On Page Answer Engine Optimization

These are critical aspects of AEO that you can directly control and influence. Below are some actionable, on page (changes to do on your web page) to influence your website ranking.

How to Optimise your Website Content for Answer Engines?

  1. Be clear and crisp – get straight to point.
  2. Have a great structure and architect the content well.
  3. Address any related questions you can think of.
  4. AEO Meta -be natural.
  5. Headings, references, images etc. make it useful.
Provide Concise Answers (get straight into it)
  • Immediate Response: Start by answering the question directly and clearly within one paragraph.
Use Structured Formatting (very important)
  • Utilize Subheadings: Organize your content with clear subheadings that reflect the questions being asked. This helps both users and search engines understand the content structure.
  • Incorporate Lists and Tables: Content formatted as lists or tables is often featured in search results. Use bullet points or numbered lists to present information clearly.
Address Related Questions (big one)
  • Create Comprehensive Content: Write articles that address multiple related questions within a single piece. This increases your chances of being featured for various queries.
AEO Meta – sound natural
  • Unlearn Keyword Stuffing: this is one of the key differences between AEO and SEO. Although, there are several commonalities, there is definitely fair bit of unlearning to do. Content stuffing is one such practice we often see. Try to be natural when writing AEO titles and descriptions.
Update Content Regularly (no stale content)
  • Keep Information Fresh: Update your articles periodically to ensure they remain relevant and accurate. Fresh content is more likely to be favored in search snippets.

Note: optimising for answer engines may result in loosing your rankings for search engines. Based on my observations, optimising for answer engines will require a more naturally sounding, less aggressive content that makes more sense.

Which may also mean, getting straight to the point with shorter and more efficient sentences. In my experiments, I have been able to achieve rank 1 among the sources that an answer engine cited, but in some cases even lost a couple of positions on the Search Engine results. This may not impact high authority sites as Search Engines recently have started valuing authority over content usefulness.

What next?

we recommend checking out more about AI friendly content formatting to use on your website.