AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation
Optimise your content to appear in Google Featured Snippets, People Also Ask boxes, Knowledge Panels, Voice Search results and AI answer boxes — capturing clicks above the standard search results.
Win Position Zero and Voice Search
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your content so that Google and other search engines select it to directly answer user questions — in Featured Snippets, People Also Ask, Knowledge Panels, and voice search responses.
Position 0 (the Featured Snippet) appears above all paid ads and organic results. It captures a disproportionate share of clicks, brand visibility and voice search responses. AEO is the discipline that wins it.
- Featured Snippets appear before Position 1 organic results
- Voice assistants read Featured Snippets aloud as answers
- PAA (People Also Ask) boxes significantly expand your SERP presence
- Knowledge Panels establish your brand as a recognised entity
Answer Formats We Target
- Featured Snippets (paragraph, list, table)
- People Also Ask (PAA) boxes
- Knowledge Panels
- Google Voice Search answers
- Siri & Alexa responses
- Rich Results (How-to, FAQ, Recipe)
Our AEO Service
Featured Snippet Audit
Identify every Featured Snippet and PAA box opportunity in your niche — including which queries your competitors currently own.
Question & Answer Content
Create and optimise Q&A-format content that directly answers the specific questions your customers search for in a concise, snippet-ready format.
FAQ Schema Markup
Implement FAQPage, HowTo, Q&A and other structured data schemas that signal to Google your content is structured to answer specific questions.
People Also Ask Targeting
Research and target the full PAA question clusters around your key topics — building content that captures the entire answer ecosystem, not just one question.
Voice Search Optimisation
Optimise for conversational, natural language queries that voice assistant users ask — with content length, format and phrasing calibrated for voice responses.
Knowledge Panel Optimisation
Build and maintain your Google Knowledge Panel to establish your brand as a recognised entity with consistent, verified information across the web.
Is AEO right for your business?
Healthcare & Wellness
Patients search specific health questions — ranking in the answer box builds immediate authority and drives appointment bookings.
Professional Services
Lawyers, accountants and consultants who answer specific client questions can dominate PAA and Featured Snippets for their practice areas.
Real Estate
Property buyers and sellers search specific informational queries — AEO captures them at the research stage.
Education & Training
Course and institution queries regularly trigger Featured Snippets and PAA — a major organic traffic opportunity.
Businesses Investing in Content
If you’re already creating blog content, AEO optimisation ensures it captures the answer box placements your content deserves.
Voice-First Audiences
Any business targeting mobile users or smart device users whose queries are answered by voice assistants reading Google’s Featured Snippets.
Our AEO Process
Answer Opportunity Audit
We identify every Featured Snippet, PAA box and Knowledge Panel opportunity relevant to your business — analysing which queries trigger answer formats, what currently occupies those positions and the realistic difficulty of displacing them.
Question Research & Mapping
We build a comprehensive question map around your core topics — every question your customers ask, grouped into themes and prioritised by search volume, commercial intent and snippet opportunity.
Answer Content Creation
We create or optimise content specifically structured to win answer positions — concise paragraph answers (40-60 words), well-formatted numbered lists, definition boxes and comparison tables calibrated to match what Google extracts for snippets.
Structured Data Implementation
We implement FAQPage, HowTo, Q&A, Speakable and relevant schema types to explicitly signal structured answers to Google’s crawlers — making your content the path of least resistance for snippet extraction.
Voice & Conversational Optimisation
We optimise content for natural language voice queries — adjusting phrasing, reading level and answer length for voice assistant responses. We also build FAQ pages targeting the long-tail conversational queries that drive voice search.
Snippet Monitoring & Reporting
We track your Featured Snippet and PAA ownership month over month — reporting how many positions you hold, traffic driven and new opportunities identified. We also monitor competitor movements and defend positions you’ve won.
Common questions about AEO
A Featured Snippet is the highlighted answer box Google shows at the top of search results (above Position 1) for informational queries. It captures a significant share of clicks and is the source of most voice search answers. Appearing in a Featured Snippet can dramatically increase brand visibility even without being in the traditional top organic positions.
Yes, generally. Google typically only selects Featured Snippets from pages already ranking in the top 10 organic results for the query. AEO works best when combined with traditional SEO — you need to be ranking first, then AEO optimisation converts those rankings into snippet positions. We handle both as an integrated strategy.
AEO focuses on winning answer formats within Google and traditional search engines (Featured Snippets, PAA, Voice Search). GEO focuses on appearing in AI-generated responses from standalone AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Both are important and share similar foundations — authority, structured content and technical clarity — but have distinct strategies and measurement.
Some Featured Snippet wins can happen within weeks of publishing well-optimised answer content for queries where you already rank. Building PAA presence and Knowledge Panels takes longer — typically 2-4 months. The timeline depends heavily on your current domain authority and ranking positions for the target queries.