# AEO 101

Canonical: https://thelazyweb.com/101/aeo/
Updated: 2026-09-20
Curator: Ali Abouelatta (https://thelazyweb.com/authors/ali-abouelatta/)

What answer engines retrieve and cite, how unstable that evidence is, and which publishing changes deserve to be tested instead of repeated as folklore.

**TL;DR:** AEO is not one ranking system. Treat every result as engine-, prompt- and date-specific; preserve SEO fundamentals; and read vendor studies as hypotheses whose samples and denominators matter.

## Understand what is being measured

These sources separate generated-answer composition, citations, intent and user clicks—the metrics most AEO claims blur together.

### [GEO: Generative Engine Optimization](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735)

Authority: [Pranjal Aggarwal](https://thelazyweb.com/authors/pranjal-aggarwal/)

**TL;DR:** The original GEO paper tests how textual changes affect source visibility inside a fixed generative-engine benchmark; it does not prove a universal live-search ranking recipe.

**What you'll read:** The benchmark, visibility metric, nine editing methods, domain differences and the limits of a five-source GPT-3.5 simulation.

### [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)

Authority: [Google Search Central](https://thelazyweb.com/authors/google-search-central/)

**TL;DR:** Google says the same crawlability, indexability and people-first content foundations apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode; no special AI schema is required.

**What you'll read:** Official eligibility, preview controls, measurement guidance and

[AEO 101](<https://www.thelazyweb.com/101/aeo/>)

Source observed: 2026-09-20T21:38:34.253Z. Last checked: 2026-10-08T01:53:25.301+00:00.

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