Move Over SEO: Make Way For Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
SEO is a dinosaur—and AEO is the meteor!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been our guiding star for years. It has taught us how to craft meta descriptions, what keywords to sprinkle throughout our content, and how to structure articles so that Google will reward us with that sweet, sweet page one spot.
But something's been happening recently. Algorithms are getting smarter. Google isn't the only game in town anymore.
Answer Engines—like ChatGPT, Siri, and MicroSoft’s CoPilot—are changing how we interact with information. You no longer have to type keywords into a search bar and scroll through a list of results.
You can ask your device a question, and boom, an answer comes back to you. No endless clicking, no wondering whether you're on the right page. You get the info you need. Instant gratification.
What's AEO Got to Do With It?
Let's get to the heart of it: Answer Engine Optimization. Think of it as the next logical step after SEO.
SEO is about ranking your page; AEO is about ensuring your answer gets delivered.
I mean, we've all seen how our favorite AI tools work. You don't need a complex, multi-step journey to get the info. You ask, and the engine spits out an answer, likely with more precision than you could ever hope for.
For those of us knee-deep in technical writing, this means a couple of things:
Clarity is Key: Forget about keyword stuffing for a moment. Sure, using the right words is still essential, but it's even more crucial to structure your answers so they're clear and concise. AEO doesn't care about word count; it cares about whether you can answer a question without causing confusion. ChatGPT doesn't sift through 1,000 words to answer a user query. It finds the most relevant answer and spits it right back.
Answer Formatting: Think like a robot. If you want your answer to show up, you need to format it so that it's easy for an AI to pull out. Bulleted lists, step-by-step instructions, clearly marked headings—it all helps. If you’re content is semantically structured, that’s even better. An answer engine is much more likely to pick up a well-structured (or organized) page.
Trust in Context: We're in the age of context-driven search. It's not about throwing every possible keyword into your content. It's about answering real questions in a way that makes sense. With AEO, the more you cater to how people naturally ask questions (whether through a voice assistant or an AI-driven chatbot), the more likely your answers will surface.
Optimization Doesn't Stop at Text: We live in an era of visual answers. So, don't just rely on your snappy, well-written paragraphs. If you can answer with a chart, an image, or a well-designed table, do it. Answer engines often use multimedia to enhance their responses, so give them what they need.
How to Write for AEO
Alright, let's dive into the nitty-gritty. As a technical writer, your job is to think like a question-answering machine. Here's what you'll want to do to get noticed by an answer engine:
Target Real Questions: People search for answers to specific questions. So, rather than crafting broad, generic topics (looking at you, 3,000-word "ultimate guide" pieces), focus on the questions people are asking. Use tools like Google's "People Also Ask" to determine what your audience wants to know. If possible, check the search logs on your documentation portal and support websites. Look for questions that were asked, but unanswered.
Create Digestible Content: Clarity over complexity. Use short sentences. Write with precision. Answer in the most straightforward way possible. If your content reads like a textbook, you'll probably not get chosen. But if it's direct and to the point? Bingo. You're on the right track.
Include Structured Data: This one's not always fun but vital. Add schema markup to your pages to give AEO tools more context about your content. This helps them pull the right information from your text and serve it to users when needed.
Be Conversational: When someone asks a question, how do they phrase it? Often, it's conversational, and that's precisely how you should write your answers. Skip the jargon, the corporate speak, and the bloated sentences. Be human. Answer like you're speaking directly to the reader. ChatGPT and its peers are getting really good at picking up on that.
What's Next?
I get it. Change is hard. SEO has been the guiding light for so long that it's tough to imagine the world without it. But SEO isn't disappearing—it's evolving. The focus is shifting from ranking pages to providing accurate, clear, and quick answers. And the engines that deliver those answers need to find the most relevant content, and that's where AEO comes in.
For technical writers, AEO is your new frontier. It's about more than just optimizing for search engines. It's about optimizing for the future of information retrieval. And that future? It's an answer-first world.
So, get out there, start thinking like a question-answering machine, and let's make AEO the next big thing. Who knows? One day, people might even start asking you for tips on how to do it right.