AEO Strategy: A Practical Checklist for Getting Recommended by AI Search

More of your buyers now skip the search results page entirely. They ask ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s AI Overviews or Perplexity a question – “Who builds accessible WordPress sites for healthcare companies?” – and get a short answer with a handful of names. If your business isn’t one of them, you never get the click.

That’s what answer engine optimization (AEO) is about. This guide turns our own internal AEO checklist into a practical strategy you can work through yourself: the technical foundations, the content changes that matter most, how to measure progress, and a 90-day plan for putting it all in place.

What is AEO, and how is it different from SEO?

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of making your website easy for AI assistants to find, understand and cite when they answer questions. You’ll also see it called generative engine optimization (GEO), AI SEO or LLM optimization. The names differ; the goal is the same.

AEO doesn’t replace SEO. Most AI assistants still lean on search indexes and well-ranked pages when they look things up, so strong technical SEO is the foundation. What changes is the finish line:

• SEO aims for a high position in a list of links.
• AEO aims to be one of the few sources an assistant reads, trusts and names in its answer.

That shifts the emphasis toward clarity, consistency and proof: can a machine tell, quickly and without guessing, who you are, what you do and why you’re credible?

How AI assistants choose which businesses to recommend

AI assistants draw on two kinds of information:

1. What the model already learned. Large language models are trained on huge amounts of public text. If your business is described clearly and consistently across the web, that description is more likely to stick.
2. What it looks up in the moment. When an assistant searches the web to answer a question, it fetches a few pages, reads them and summarizes. Pages that are crawlable, fast, clearly structured and state the answer plainly are easier to use.

In both cases, assistants favor sources that are accessible (they can actually read the page), clear (the answer is stated, not implied), consistent (your facts match everywhere) and corroborated (other trusted sites say similar things about you). Your AEO strategy should cover all four.

The AEO checklist at a glance

Work through the steps in order. The technical foundations come first, because nothing else counts if assistants can’t read your pages.

Part 1: Technical foundations

These four steps make sure AI assistants can reach, read and correctly label your pages.

1. Let the right AI crawlers in

If an assistant can’t fetch your pages, nothing else on this list matters. Check your robots.txt file, and just as importantly, your firewall, CDN and security plugin settings. Some hosts, CDNs and security tools now block AI crawlers by default, so a site can be invisible to AI search without anyone deciding that on purpose.

The main crawlers to know:

• OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search results), ChatGPT-User (fetches pages when a user asks) and GPTBot (model training).
• Anthropic: Claude-SearchBot (search), Claude-User (fetches pages for users) and ClaudeBot (model training).
• Perplexity: PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User.
• Google: AI Overviews use regular Googlebot. The separate Google-Extended token only controls whether your content is used for Gemini model training.

A sensible default for most businesses: allow the search and user-fetch crawlers, so you can appear in answers, and make a deliberate choice about the training crawlers. Then confirm that the pages you care about are indexable – no stray noindex tags, and no key sections blocked by mistake.

2. Make sure your content is in the HTML

Many AI crawlers don’t run JavaScript the way a browser does. If your main content only appears after scripts load, some assistants may see an empty page. Check that:

• Your key content is in the HTML the server sends, not injected later by scripts.
• Important answers aren’t hidden inside tabs, accordions or pop-ups that only load on click.
• Sliders and carousels are replaced with static grids. A slider often shows one message at a time to people and buries the rest for machines.
• Comparison tables are real HTML tables, not images.
• Pages load quickly. Slow, script-heavy pages are harder for every crawler to read.

3. Add structured data (schema markup)

Schema.org structured data labels the facts on your pages in a format machines read reliably. Prioritize:

• Organization (name, logo, contact details, social profiles) on your homepage
• Service or Product on the pages that sell
• FAQPage where you answer real questions
• VideoObject on demo and walkthrough pages
• Article and BreadcrumbList across your content

Keep it relevant: mark up what’s actually on each page, and don’t overload your homepage with every schema type you can think of. Validate everything with Google’s Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, and fix errors. Broken markup is worse than none.

4. Consider an llms.txt file

llms.txt is a proposed standard: a plain-text file at the root of your site that points AI tools to your most important pages. It’s quick to add, but there’s no clear evidence yet that the major assistants rely on it. Treat it as a low-effort extra, not a strategy.

Part 2: Content and messaging

Once assistants can read your site, the next job is making sure what they read matches the way your buyers ask questions.

5. Find the words your buyers actually use

This is the step most AEO advice skips, and it’s often where the biggest gains are. Companies tend to describe themselves in their own internal language: product names, category labels they invented, team jargon. Buyers ask AI assistants in plain words. If those two vocabularies don’t overlap, assistants won’t connect your pages to the question.

