What Is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Why Your Local Business Needs It

You've probably spent years getting your business to show up on Google. Maybe you're even on page one. But here's the thing — 25% of search traffic is now shifting to AI-powered answers, and page one doesn't matter when there's no page at all.

Welcome to the world of Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO. It's not a buzzword. It's the next chapter of how customers find you.

SEO vs. AEO: What Changed?

With traditional SEO, you optimized your website so Google would rank it in a list of ten blue links. The customer clicked, browsed, and decided.

With AEO, there's no list. When someone asks ChatGPT "best dentist near me" or Google's AI Overview summarizes the top options, the AI gives one answer. Maybe two. You're either in that answer or you don't exist.

How AI Decides Who Gets Recommended

AI assistants don't crawl your website in real-time. They pull from a mix of sources: your Google Business Profile, review sites, directories, social mentions, and structured data. Think of it like a reputation mosaic — the AI pieces together everything it can find about you from across the web.

The businesses that show up tend to share a few things:

• 1.Consistent information across every platform (name, address, phone, hours).
• 2.Strong review signals — not just stars, but recent, detailed reviews with keywords.
• 3.Structured data on their website (schema markup that AI can parse easily).

"SEO was about being found. AEO is about being recommended. That's a fundamentally different game."

What This Means for Your Local Business

If you're a local business owner, AEO isn't optional anymore. Here's why: your potential customers are already asking AI for recommendations. 57% of consumers now ask AI assistants before choosing a local service. If the AI doesn't mention you, you just lost that customer before they even knew you existed.

The good news? Most of your competitors haven't figured this out yet. Which means right now is the best time to get ahead.

Three Things You Can Do Today

• 1.Ask ChatGPT about your business. Literally type "best [your service] in [your city]" and see if you come up. That's your baseline.
• 2.Audit your online consistency. Is your business name, phone number, and address the same on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and your website? Mismatches confuse AI.
• 3.Encourage detailed reviews. "Great service!" doesn't help AI. "Best emergency plumber in downtown Portland, fast response at 2am" does.

AEO isn't replacing SEO — it's building on top of it. The businesses that adapt early will be the ones AI keeps recommending. The rest will wonder why the phone stopped ringing.