The short version
When people need a plumber, a dentist, or somewhere to eat, a growing share of them don't search anymore. They ask. And tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews don't return ten blue links. They return an answer, usually with two or three businesses named in it.
AEO is the practice of making sure your business is one of the names.
You'll also hear it called GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AI SEO, or LLM SEO. Different acronyms, same job: be the answer.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO is about ranking on a results page. There are ten spots on the first page of Google, and being seventh still gets you something. An AI answer has no seventh place. It names a few businesses and stops. Being in the answer is everything; being almost in the answer is invisible.
The good news is the two overlap. The same fundamentals that help you rank also feed AI answers, so AEO builds on solid SEO rather than replacing it. If someone tells you SEO is dead, they're selling something.
Where do AI tools get their answers?
From a few places: what the model learned in training, what it finds when it searches the live web mid-conversation, and structured sources like maps data, directories, and review platforms. In practice, your AI visibility is decided by things like:
- Whether your website states plainly what you do, where you do it, and for whom
- Structured data, the machine-readable markup on your site that tells AI exactly what kind of business you are
- Your Google Business Profile, and how consistent it is with everything else online
- Reviews: how many, how recent, and what they actually say
- Mentions in local press, directories, and "best of" lists, because those are the sources AI cites
What does AEO work actually involve?
No magic, mostly method. First, an audit: ask the major AI tools about your business and your competitors, in writing, so you know exactly where you stand. Then fix what's wrong and strengthen what's weak. On a typical engagement that means structured data on your site, cleaning up inconsistent business information across the web, rewriting content around the questions customers actually ask, and building citations and reviews in the places AI reads.
Why does this matter now?
Because almost nobody is doing it yet, and the answers are being written now. When few businesses in a market compete on AI visibility, the ones that do tend to get recommended by default. That window doesn't stay open. In Charlotte, right now, it's wide open.
Find out where you stand
The free AI Visibility Check is a short written report on what ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI currently say about your business. No call, no obligation.
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