Build a buyer-language list from:

• Google Search Console query data and site search terms in Google Analytics
• Sales call notes – the phrases prospects repeat when they describe their problem
• Customer success and support conversations, in customers’ own words
• Objections, written down exactly as prospects say them

Then flag the internal terms on your site that buyers would never type. Those are the headings and descriptions to rework in the next two steps.

6. Describe your business in one clear sentence

AI systems need to resolve “who is this?” before they’ll recommend you. Write one plain sentence that says what you are, what you do and who you do it for – for example, “Acme is a payroll software company for restaurants with 10–200 employees.” Then use the same description on your homepage, About page, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile and review profiles.

On your homepage, back it up with:

• A hero section written in buyer-problem language, not internal product language
• A short “What is [your category]?” section, if your category isn’t widely understood
• A structured FAQ block answering the first questions a new buyer asks

Inconsistency is the enemy here. If your homepage says one thing, your LinkedIn says another and an old directory listing says a third, assistants either hedge or pick the wrong version.

7. Write answer-first content

Assistants quote pages that state the answer clearly and early. For every important page:

• Use hybrid headings. Pair your own term with the plain-language phrase buyers use. “ShiftPilot” tells a buyer nothing; “ShiftPilot: Staff Scheduling Software for Multi-Location Clinics” tells them, and every assistant, exactly what it is.
• Add a “what this means” line – one or two plain sentences under any new concept, proprietary term or category label.
• Phrase some headings as questions, the way buyers ask them (“How long does a WooCommerce migration take?”).
• Answer in the first one or two sentences under each heading, then add detail.
• Write summary paragraphs that stand alone. An assistant may quote one paragraph without the rest of the page, so each key paragraph should make sense on its own.
• Use specifics: numbers, timelines, price ranges, named standards, named tools. “Most audits take two to three weeks” beats “we work efficiently”.
• Add a TL;DR at the top of every long article, like the one on this page, and consider showing it on your blog index too.

If you gate your best content behind forms, think again about which pieces need to be gated. Assistants can’t read what’s behind a form, so a gated guide can’t be cited.

8. Cover the questions buyers actually ask

List the questions a buyer types into ChatGPT before they hire you – “best X for Y”, “how much does X cost”, “X for [industry]”, “is X worth it” – and make sure each has a page that answers it directly. Service pages, industry pages, pillar guides and honest pricing explanations all count. Each pillar page should answer one specific question clearly, rather than covering everything loosely. If no page on your site answers a question, an assistant has nothing of yours to cite.

9. Publish comparison content

When a buyer asks an assistant to weigh options, it looks for pages that compare them. Comparison content is one of the most effective things you can add for AEO, and most companies have very little of it. Consider:

• “[Your category] vs [the traditional approach]” – for example, “Scheduling software vs spreadsheets”. Explain plainly what buyers give up by staying with the old way.
• “[Your company] vs alternatives”, where it’s appropriate and you can be fair about it
• A “Why [your company]?” section that answers the direct questions buyers ask when they’re choosing, with your differentiators in plain language
• Side-by-side tables in HTML, so assistants can read them
• Comparison blog posts for buyers who are actively evaluating options

Keep comparisons factual. A one-sided page that never admits a trade-off is less likely to be trusted and quoted.

10. Make your videos readable

AI assistants can’t watch a demo video, but they can read about it. For every product demo, walkthrough or webinar on your site:

• Add a few summary bullets above the video.
• Add the full transcript below it, broken into short sections with headings.
• Add VideoObject schema with a clear title and description.

This turns a video that was invisible to AI search into a page full of quotable answers.

Part 3: Authority and measurement

The last two steps build the outside proof assistants look for, and show you whether the work is paying off.

11. Earn mentions on other trusted sites

When assistants recommend companies, they lean heavily on third-party sources: review platforms, “best of” roundups, industry directories, Reddit and community threads, podcasts and press. Your own website can explain what you do; other sites are what convince an assistant that you’re worth naming.

Practical moves:

• Keep review profiles (Clutch, G2, Google and similar) current and growing.
• Pitch your business to relevant roundups and directories.
• Answer questions genuinely in the communities your buyers use.
• Show partners and integrations in structured HTML tables, and make clear which are partners, resellers or integrations.
• Link out to authoritative sources where they support what you say.
• Make sure every profile repeats your one-sentence description from step 6.

12. Measure, then re-test every month

Before you change anything, record a baseline. Pick the 10–20 questions your buyers ask and run each one in ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Mode and Perplexity. A simple spreadsheet is enough:

Re-run the same questions monthly. Look for three things: whether you’re mentioned more often, whether the description of you is accurate and matches your one sentence, and which sources the assistants cite. The cited sources tell you where to focus next – if every answer cites the same two roundups, getting onto those lists is worth more than another blog post.

