# AI Search: GEO and AEO

> Generative and answer engine optimization, so you are the source an assistant quotes when nobody clicks a blue link.

A growing share of searches now end in an answer rather than a list of links. When an assistant answers, being on page one matters far less than being the source it draws from. The discipline is newer than search optimisation but the underlying question is an old one: is this site the most credible, clearest, most machine-readable answer available.

## What the work involves

- **Entities and structured data.** Making the site describe itself in a form a machine can read without inference: who you are, what you sell, where you operate and how it all connects.
- **Content shaped to be quoted.** Answering the actual question early and plainly, so a passage can be lifted and attributed. Copy written to be skimmed by a person is often the wrong shape for this.
- **Source credibility.** Assistants lean on sources that other credible sources already reference. That work overlaps with search optimisation, and it is the part that cannot be shortcut.
- **Coverage of the real questions.** Mapping the questions people ask about your category, including the comparisons and objections, rather than only the terms with obvious search volume.
- **Monitoring the answers.** Checking what assistants actually say about you and your competitors, because this is a moving target and an assumption made last quarter may already be wrong.

## Other disciplines

- [Performance Marketing](https://octatude.com/performance-marketing/)
- [Search Engine Optimization](https://octatude.com/search-engine-optimization/)
- [Local SEO](https://octatude.com/local-seo/)
- [Web and App Development](https://octatude.com/web-development/)
- [Email Marketing and Automation](https://octatude.com/email-marketing/)

Full page: https://octatude.com/ai-seo/