What is Answer Engine Optimisation?
How Google shifted from blue links to direct answers — and what that means for your traffic
Written by the RadarTrek editorial team · June 2026
In 2015, about 15% of Google searches returned a direct answer at the top of results. Today that figure is over 60%. Google is evolving from a link directory into an answer engine — and the sites that provide the best answers get enormous visibility without users needing to click.
The answer surfaces you need to know
- Featured snippets — A paragraph, list, or table extracted from a page and displayed above the organic results. Often called "position zero".
- People Also Ask (PAA) boxes — Expandable Q&A sections that appear in most informational searches. Each answer links back to the source.
- Knowledge panels — Brand and entity information panels on the right side of results. Pulled from structured data and trusted sources.
- Voice search answers — Voice assistants (Google Assistant, Siri) read featured snippet content aloud. One answer, no visual alternatives.
- AI Overviews — Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of many searches, citing multiple sources.
Why AEO matters for builders
Winning a featured snippet can double your organic click-through rate for that query — or reduce it to near zero if users get the answer without clicking. The strategic question is which queries to target for snippets (brand awareness, top-of-funnel) vs. which to keep as click-through drivers (commercial, comparison).
Featured snippets are like being the Wikipedia of your niche
Wikipedia almost always wins featured snippets because it provides clean, structured, authoritative answers. AEO is the practice of making your pages structurally and editorially more like Wikipedia for your specific topic.
AEO vs. SEO vs. GEO
Traditional SEO optimises for blue-link rankings. AEO optimises for direct answer positions within Google's interface. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) optimises for citations in AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. These disciplines overlap but require different tactics.
Key ideas from this lesson