Also watch the traffic. In Google Analytics 4 you can group visits from chatgpt.com, claude.ai, perplexity.ai and similar referrers into an “AI assistants” channel to see whether AI search is starting to send visitors.

Make it repeatable: an answer-ready content template

AEO works best as a habit, not a one-time project. Give every new page and article the same structure:

1. Problem: the buyer’s situation, in their words
2. Definition: a plain-language answer to “what is this?”
3. Explanation: how it works, with specifics
4. Comparison: how it differs from the alternatives
5. Next step: a clear call to action

Support the template with a consistent heading hierarchy, a consistent format for definitions, a reusable FAQ block (with FAQ schema built in) and a short internal style guide, so everyone who writes for your site produces answer-ready pages by default.

A 90-day AEO plan

If you’re starting from scratch, here’s a realistic order of work:

• Days 1–30: foundations. Record your baseline answers. Fix AI crawler access and indexing. Build your buyer-language list. Write your one-sentence description and update your homepage, About page and main profiles. Add Organization schema.
• Days 31–60: core pages. Rewrite your homepage and main service or product pages answer-first, with hybrid headings and “what this means” lines. Add Service and FAQ schema. Replace sliders and click-to-load content. Publish your first comparison page.
• Days 61–90: coverage and authority. Fill gaps in the buyer questions you answer. Add transcripts to your videos. Update review profiles and pitch two or three roundups. Re-run your baseline questions and compare.

After that, move to a monthly rhythm: re-test, review which sources assistants cite, and improve the pages and mentions that matter most.

AEO for WordPress sites

WordPress handles AEO well, but a few platform-specific issues come up again and again:

• Security plugins and firewalls sometimes block AI crawlers along with genuinely bad bots. Check their bot settings, not just robots.txt.
• SEO plugins such as Yoast add Organization, Article and breadcrumb markup automatically. Make sure the Organization details are complete, then add Service, FAQ and VideoObject markup where the plugin doesn’t.
• Heavy page builders and script-heavy themes can slow pages and push content behind JavaScript. A lean custom theme makes your content easier for every crawler to read.
• Slider and tab plugins often load content with JavaScript. Check what’s in the page source, not just what you see in the browser.
• Caching and CDNs can serve stale pages or block unfamiliar user agents. After any change, clear every cache layer and test as a crawler would.

Common AEO mistakes

These are the problems we find most often when we audit a site for AI search:

• Blocking AI crawlers by accident through a default firewall or CDN setting.
• Writing in internal language – product names and category labels buyers never search for.
• A vague homepage that never says plainly what the business does or who it’s for.
• Inconsistent facts – old prices, old services or an old location still live on profiles and directories.
• Key content locked away in sliders, images, gated PDFs or videos without transcripts.
• Thin “AI content” written for volume rather than to answer a real question well.
• Trusting guaranteed placements. No one controls what an AI assistant says. Be wary of anyone promising you’ll be “ranked #1 in ChatGPT”.

AEO strategy FAQ

Short answers to the questions we hear most about AEO.

How long does AEO take to work?

Technical fixes such as unblocking crawlers and adding structured data take effect as soon as they’re live, but each assistant refreshes its sources on its own schedule. Some changes show up within weeks; others take a few months, especially anything that depends on third-party mentions.

Is AEO replacing SEO?

No. Most assistants still rely on search indexes and well-ranked pages when they look things up, so good SEO remains the foundation. AEO adds a focus on buyer language, clarity, structured data, consistency and third-party proof.

What should I do first?

Check that AI crawlers can reach your site, then record a baseline of how assistants answer your buyers’ questions today. Those two steps tell you whether you have a technical problem, a content problem or an authority problem – and where to start.

Can I do AEO myself?

Yes – most of this checklist is within reach of a marketing team with access to the website. The technical steps (crawler access, structured data, rendering and performance) are where a developer usually helps.

Want help putting your AEO strategy into practice?

Our AEO services cover the full checklist for WordPress and Webflow sites: a fixed-price audit and implementation, then ongoing optimization with monthly monitoring across ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI and Perplexity. Tell us about your site and the questions your buyers ask, and we’ll send a fixed-price proposal within one business day.

Mary Marnell

Managing Partner · LinkedIn

Mary Marnell is Managing Partner at Hey Reliable, a front-end and WordPress development agency known for delivering clean, reliable code for agencies, marketing teams, and growing businesses. She joined the company in 2017, became partner in ... read more