Your customers are starting to ask. Does your website have the answer?
Search is changing. People still Google things, but they also ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. WhatsAEO is a free, honest guide to making your website content easier for AI to find, understand and use.
Work on your AEO today, not someday.
Short, practical, no signup. Your progress saves in your browser.
AI Readiness Check
A quick self-assessment of how answer-ready your website content is. Instant score out of 20, honest priorities.
Take the check 25 items · browser-savedThe AEO Checklist
Work through the five foundations of answer-ready content at your own pace. Mark each item Complete, Needs work or N/A.
Open the checklist Testing worksheet · CSVTest Your AI Visibility
Log what AI systems actually say about your business. Repeatable method, honest mention rate, CSV export.
Start testingAI gives one answer at a time; AEO makes it a useful one.
Answer Engine Optimisation is the practice of making information easier for AI-powered systems to find, understand and use when answering people's questions. It isn't about tricking an algorithm; it's about giving AI better material to work with.
Clearer, more direct answers
Pages that answer the main customer question in the opening paragraphs, rather than hiding it behind a company intro.
Supporting evidence and detail
Specific numbers, named sources, documented experience. The things that make an answer worth citing instead of ignoring.
Structure that machines can parse
Descriptive headings, sensible internal linking, accurate metadata. The small things that help AI understand what a page is actually about.
Same discipline, three lenses.
- Google and Bing results pages
- 10+ options; users choose
- Keywords, links, speed
- Content used inside AI answers
- Direct answers, structure, evidence
- Being answer-ready, not just rankable
- How AI generates its answers
- Newer, more technical framing
- Overlaps heavily with AEO
The Answer-Ready Content Playbook
A practical workbook for turning ordinary website content into clear, useful answers that work for both customers and AI-powered search.
- Find the questions your customers are actually asking
- Rewrite vague marketing copy into answer-ready content
- Structure pages, FAQs and expertise more effectively
- Build your own 30-day AEO improvement plan
- Real examples, worksheets and templates
Common questions, honest answers.
What is AEO, exactly?
Answer Engine Optimisation is the practice of making information on your website easier for AI-powered systems to find, understand and use when they generate answers to people's questions. It overlaps heavily with SEO and GEO; the difference is emphasis. SEO is about ranking; AEO is about being useful inside an answer.
Does doing AEO guarantee AI will cite or recommend my business?
No. Nothing does. Different AI systems use different sources and retrieval methods, and their behaviour changes over time. What AEO does is give AI better material to work with, which is a sensible foundation; but any blog post that promises guaranteed citations should be treated with scepticism.
Is AEO different from GEO?
Not really. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is a newer, more technical term that describes the same discipline. Some people distinguish between them in subtle ways; most don't. If you're improving your AEO, you're also doing GEO. The full comparison has the detail.
Do I need to add an llms.txt file or special schema?
You've probably seen advice telling you to add `llms.txt` or every available schema type to make AI "find" you. There's no reliable evidence that either, on its own, improves recommendations across major AI systems. Add structured data where it accurately describes real content on the page; skip the magic-formula advice.
What is the Playbook, and is it really free?
Yes, really free. The Answer-Ready Content Playbook is a 40-page A4 workbook with examples, exercises and templates. We ask for an email so we can send you occasional WhatsAEO updates; you can unsubscribe any time, and we never share your details.
Who runs WhatsAEO?
Sarah Wood at Creative Sauce Ltd, a UK company (number 12582512) in London. More on the About page, including the editorial standards we hold ourselves to.