What is AEO and how is it different from SEO?

Answer Engine Optimisation is writing so that an assistant can lift your answer and attribute it. SEO wanted a click; this wants to be the sentence quoted, whether or not the click follows.

Why the answer is what it is

The techniques overlap more than the acronyms suggest — clear headings, structured data, a page per question. Where they diverge: AEO rewards stating the answer immediately, which is exactly what engagement-optimised writing was taught not to do.

What this looks like in practice

The biggest change is where people ask. A merchant now asks an assistant ‘who can build me an app’ instead of searching, and what gets quoted back is whatever answered plainly.

AI is good at the volume work — descriptions, alt text, replies to the same question. It is poor at deciding what to sell.

Generated product photography still reads as generated to a customer more often than the people making it believe.

Where a mobile app comes into it

The practical consequence for a store: what an assistant can read about you decides whether it recommends you. Plain, checkable facts beat marketing copy.