AI Search Optimization (GEO / AEO)

Answer engines synthesize a response and cite a handful of sources. Your goal is to be one of those sources. Crucially, the set of cited pages does not perfectly match the classic organic top 10 — so being citable is its own discipline on top of ranking well. This skill assumes the page already passes technical and content fundamentals (route gaps back to seo-technical-audit / seo-content-brief).

How answer engines pick sources (working model)

They favor content that is:

1. Extractable — the answer is stated plainly, early, in self-contained units.
2. Trustworthy — clear authorship, citations, accuracy, real expertise (E-E-A-T).
3. Specific & current — concrete facts, numbers, dates; not vague filler.
4. Well-structured — headings, lists, tables, Q&A that map to a sub-question.
5. Corroborated — entities and claims that match what other authoritative sources say (consensus and external mentions matter).
6. Accessible to crawlers — not blocked to AI crawlers you want to allow; key content in the initial HTML, not JS-only.