the complexity of the subject, not an arbitrary quota.

3. Separate fact, method and opinion

Date data that may change. Link rules, figures and specifications to their primary source. Present internal analysis as such.

4. Describe the organisation consistently

The name, author, contact details, services and areas served must be consistent across pages. Structured markup may reflect this information but must not invent it.

5. Define a crawler policy

OpenAI and Perplexity document several crawlers with distinct purposes. Decide which ones you want to allow or block. The llms.txt file remains a community proposal, and Google states that it does not use it.

6. Measure with a reproducible protocol

Keep a stable set of questions, the date, platform, mode used and sources displayed. Supplement this observation with Search Console, analytics and server logs where relevant.

Combined strategy: SEO first, AI observation next

Publish content that deserves to be found and read. Make its information verifiable. Fix technical barriers. Only then observe how the different interfaces present it.

This sequence avoids three common mistakes: producing artificially long pages, adding schemas unrelated to the content and confusing crawler permission with guaranteed visibility.

🎯 Key takeaways
  • SEO remains the foundation of AI-assisted search features
  • No file, schema or word count guarantees a citation
  • Important information must be clear, dated and sourced
  • Crawlers published by platforms let you control access
  • Measurement must distinguish mentions, visits and conversions

Connect to the key services

To explore the foundations further, see our SEO approach, the AEO method and the answer engine hub. These approaches complement each other, but none can guarantee rankings or citations.

Conclusion: progress without promising what you cannot control

A responsible strategy improves what the business controls: website quality, technical accessibility, content accuracy, sources and measurement setup. The final choice of a source always belongs to the engine used.

Explore further · 2026 guides

This article establishes the foundations. To put them into practice, here are our 5 actionable guides published in April 2026:

For a clearer understanding

This article's glossary.

Technical terms, simply explained.

21 terms
Digital accessibility
Designing content and services that people with different abilities can use, including with assistive technologies.Documentation
AEO
A market term for work aimed at direct answers in engines or assistants. It does not denote a certification or a method that guarantees citation.
Analytics
Measurement and analysis of website use: visits, pages viewed and actions taken.
Conversion
An action chosen as an objective: a quote request, call or purchase, for example. A contact click does not prove that a sale took place.
Structured data
Information organised in code to describe an entity, product or content clearly to software.Documentation
Exception
In a process, a case that does not follow the usual path and requires a specific rule or human intervention. In a legal text, a case that departs from a general rule.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions: a section bringing together common questions and their answers.
Google Search Console
Google's tool for viewing, among other things, a website's crawling, indexing and performance in its search results.
HTTP and HTTPS
Communication protocols between a browser and server. HTTPS adds connection encryption.
Generative AI
A family of systems that produce text, images or other content from an instruction and context.
Impression
A counted display of an ad or result. It does not mean that a person visited the website.
Indexing
Recording a page in an engine's index after analysis. An indexed page is not guaranteed to appear for a given search.Documentation
Artificial intelligence (AI)
A set of techniques that enable software to perform tasks such as classifying, predicting or producing content. Their outputs require appropriate review.
LLM
Large language model: a system trained to process and produce text. It can formulate a convincing but inaccurate answer.
LLMO
A market term for practices intended to help systems based on large language models understand or use content.
llms.txt
A proposed file presenting useful website content to AI systems. Its presence guarantees neither reading, citation nor ranking.
Internal linking
The organisation of links between pages on the same website to guide readers and make crawling easier.
robots.txt
A file that tells compatible crawlers which parts of a website they may crawl. It is neither a password nor a guarantee of removal from the index.
Schema.org
A shared vocabulary for describing people, organisations, articles or products using structured data.Documentation
SEO, organic search optimisation
Work on a website and its content to help engines understand them and people find them in organic search results.Documentation
Sitemap
A file that tells engines about a website's important pages and, where applicable, their modification dates.Documentation