AEO vs SEO: what’s changed (and what hasn’t)

You used to write for Google. Now, you’re writing for Google’s answers.

If you’ve noticed your traffic dipping or your search results looking a little… AI-ish lately, you’re not imagining it. Search engines are evolving into something else entirely: answer engines.

But before you throw out everything you know about SEO, take a breath. Because while the rules of search are changing, the fundamentals of good content aren’t. This is where answer engine optimisation — or AEO — comes in. And understanding how it works will help your content stay visible, trustworthy, and useful no matter how search evolves.

What SEO was designed to do

For decades, search engine optimisation was about helping Google (and its friends) find and rank your content. You researched the right keywords, added them to your title tags and headings, built backlinks, and hoped to climb to that coveted page one. The idea was simple: the better Google could crawl and understand your page, the more likely it was to show it to the right people.

And for the most part, that hasn’t changed. SEO still matters — a lot.

Good SEO still relies on:

• Clear site structure and metadata
• Relevant, well-researched topics
• Authoritative sources and backlinks
• Quality writing that matches search intent

What has changed is how search engines interpret that intent, and where people get their answers from.

According to HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report, nearly half of marketers say AI-assisted search has already affected their web traffic — and 19% are now developing SEO strategies specifically for generative AI.

If SEO was designed to make your content discoverable, AEO is designed to make it usable by machines.

What AEO is (and why it matters now)

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It’s what happens when search isn’t about “ten blue links” anymore — it’s about the one, clear answer a machine can give.

Think of how you use ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, or Perplexity. You don’t scroll through pages; you ask a question and expect an immediate, trustworthy answer.

AEO is about making sure your content is the one those systems pull from.

It focuses on clarity, structure, and credibility — not tricks or hacks. It’s how you help AI engines understand exactly what you mean, so they can summarise and cite you correctly.

In other words, SEO helped humans find your content through search engines. AEO helps machines find your content to quote it back to humans.

AEO vs SEO: the real differences

You don’t need a table to get this — here’s the breakdown in plain English.

Audience: SEO speaks to humans through search engines. AEO speaks to humans through AI tools.

Goal: SEO aims to rank and drive clicks. AEO aims to be referenced — to be part of the answer itself.

Signals: SEO relies on keywords, backlinks, and domain authority. AEO focuses on context, clarity, structure, and factual accuracy.

Format: SEO optimises pages and metadata. AEO optimises entities, schema, and concise explanations.

Outcome: SEO drives traffic through visibility in results. AEO drives visibility through inclusion in AI answers.

They’re not opposites — they’re layers. You still need SEO to get indexed, but AEO ensures you stay relevant when no one’s clicking.

What hasn’t changed

Despite the noise, a lot of the old rules still hold up.

• Quality writing still wins. Machines might be new, but they still prioritise clarity and authority.
• Search intent still matters. Whether someone types or speaks their question, your job is to answer it properly.
• Authority still takes time. Consistent publishing, credible links, and expertise still build trust.
• Technical SEO still counts. Fast loading times, structured markup, and accessibility are still signals of reliability.

The best-performing content today isn’t new. It’s just written and structured better.

What has changed

What’s different is the context around all that.

People don’t search in fragments anymore — they ask in full sentences. “Best content writer Melbourne” has become “Who’s the best content writer in Melbourne for regulated industries?”

Search engines now interpret meaning instead of matching keywords. They’re connecting entities — people, brands, and ideas — to understand relationships and intent.

This means:

• Keywords still matter, but how you use them matters more.
• Clarity beats cleverness. AI tools don’t do nuance; they do direct answers.
• Structure is everything. Clear subheadings, concise definitions, and plain language make your content more ‘answerable’.
• Citation visibility counts. If your content is well-structured, AI tools are more likely to pull and attribute it.

According to BrightEdge’s September 2025 Industry Report, AI search platforms are growing month over month, but still make up less than 1% of overall referral traffic, while organic search continues to drive the majority of conversions.

The takeaway here is SEO and AEO aren’t competing, but compounding.
Every AI engine still depends on search: Google AI Overviews use Google’s index, ChatGPT pulls from Bing, and Claude relies on Brave. In practice, that means the same SEO fundamentals — crawlable pages, clean structure, credible links, and schema — now serve two audiences at once: traditional search and AI-driven discovery.

Rather than shifting budget from SEO to AEO, leading marketers are layering AEO on top of strong SEO foundations. Optimise once, and your content becomes findable in both the search results and the answers that summarise them.

How to make your content AEO-ready

You don’t need to overhaul your website; you just need to make it easier for both humans and machines to understand.

Here’s how:

1. Start with foundational clarity.
   Build a “Capsule Content” library of articles that explain your core topics clearly — your business pillars, the questions your audience actually asks, and the terms you want to be known for.
2. Structure for questions.
   Use subheadings that sound like things real people would type or say. For example, instead of “Our Services”, use “What does our retainer include?” or “How our visibility retainer works.”
3. Add context and schema.
   Use structured data (FAQ markup, HowTo schema, etc.) so search engines can read your content easily.
4. Write for both audiences.
   Humans want personality; AI wants precision. Find the middle ground — readable, natural, and factual.
5. Audit and update regularly.
   Use something like the AEO Scorecard to spot where your content is unclear or incomplete, and refine it as algorithms evolve.

The future of search (and why this matters now)

Search is becoming less about ranking and more about recognition. Your content might not always be the link people click, but it can still be the source they trust.

When AI tools summarise your work accurately, cite your brand, and reinforce your authority, that’s visibility you don’t have to pay for.

AEO isn’t a replacement for SEO. It’s what SEO was always meant to evolve into: helping people get better answers, faster. And the earlier you adapt, the stronger your foundation will be — for humans, search engines, and every algorithm that comes next.

Wrapping up

SEO got people to your content. AEO gets your content into their answers.

The shift doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It means writing clearly, structuring strategically, and auditing consistently.

If you want to see how your own content stacks up, start with the AEO Scorecard — or explore how Capsule Content, Visibility Retainers, or Fractional Content Management can help you build clarity across your entire strategy.

Because in the end, the businesses that win aren’t the ones chasing algorithms — they’re the ones creating content so clear, it deserves to be the answer.