Answer Engine Optimization is about structure, not keywords. AI assistants retrieve passages, not pages — they want short, self-contained paragraphs that answer one question each. A 2,000-word product page with one long narrative loses to a 900-word page with eight 100-word answer blocks.
AEO predates GEO — it grew out of Google's Featured Snippets and People Also Ask. The format carried over because the underlying mechanism is the same: language models reward passage-level clarity.
- One question per paragraph, one paragraph per question
- Lead with the answer, then justify
- Definitions, comparisons, and 'how-to' steps as distinct blocks
- FAQ schema on every commerce page with ≥3 common questions
A PDP that answers 'is this hypoallergenic?' in its own 60-word block ranks higher in ChatGPT's retrieval than one that buries the answer in a FAQ section.