--- title: "Answer engine optimization | AEO without the letters | Len P. van der Hof" description: Answer engine optimization is writing one URL so an answer engine can lift a clean capsule. AEO is the acronym. The Dutch search is antwoordmotor-optimalisatie. The job is the first screen, not a plugin. image: "https://lenvanderhof.com/media/generated/blog-hero-answer-engine-optimization-v1.2ff92df543bc.wide.webp" --- [SEO, GEO and AEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/category/seo-geo-aeo/) Research guide # Answer engine optimization: the craft, not the acronym The craft fits in the first HTML screen. Everything after it is written for humans. Len P. van der HofPublished 17 September 20262 min read One sentence the machine can speak. Not a dashboard. Direct answer Answer engine optimization is the craft of writing one public URL so an answer engine can lift a clean capsule from it: a direct answer near the top of the HTML, a person or organisation attached to the claim, visible sources, and no invented FAQ schema. AEO is the acronym. Dutch searchers use antwoordmotor-optimalisatie. GEO is the system around the crawl, not this craft. SEO is ranking in links, not this craft. Google ended FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026. Google Search ignores llms.txt. This page owns the expanded phrase. What AEO means owns the letters. How to get cited by ChatGPT is the week of work. ## Key takeaways - Answer engine optimization = one URL written as a stealable capsule. - AEO is the acronym. Antwoordmotor-optimalisatie is the Dutch expansion. - Not GEO. Not SEO. Not a schema plugin. - This page is the expanded name. The letter page and the how-to stay next door. People search “answer engine optimization” because they do not want another acronym slide. They want the job. The job is smaller than the slide. **Answer engine optimization** is writing one public URL so an answer engine can lift a clean capsule from it. AEO is the acronym. Same craft. [What AEO means](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/what-is-aeo/) owns the letters and the customs collision. This page owns the expanded name. ## The job, without the letters An answer engine retrieves, synthesizes, and cites. It does not owe you ten blue links. If you want to be the source it names, the first HTML screen has to carry a sentence it can steal: checkable, dated if it moves, with a person or organisation attached. That is this site’s page-level heuristic, not a documented rule shared by every answer product. Not a plugin. Not a generated FAQPage. Google ended FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026. Google Search ignores `llms.txt`. Forced chunking is not required. Do not rewrite the site “for AI.” Write a page a human can quote, then stop blocking the crawler that would fetch it. [How to get cited by ChatGPT](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) is the week of work when the engine is ChatGPT Search. Use the first-screen check as an internal audit. Do not present it as a law of every pane. ## What it is not **Not SEO.** Rankings are a different artefact. [AEO vs GEO vs SEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo/) is the comparison. **Not GEO.** GEO is the system around retrieve, interpret, extract, verify. Optimization of one URL is AEO. Mixing the words is how you buy a crawl report and call it a capsule. ## The fail Open the URL as HTML. If the stealable sentence is not there, you do not have answer engine optimization. You have a page with a blog about AEO in the sidebar. Write the capsule. Put a name on it. Then measure whether the engine used that name, not whether a dashboard liked your schema. ## Terminology - [AEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/aeo/) ## Sources 1. [What AEO means](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/what-is-aeo/) 2. [How to get cited by ChatGPT](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) 3. [AEO vs GEO vs SEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo/) 4. [AEO (glossary)](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/aeo/) 5. [Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) · Google Search Central 6. [Latest documentation updates (FAQ rich result removal)](https://developers.google.com/search/updates/search_docs_updates) · Google Search Central ## Further reading - [What AEO means](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/what-is-aeo/) - [How to get cited by ChatGPT](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) - [AEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/aeo/) About the author ## [Len P. van der Hof](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/authors/len-p-van-der-hof/) Entrepreneur, AI Innovator and Venture Builder Len P. van der Hof builds practical AI systems, digital ventures and evidence-informed tools for founders. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://lenvanderhof.com/#person", "name": "Len P. van der Hof", "alternateName": [ "Len van der Hof", "L.P. van der Hof", "Leendert Pieter van der Hof" ], "honorificSuffix": "MSc", "url": "https://lenvanderhof.com/", "image": [ "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-portrait-1.jpg", 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