AEO Basics

AEO for Beginners: Your First Week of Getting Found by ChatGPT and Other AI Assistants

Moonlit Tools teamPublished November 11, 20268 min read

You ask ChatGPT a question, and it answers with a few websites listed as sources. AEO is the work of becoming one of those websites. You don't need any technical background, and you can make real progress in a week.

First, What Is AEO?

Answer engine optimization (AEO) means making your website easy for AI assistants to find, read and quote. "Answer engines" is just a nickname for tools that answer questions instead of handing you a list of links. The big ones right now:

• ChatGPT, from OpenAI
• Google AI Overviews, the written answers at the top of some Google results, and AI Mode, Google's chat-style search in its own tab
• Microsoft Copilot, which also shows AI answers in Bing
• Perplexity

When these tools answer a specific question, they often look things up on the web, read a few pages and link to the ones they used. If your page is clear, easy to reach and actually answers the question, you have a shot at being one of those links.

Good news: Google says you don't need anything special to show up in its AI features, beyond the basics of good SEO (search engine optimization, the usual work of showing up in Google). No new files, no secret code. For the longer version, read What Is Answer Engine Optimization?

Before You Start

You'll need:

• About an hour a day for seven days
• Access to your website's editor, or the person who has it
• A list of the questions customers ask you. Your inbox, voicemail and reviews are full of them.

You don't need to do the days in a row. Just do them in order.

Day 1: Set Up Your Free Tools

These free tools, run by Google and Microsoft, show what their search engines see on your site.

1. Go to Google Search Console at search.google.com/search-console and add your website.
2. Follow Google's steps to prove you own it. This is called verifying your site.
3. Go to Bing Webmaster Tools at bing.com/webmasters and sign in.
4. Choose the option to import your site from Google Search Console. This copies your verified site and sitemap over, so you don't have to verify twice.

When it worked, both tools list your website. Data can take a few days to fill in, which is fine. You'll come back to them on Day 7.

If you'd like a tour of what each tool does, the website tracking starter kit walks through them.

Day 2: Let the Bots In

Each AI tool sends a bot (a program that visits websites and reads them) to find pages. If your site turns that bot away, the tool can't cite you. It doesn't matter how good the page is.

Your site has a small file called robots.txt that tells bots where they can go. To check yours:

1. Type your web address with /robots.txt on the end, like yoursite.com/robots.txt.
2. Look for lines that say Disallow under the name of a search bot, or under User-agent: *, which covers every bot that doesn't have its own section. A line that says just Disallow: / blocks the whole site.
3. Make sure these bots aren't blocked from your whole site:

You might also see GPTBot or Google-Extended. GPTBot controls whether OpenAI can use your content for training. Google-Extended controls whether Google can use it to train Gemini and to ground answers in the Gemini app. Neither one affects ChatGPT search or Google Search. OpenAI says each of its bot settings works independently, so you can block GPTBot and still allow OAI-SearchBot.

If you use Google Search Console, also check Settings > Search generative AI. It can keep a site out of AI Overviews and AI Mode, so make sure it's set the way you want.

One more place to look: your hosting or security settings. Some services can block AI bots before they ever reach your robots.txt. If you see a setting about AI bots or crawlers, check that search bots are allowed.

If you change anything, give it a day. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to affect ChatGPT search. Our robots.txt guide has copy-and-paste examples.

Day 3: Check That Bots Can Read Your Words

Getting in is half the job. The bot also has to see your text. Many AI bots read only the page your server sends and skip JavaScript (code that builds parts of some pages inside your browser). If your words only appear after that code runs, those bots see a mostly empty page.

1. Open your homepage in a desktop browser.
2. Right-click an empty spot and choose View Page Source.
3. Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) and search for a sentence from your main heading.
4. Repeat for your most important service or product page.

If you find your words, you're good. If you don't, those pages may be invisible to some AI tools. Bring that to whoever built your site. The 2-minute invisibility test explains what to ask them.

Day 4: Collect Real Customer Questions

Answer engines answer questions. So start with the questions people actually ask you, not guessed keywords.

1. Go through recent emails, calls, reviews and chat messages.
2. Write down 10 questions, in the customer's own words. "How much does a gutter cleaning cost?" beats "gutter services."
3. Pick the three you hear most often.
4. Ask those three questions in ChatGPT, Google, Copilot and Perplexity. Note who gets cited. Is it you, a competitor or a big directory site?

Answers change from day to day, so this isn't scientific. It still shows what you're up against.

Day 5: Rewrite One Page So It Answers First

Pick the page that best matches your top question. Then make it easy to quote.

The second one is easy for an assistant to lift out and repeat. (Use your own real details, of course. Those are made up.)

1. Put the direct answer in the first one or two sentences of the page or section.
2. Turn the question into a heading, like "How Long Does a Gutter Cleaning Take?"
3. Add the specifics people need: what's included, rough timing, prices or price ranges if you share them, and your service area.
4. Keep important facts in plain text, not inside an image or a PDF.
5. Publish, then check it with View Page Source like you did on Day 3.

For before-and-after examples and a page template, see how to write answer-first content.

Day 6: Make Your Facts Match Everywhere

AI tools pull from more than your website. If your hours say one thing on your site and another on your Google listing, you've given them two answers to pick from.

Check these match:

• Business name, address and phone number
• Opening hours, including holiday hours
• Services you offer and the areas you serve
• Prices, if you list them

Start with your website and your Google Business Profile (your listing on Google Maps and Search). Google specifically recommends keeping it up to date. Then check any other listings you control, like Bing Places, Yelp or Facebook.

Day 7: Write Down Where You Stand

You can't see progress without a starting point. Spend today writing one.

1. In Google Search Console, open the Performance report. AI Overviews and AI Mode visits are counted here, mixed in with regular Google search. Search Console's Search Generative AI reports show how often your pages appear in those AI features. Note your total clicks and the date range you looked at.
2. In Bing Webmaster Tools, look for the AI Performance report. It shows how often Copilot and Bing's AI answers cite your pages. Note the number, even if it's zero.
3. In Google Analytics 4, if you use it, set up a group for AI assistant visits. Here's how to track AI assistant traffic in GA4.
4. Save your Day 4 notes on who got cited for your top three questions.

Put it all in one note with today's date. In a month, you'll compare.

If you also want to know whether those visits turn into leads, set up conversion tracking next.

After Week One

The first week fixes the basics. Here's the rhythm after that:

• Once a week: Rewrite one more page using your question list.
• Once a month: Re-ask your top questions in each assistant and compare against your Day 7 note.
• After any website change: Re-check robots.txt and View Page Source. Redesigns and new plugins quietly break things. A tool like Moonlit Tools can flag these for you.

Be patient. Search engines need time to revisit your pages before changes show up, and AI answers shift from day to day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• AI features and your website, Google Search Central
• Get started with Search Console, Google Search Central
• Overview of OpenAI Crawlers, OpenAI
• Perplexity Crawlers, Perplexity
• Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview, Microsoft Bing
• Easily Verify Your Site in Bing Webmaster Tools by Importing from Google Search Console, Microsoft Bing