Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the discipline of being cited — not just ranked — when an AI tool answers a user's question.
Traditional SEO optimizes for Google's ten blue links. AEO optimizes for the handful of sources a generative system pulls into its synthesized answer. The two share a lot of foundations (clean structure, topical authority, trustworthy citations), but they reward different shapes of content.
Why it matters
A growing share of queries — especially product comparisons, "how do I" questions, and definitions — now bypass the SERP entirely. The user gets one answer drawn from a few sources. If your domain isn't one of those sources, you're invisible to that user, regardless of how well you rank on Google.
What AEO actually measures
The headline number is whether your domain appears in the citation list when an AI answers a tracked prompt. Secondary measures include:
- Mention rate — does the model name your brand at all (even without linking)?
- Citation rate — does your domain appear in the structured source list?
- Brand rank — when cited, what position are you in?
- Competitor citations — when you're not cited, who is?
BCited tracks all four against tracked prompts run daily across OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity.