AAEOsrcStart with AEO →
Independent guideUpdated as platforms change

Answer engine optimization, sourced

Become part of the answer.

AEOsrc explains how ChatGPT, Google Search, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and other answer systems find, evaluate, and cite information.

Start with AEO ↗ Explore how AI search works
01

Platform documentation

02

Information retrieval research

03

Practical publishing guidance

5 AI platforms compared: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity & Copilot•15 research-backed guides on retrieval, authority & content strategy•Independent — not affiliated with any AI platform•Every claim sourced, or labeled as an open question•Updated as retrieval methods and platforms change
Featured reading

Foundational guides for understanding the shift from ranked links to generated answers.

START HERE · 3 MIN READ

What Is Answer Engine Optimization?

Start with a careful definition of AEO, what it includes, and what it cannot guarantee.

Read the guide ↗ START HERE · 4 MIN READ

How AI Search Works

Follow a question through interpretation, retrieval, ranking, synthesis, and citations.

See the pipeline ↗ HOW AI FINDS ANSWERS · 3 MIN READ

How Do Answer Engines Choose Sources?

Separate documented behavior from informed assumptions about source selection.

Explore source selection ↗ SOURCES & AUTHORITY · 3 MIN READ

Why Citations Matter in AI Answers

How citations help both the reader and the platform trust an answer enough to show it.

Read about citations ↗ CONTENT STRATEGY · 3 MIN READ

Understand Search Intent

A query is a task, not just a string of words — write for the question behind the question.

Read about intent ↗

Browse the library

Built to answer the questions behind AEO.

STRATEGY

AEO vs. SEO

What changes, what stays the same, and why the strongest approach combines both.

Read → RETRIEVAL

What Is RAG?

How external evidence is retrieved and added to a model’s working context.

Read → RETRIEVAL

Semantic Search

Why meaning, entities, and context can matter beyond exact keyword matches.

Read → EDITORIAL STANDARD

Evidence before certainty.

Every article distinguishes platform documentation, published research, informed guidance, and claims that remain unproven.

Read → RETRIEVAL

How Matching Works

Embeddings turn content into numbers a machine can compare — and what that means for what you publish.

Read → AUTHORITY

Entities & Relationships

How systems connect people, places, products, and concepts instead of treating facts as isolated text.

Read → RETRIEVAL

Vector Search, Explained

How a vector database finds items whose meaning is closest to a query, at scale.

Read → CONTENT STRATEGY

Publish Original Information

Give answer engines an actual reason to cite you, instead of one of ten pages saying the same thing.

Read →

Platforms covered

One subject.
Multiple systems.

  • OpenAI / ChatGPT
  • Google Search / Gemini
  • Anthropic / Claude
  • Perplexity
  • Microsoft Copilot

A living reference

AI search changes quickly.
The principles deserve careful tracking.

Begin with the fundamentals →