AIEO: get your business cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity
AIEO explained: optimise your content so ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity cite your business when buyers ask AI who to trust.
Search moved, and most sites didn't
For twenty years, being found online meant ranking on Google. That's still true. But a growing share of buying journeys now start with a question typed into ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity. If the answer doesn't mention you, you're invisible in the exact moment a decision is being made.
Answer-engine optimisation (AIEO) is the practice of making your content easy for these models to understand, trust and cite. It overlaps with good SEO, but it isn't the same job. SEO tries to win a click on a results page. AIEO tries to become the sentence the model repeats back, often with no click at all.
Why models cite some sites and ignore others
Assistants favour sources they can parse quickly and trust. That means content with a clear claim near the top, supporting detail underneath, and no marketing fog in between. If a model has to guess what you mean, it moves on to a source that spelled it out.
It also helps to be consistent. When your business describes what it does the same way across your site, your service pages and your structured data, a model has less room to misread you. Contradiction and vagueness are what get you left out.
Where to start
Write clear, factual, well-structured content that answers real questions directly. Use headings that match how people ask, add structured data, and make your expertise unambiguous. Models reward clarity and punish fluff.
Then measure it. Ask the assistants the questions your customers ask, and see whether you show up. Note which sources they cite instead of you, then close the gap by answering the same question more clearly. That feedback loop is how AIEO compounds.
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