Get Found by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews

In late 2025 the share of B2B research that started inside an AI chat — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews — passed 40% in most studies. Buyers ask the model 'which UK companies do X?' and copy three names into their shortlist. If you are not one of the three, you do not get the call. Answer-engine optimisation, or AEO, is the discipline of getting cited by those models.

Why AEO is not just SEO

Search engines rank pages and send the user to them. Answer engines synthesise an answer from many sources and cite a few. To be the page that gets visited you needed to rank #1. To be the source that gets cited, you need to be the page the model can extract a clean, factual claim from. Different optimisation.

What AI models actually look for

• Clear, declarative statements — 'X costs £Y', 'Z is required by law in the UK from 2026'
• Structured content — H2/H3 hierarchy, lists, tables, FAQs the model can lift verbatim
• Citation-friendly format — facts attributed to sources, dates, named authors with credentials
• Schema markup — Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Organization JSON-LD
• Freshness signals — published and modified dates the model can verify
• Topical depth — multiple linked pages on the same theme, not one thin overview

The practical AEO checklist

Front-load the answer. The first paragraph of every page should answer the question the page is about, in one or two sentences. Burying the answer in the middle costs you the citation.

Write FAQ blocks for every page. 'What is X? When do you need it? How much does it cost? What are the alternatives?' Three to six Q&As at the bottom of every service page.

Publish original data. Models cite primary sources over aggregators. A small survey of 50 customers, your own benchmark, a price comparison you ran — original data points get cited disproportionately.

Get listed in the lists. Listicle pages ('top 10 UK X providers') feed answer engines directly. Pitch the authors with a clear, factual one-liner.

Measuring share-of-voice

Run your top 20 buyer questions through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews monthly. Track three numbers: how often are you mentioned, how often are competitors mentioned, and how accurate is the description. AEO is where SEO was in 2008 — under-priced, easy to win, hard to dislodge once you do.

“If ChatGPT cannot summarise your product in one sentence, neither can your buyer.”

AI Overviews now appear on 47% of Google searches in regulated industries (BrightEdge, October 2024) — up from 7% a year earlier.