I asked ChatGPT: "can you recommend a company that builds websites in Gdansk?" I got 5 names with short descriptions. Three of them had websites with proper Schema.org and clear structure. The other two? ChatGPT made them up. They don't exist.

And that's the whole point of AEO. If your business isn't visible to AI in a way that AI can understand, it will either skip you or - worse - recommend someone else in your place.

AEO in one sentence

AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing your website for AI assistants - ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini. The very same tools that people increasingly use instead of Google.

The difference between SEO and AEO is simple. SEO is a fight for position in a list of results. AEO is a fight for AI to mention your business by name when someone asks about a service you provide.

In SEO, ranking matters. In AEO, what matters is whether AI even knows you exist.

How AI chooses businesses to recommend

AI doesn't have a mysterious ranking algorithm. It reads websites - the exact same ones that Google reads. But it reads them differently.

Google looks at links, domain authority, keywords, loading speed. AI looks at content. Does the website clearly state: what the company does, where it operates, what services it offers, how much they cost. Whether the information is presented in a way that's easy to quote.

Imagine that AI is an intern who's been given the task "find a transport company from the Tri-City area." They open your website. If within the first 10 seconds they find the company name, location, range of services, and pricing - they've got what they need. If your website is a full-screen animation with a "Welcome" message and it takes 4 clicks to find basic information - the intern moves on.

What determines AI visibility

Structured data (Schema.org). These are tags in your website's code that tell machines directly: "this is a company, it's called X, it does Y, it operates in Z." Google has been reading them for years. Now ChatGPT and Perplexity read them too. Without Schema.org, your website is like a handwritten business card to AI - sure, it can be read, but why bother when there's a printed one right next to it.

Clear content. Short sentences. Clear headings. Content divided into sections. AI "cuts out" fragments of pages and pastes them as answers. If your content is written in blocks that are easy to extract - you have an advantage. If it's a wall of text with no headings - AI will skip it.

FAQ and question-answer sections. AI loves FAQ sections. Literally. A question plus an answer is the format that AI most naturally quotes. If your website has a "Frequently Asked Questions" section with specific answers, the chance that AI will use that content increases several times over.

Unique, specific content. AI skips generic descriptions like "we offer comprehensive services at the highest level." Because that could be on any company's website. But "we handle container transport from the port of Gdansk to Berlin, delivery time 2 days, price from 2,800 PLN" - that's a concrete detail that AI remembers and quotes.

What AI can't see

Images without alt text. Content locked inside PDFs. Information hidden behind a login form. Flash animations (yes, they still exist). Content loaded dynamically via JavaScript - some AI reads it, some doesn't, so it's better not to risk it.

And most importantly: AI doesn't see social media. Your Facebook posts, Instagram stories, LinkedIn comments - AI doesn't index any of that. If your only online presence is Facebook, you don't exist as far as AI is concerned.

Practically - what to do

Start with a website. It's the foundation without which AEO makes no sense. Then:

Add Schema.org - LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService. With company name, address, phone number, range of services, opening hours. This is the data that AI reads first.

Write content that answers questions. Not "we are a market leader." Instead: what you do, for whom, where, how much. As if you were explaining it to someone over the phone. Simple and specific.

Add an FAQ section with 5-10 questions your customers actually ask. Not made-up questions like "why should you choose us?", but real ones: "how much does transport from Gdansk to Munich cost?", "how quickly can I get a website?", "can I edit the content myself?".

Make sure your website loads fast. AI crawlers have limited time for each page. If your website takes 5 seconds to load - they might not wait.

SEO isn't dying - there's a new channel emerging

AEO doesn't replace SEO. Google still accounts for over 90% of search engine traffic. But AI is growing fast. Perplexity already has tens of millions of users. ChatGPT with search is another several million. Gemini is built into Android phones.

In a year or two, someone will ask AI "who builds good websites?" and either your business will appear in the answer, or your competitor will. Better to prepare now, while most businesses don't even know what AEO is.