AEO — Answer Engine Optimization

AEO structures content at the passage level so RAG systems in AI engines can extract and cite it directly. It includes passage-level writing, schema markup (FAQPage, HowTo, Article), clear E-E-A-T signals, and an architecture oriented around users’ real questions.

Each section needs to be self-contained: it fully answers a question without depending on context from another paragraph. You put the answer in the first sentences, use specific phrasing (numbers, definitions), and mark up questions and answers with schema. That’s exactly the form RAG extracts as a chunk.

Yes — every question-answer pair marked up with FAQPage becomes an independently retrievable chunk, easy to extract and attribute. It’s one of the most effective schema types for AEO because it maps directly onto how users phrase questions to AI engines.

E-E-A-T = Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. For AI engines it isn't just a ranking factor, it's a gate-keeping criterion: a source with no clear author, expertise, and trust signals doesn't even enter the candidate source set for citation. On YMYL topics (health, finance) the bar is even higher.