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Guide · updated October 2026
What is AEO?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the work of preparing a business so AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot understand it and recommend it when someone asks them a question. It's the equivalent of SEO for the age of answers: instead of looking for a spot in a list of links, you want to be named inside the answer.
By Presence Studio, a web design and AEO studio in Buenos Aires.
Why it matters.
More and more people ask a chat instead of searching on Google. 56% of consumers in Latin America have already bought from a brand on an AI's recommendation (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer, 2024).
The difference from a search engine is that the assistant doesn't show ten options: it answers with two or three names. If yours isn't there, for that person your business doesn't exist.
AEO and SEO.
How AI chooses whom to name.
An assistant builds its answer from what it learned and, more and more, from what it looks up on the web at that moment. To name you it needs to understand what you do, trust that you exist (other sites talking about you, your Google profile, your reviews) and find a clear sentence it can quote. AEO works on those three things.
What makes a website citable.
Six things you can check today on yours.
- 01
Say what you are, in one sentence
Who you are, what you do and where, written plainly on your website. AI quotes clear sentences, not slogans.
- 02
Structured data
Invisible code (schema.org) that marks your name, address, hours, products and FAQs so nobody has to guess them.
- 03
Real frequently asked questions
The questions people ask you on WhatsApp, answered on your website. They're exactly what people ask AI.
- 04
One page per topic
One service, product or area per page. AIs cite the page that best answers a specific question.
- 05
Presence outside your website
A complete Google profile, industry directories, reviews and mentions on other sites. AI cross-checks all of that.
- 06
A fast, readable website
If the site is slow or the text is inside images, search engines and AIs read it worse.
How it's measured.
With a fixed list of real questions ("where can I buy Neapolitan pre-baked pizzas in Merlo?", "accounting firms for small taxpayers in Buenos Aires") that are asked to each AI every month. We note whether it names you, in what position and which source it takes the information from. There's no official ranking like on Google: it's measured by asking.