Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the work of making your website the source an AI assistant cites when someone asks it a question. Where search engine optimisation earns you a position on a results page, AEO earns you a mention inside the answer itself, in ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s AI Mode or Perplexity. For a small business the two now run together: the same clear, well-structured page that ranks is the page an AI can read and quote.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO gets a page indexed and ranked. AEO gets it cited. Those are two different selection events with different criteria. A page can sit on the first page of Google and never be quoted by an AI, because the assistant could not find a clear, self-contained answer in it, could not tell who wrote it, or could not verify a single specific claim.
Ranking rewards authority and relevance across a whole site. Citation rewards structural clarity, a named author or organisation, precise verifiable claims, and a domain that reinforces the topic. Both matter. Neither replaces the other.
What does an AI assistant look for before it cites a page?
Four things, in our reading of the research:
- Structural clarity. Headings that name the question, an answer in the first sentence beneath them, schema markup that says what the page is, and named entities (the business, the town, the service) in the first 150 words.
- Attributability. A known author or organisation. Anonymous content is cited less. A page that says who wrote it, when, and on behalf of which business is easier to trust.
- Claim precision. “Open 7am to 7pm, seven days a week” beats “flexible opening hours”. Specific, checkable statements get quoted. Vague expertise does not.
- Topical coherence. A page about drone videography on a site full of drone videography is more credible than the same page on a site about everything.
Does a small business actually need this?
If your customers ask an AI assistant questions before they buy, yes. Increasing numbers do, and the assistants answer with a handful of sources rather than ten blue links. Being one of three cited sources is worth more than being result seven.
The good news for a small business is that the work is mostly the same good practice a well-built website already follows. Plain language. One page per real question. A named person behind the content. Consistent business details everywhere. You do not need a new marketing channel. You need the site you have to be readable by a machine as well as a person.
What should a small business do first?
Start with three questions your business should own the answer to. Not keywords, questions: the things a customer asks before they choose you. Write one page per question, with the question as the heading and the answer in the first sentence.
Then make sure the page says who you are. An Organisation record in schema markup, a named author, your town and the areas you serve, and the same name, address and phone number as your Google Business Profile.
Finally, check the page can actually be reached. A bot wall, a slow server or a challenge page can silently remove you from AI answers. A quick test is to fetch the page as a plain agent and confirm it returns real HTML.
How do you measure AEO?
Ask the assistants the questions your customers ask and record which sources they cite. Do it monthly. Measure first-choice citations, not mentions: being named as the answer is different from being listed among ten alternatives.
Search Console still tells you what people type. Conversation logs from your own contact form tell you what they ask. Between the two you will see the questions worth owning next.
What does Marbl Codes do about it?
This is how we structure the pages we build: question-shaped headings, an answer block above the fold, stacked schema, named authorship and consistent business details. It is part of the build, not an add-on. If you want us to look at an existing site, our marketing service starts with exactly this review.