What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) can refer to all the actions and optimizations of a website to help search engines find the best answer to an Internet user's query without visiting several sites. The most relevant answer is proposed to the Internet user. This technique can be assimilated into a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technique.
The answers are presented in the form of a Google Answer Box. This very high visibility space is located at the top of the SERP and occupies a large part of the area above the waterline. Indirectly, it can increase the visibility of a website and its content on Google results pages or alternative search engines to Google. To do this, it is necessary to meet a few criteria essential for Google in terms of content and form.
Why is Answer Engine Optimization important in your SEO strategy?
Answer Engine Optimization is becoming a benchmark SEO technique to gain visibility on the SERP and generate traffic in the same way as local SEO for example. Obviously, SEO as we have known it for decades now is not going to disappear. AEO introduces a new tangent to follow.
Voice search at the heart of the AEO Trend
Answer Engine Optimization responds to a new trend in Internet user behavior: voice search. Available on all smartphones, tablets, connected objects (TVs, connected speakers, etc.) and even computers, Internet users no longer have to type on the keyboard or their screen. The immediate consequence? Much longer queries that are often asked in the form of questions.
To address this challenge, Google has already responded, notably with the development of Rank Brain. This learning machine aims to offer the most popular content as a priority to Internet users. Rank Brain has thus identified that a lot of content was clicked on in the SERPs when the Title of the pages was translated into a simple question. Thus, it is better to offer content such as "How to make a good apple pie?" than a page optimized on "Making an apple pie". This first content will have a better chance of being valued by Rank Brain, including on a query such as "apple pie".
