AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is optimizing content to be selected as the direct answer to a question posed to an answer engine — a voice assistant, a chat interface, or a search engine's direct-answer box. It overlaps heavily with GEO (generative engine optimization) and the two terms are often used close to interchangeably; where a distinction gets drawn, AEO is sometimes framed as the older, narrower term (originally about featured snippets and voice search) and GEO as the newer term covering generative chat interfaces specifically.
In practice
The tactics are the same either way: a direct, standalone answer near the top of the content, structured data marking up what the content is (especially FAQPage schema for question-and-answer content), and clean, crawlable HTML.
On Shopify, WordPress, and Next.js
No platform-specific mechanics beyond what GEO already requires — see the GEO glossary entry for the shared checklist.