Question 1

What is an AEO Score?

Accepted Answer

An AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) Score measures how well your business is optimized to be recommended by AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Siri, and Alexa. It evaluates 6 dimensions: AI Discoverability, Structured Data, Entity Clarity, Content Answerability, Trust & Authority, and Voice Readiness. Scores range from 0-100.

Question 2

What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

Accepted Answer

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of optimizing your business to be recommended by AI assistants and AI-powered search engines. Unlike traditional SEO which focuses on ranking in a list of links, AEO focuses on being the direct answer AI provides. It requires structured data (Schema.org), machine-readable content (llms.txt), explicit AI crawler permissions, and entity clarity.

Question 3

How do I improve my AEO score?

Accepted Answer

To improve your AEO score: 1) Add an llms.txt file with your business details. 2) Configure robots.txt to allow AI crawlers like GPTBot and ClaudeBot. 3) Add LocalBusiness and FAQPage Schema.org markup. 4) Ensure consistent Name/Address/Phone across all platforms. 5) Add FAQ content in question-answer format. 6) Get reviews on Google and other directories. WebZum generates all of this automatically for every website.

Question 4

What is llms.txt?

Accepted Answer

llms.txt is a plain Markdown file placed at your website root (like robots.txt) that provides AI systems with a structured summary of your business. It includes your services, location, hours, contact info, reviews, and differentiators in a format AI crawlers can quickly parse. It helps ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI systems understand and accurately represent your business.

Question 5

Which AI crawlers should I allow in robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

For maximum AI discoverability, allow these crawlers in your robots.txt: GPTBot and ChatGPT-User (OpenAI), ClaudeBot and anthropic-ai (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), Google-Extended (Google AI), Applebot-Extended (Apple/Siri), meta-externalagent (Meta AI), Amazonbot (Alexa), YouBot (You.com), and cohere-ai (Cohere). Grant them access to /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt explicitly.

Question 6

How does AEO differ from SEO?

Accepted Answer

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) focuses on ranking your website in a list of blue links on Google. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) focuses on being the answer AI directly provides to users. SEO relies on keywords and backlinks; AEO relies on structured data, machine-readable content, entity disambiguation, and explicit AI permissions. Both are important, but AEO is becoming critical as more users search via AI assistants.

Can AI Find Your Business?

Can AI Find Your Business?