Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Course by Ahrefs: What is AEO?

If you are wondering what AEO is, this 7-minute kickoff shows how to get cited in AI Overviews and ChatGPT before your organic clicks slip away.

Additional Resources:
► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NFei1FbytM
► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gReszNnykpg
► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsVTqzratPs

In this introduction to Answer Engine Optimization, Sam Oh breaks down what AEO is, why it matters right now, and how it differs from traditional SEO. AI search pulls from dozens of sources, synthesizes direct answers, and chooses who to mention, not who to rank. You will see how AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot decide which brands to cite, why mentions and citations are the new battleground, and why AI-driven traffic can convert far better than blue links. With AI Overviews slashing the clickthrough rate of the top organic result and ChatGPT reaching massive weekly usage, sitting this out is not an option.

You will learn that AEO does not replace SEO, it builds on it. Think of SEO as the foundation and AEO as future-proofing your visibility. Sam previews the full roadmap: how AI search actually works under the hood, strategy centered on brand mentions, keyword and prompt research for AEO, execution that earns citations across web and YouTube, and measurement that attributes AI traffic, runs competitive audits, and proves whether AEO is worth it. You will also hear why brand mentions are the single strongest lever for generative visibility, stronger than backlinks or domain rating, and how AI traffic has delivered dramatically higher conversion rates in our data.

Whether you have heard this called Generative Engine Optimization or LLMO, the goal is the same, make your content visible and useful to answer engines so you earn the mention. If you already have solid SEO fundamentals, you are closer than you think, and this course gives you practical workflows to turn that foundation into AI citations and signups.

Watch now to lock in the mindset and map for AEO, then get ready for the next lesson where we dig into how AI engines actually find and cite content. The sooner you adapt, the sooner you turn AI answers into high-converting traffic for your brand.