AEO · Answer engines

AEO: become the answer, not just a result

Your customers no longer compare ten blue links: they read an answer. AEO makes sure that answer is drawn from your content.

Assess my visibility in answers →

Response within 24 business hours · No long-term commitment

✦which plumber should i call for an emergency in laval?
✦ Generated answer

For an emergency in Laval, choose a plumber who offers 24/7 service and a clear response time. Your business states it can be on site in under two hours, seven days a week.

1 · yourbusiness.ca2 · local-directory.com
Source citée
yourbusiness.ca › emergency
Emergency Plumber in Laval, 24/7 | Your business

On site in under 2 hours, 7 days a week.

local-directory.com
The best plumbers in Laval

Search result.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) means structuring your content so it gets extracted and cited directly in an answer: Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, featured snippets, voice assistants, ChatGPT, Perplexity. The goal is no longer a position in a list, but being the source of the answer on screen.

In practice, it changes three things. We answer before we explain: a direct 40 to 60 word answer at the top of the section, then the context. We phrase headings as questions, the way people ask them. And we make the content extractable (lists, tables, numbered steps, question-and-answer blocks), so the engine can cite it without having to interpret a long paragraph.

AEO doesn't replace SEO: it's the layer that sits on top of it. Without healthy technical foundations and real authority on your topic, there's nothing to extract.

Trusted by

Context

Ranking well no longer means being visible

When Google shows an AI Overview above the results, the click-through rate of the top position can drop by nearly 60%. The position hasn't moved, the click has disappeared. Meanwhile, another page, sometimes ranked lower, is the one cited in the answer.

What decides that citation is no mystery. Cited pages answer early (a good share of citations come from the first third of the page), follow a clean heading hierarchy, contain numbers and named sources, and present information in a format that can be broken into pieces. Question-and-answer sections are by far the most quoted, and content in lists or tables is much more likely to be cited than content in paragraphs alone. That's exactly what AEO work is about.

01

Your rankings hold, your traffic drops

The most common case. Your pages are still there, but generated answers absorb the clicks. We restructure your content so you're the cited source rather than the ignored link.

02

Your competitors get cited, not you

Same topic, comparable quality, but it's their name that comes up. Nine times out of ten, it's a matter of structure and factual density, not budget.

03

You're starting from scratch on content

No in-depth content, just service pages. We build the cluster: a solid pillar page, sub-pages that each answer a real question, and consistent internal linking.

Why us

AEO built on what works, not on the latest buzzword

What we avoid
What we do instead
✕
An llms.txt file, schema everywhere, and the promise of being "AI-optimized".
✓
What's proven: an answer at the top of each section, a clean heading hierarchy, extractable formats, factual density.
✕
Fifty thin pages, one per keyword variant, to "cover the topic".
✓
A tight cluster of in-depth pages that are authoritative on a specific topic. Fewer pages, more citations.
✕
Stuffing pages with exact-match phrasing to trigger extraction.
✓
Writing for real intent. Engines read meaning, not keyword density.
✕
A rankings report that says nothing about your presence in answers.
✓
Tracking of your citations across a set of real questions, checked every week and compared with your competitors.
Our services

What an AEO engagement with Wavency includes

AEO is worked on six fronts. The first three deal with your existing content, the next three build the authority that makes that content credible in the eyes of the engines.

Citability audit+

We test your pages on the questions that matter to your business and look at what gets cited, by whom, and why it isn't you.

Answer-first structure+

Each key section opens with a direct 40 to 60 word answer that stands on its own and makes sense out of context. The details come after, never before.

Extractable formats+

Headings phrased as questions, a strict H1-H2-H3 hierarchy, lists, comparison tables, numbered steps, question-and-answer blocks. These are the formats engines quote most.

Topical authority (content clusters)+

One pillar page per major topic, sub-pages that each cover a specific intent, and internal linking that shows depth. We stop chasing every keyword variant.

Factual density and sources+

Numbers, dates and named sources at regular intervals in the text. Verifiable content gets quoted; vague content gets ignored.

Technical foundations and measurement+

Rendering that crawlers can access, speed, FAQPage structured data where it's useful, plus a monthly report of your citations across a set of questions defined with you.

Lever 1 of 6

Citability audit

We test your pages on the questions that matter to your business and look at what gets cited, by whom, and why it isn't you.

See which questions you can be cited for→→
Strategy

How we run an AEO engagement

We don't rewrite your whole website. We start from the questions that bring in customers, look at what gets cited today, and fix things where the gap is most profitable.

01

We map the real questions

Not just keywords: the questions asked to your sales reps, your customer service, in your emails. Nobody else has this data, and it's your hardest advantage to copy.

02

We measure your starting point

We test 20 to 30 questions in Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity and note who gets cited. That's your baseline in numbers, not an impression.

03

We restructure and write

Short answers at the top of each section, headings as questions, extractable formats, numbers and named sources. We fix existing pages before creating new ones.

04

We measure again and refresh

We redo the report every month. A page that isn't updated quarterly is very likely to lose its citations: maintenance is part of the engagement, not an option.

Book an AEO audit→→
FAQ

The questions we get asked most

Straight answers, no needless jargon.

What is AEO?+

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the optimization of content so it gets extracted and cited in a direct answer: Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, featured snippets, voice assistants, ChatGPT, Perplexity. The goal is to be the source of the answer, not just a link in a list.

What's the difference between AEO and SEO?+

SEO aims for a position in a list of results. AEO aims for extraction: the answer itself. SEO remains the foundation, since without a healthy website and authority there's nothing to extract, and AEO is the structural layer that sits on top of it.

What's the difference between AEO and GEO?+

AEO works on your content so it gets extracted as an answer: it's work on your pages. GEO works on your presence across the whole ecosystem so that generative engines mention and recommend your brand, including by citing pages that aren't yours. One is a matter of structure, the other of reputation.

Do you need structured data (schema) for AEO?+

It isn't mandatory: Google has confirmed that structured data isn't required for AI Overviews. We use it when it serves another purpose (FAQ, reviews, business profile), but we don't sell schema as an AEO solution.

What about the llms.txt file?+

We don't recommend it as a priority. Google has explicitly dismissed the usefulness of this type of file. Time is better invested in the structure and depth of your content.

How long before you see results?+

Snippets and AI Overviews can shift within a few weeks of a restructuring. For a reliable read, allow 4 to 6 weeks of weekly tracking before drawing any conclusions.

Can you guarantee I'll be cited?+

No, and nobody can guarantee it. What we guarantee is the method, the measurement and transparency about what moves, including when nothing moves.

Other services

You might also be interested in

Your customers don't go through just one channel. Here are the services that best complement this one.

Let's talk

Ready to fill the pipeline?

Fill out the form and get a proposal tailored to your business within 24 business hours. No pressure, no commitment.

Response within 24 business hours · Your data remains confidential