Term
AEO
AEO, answer engine optimization, is the craft of writing a page so an answer engine can quote a clean capsule: a direct answer near the top, named entities, visible sources, and no invented FAQ schema. GEO is the system. AEO is the page. They fail together when the first screen is a brand manifesto. Google ended FAQ rich results on 2026-05-07; a fake FAQPage is a liability, not a tactic. If the first screen cannot be quoted, the rest of the page will not save it.
When to use it
Use it when you are structuring a single URL, not the whole crawl graph. If the first screen is a manifesto, rewrite the opening before you touch schema.
Do not confuse with
Not GEO under another name, and not a schema trick. GEO is the system. AEO is the page. FAQPage is not a substitute for a direct answer.