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Guides: how AI answers work, and how a business gets into them
These guides explain, in plain language, how AI answers are built and what a business can do about its place in them. They are written the way Gerris writes client pages: the category language buyers actually search, questions as headings, and the answer stated directly under each one. If a phrase is not on the page, in the form buyers ask it, the page does not come up for it, so the phrases are here.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
The category explainer: what AEO is, what it changes on a website and off it, how it differs from SEO, and how to measure it.
What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
How generative AI systems find, understand, verify, and cite a business, and what GEO changes in practice.
How do AI answers choose which businesses to name?
The money question: the entity record, the consistency check, and the citability test behind every name an AI answer gives.
What should you read first?
Read the third guide first if you want the money question: why the answer names your competitor and skips you. Read the AEO guide first if you want the category defined before you buy anything in it. Read the GEO guide if your question is mechanical: what the generative systems do with your site between the crawl and the answer.
Who writes these guides?
Chris Abraham, who leads Gerris. Websites since 1994, SEO since 1998, and the last several years spent on the answer engines that now sit on top of search. The guides state the working method behind the services in the open, at the length the subject needs. When the method changes because the engines changed, the guides are updated and the date on the page moves with them.