AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is the practice of building a website so that AI answer engines - ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, and Claude - cite it when users ask questions. Traditional SEO targets Google's blue-link rankings. AEO targets the answer itself. When a West Palm Beach prospect asks an AI "who is the best wealth manager in West Palm Beach" or "what law firm should I call for a personal injury claim," the model returns a summary with a handful of sources it trusts. AEO engineers your site to be one of those cited sources.
The discipline rewards clarity of answer, trustworthy external signals, and content written around the questions real buyers actually ask. Businesses that invest now, while the category still has low competitive density in West Palm Beach, typically own the citation layer for their vertical before regional or national competitors catch on.