Be the answer, not a linkAnswer engine optimization for businesses and individuals
We shape your website so Google’s AI Overviews, featured snippets and voice assistants can lift your answer and name you as the source, when customers ask the questions you know best.
WHAT IT DOESLOG
“How long does a boiler service take?”
→ Your answer, quoted at the top
“Do I need permission for a porch?”
→ Plain answer, your page cited
People Also Ask
→ Your page answers the follow-ups
A question asked out loud
→ Read out from your page
“Someone asks Google exactly the question you answer every day. The answer box quotes a competitor, and nobody scrolls far enough to find you.”
SOUND FAMILIAR?
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimisation is the work of shaping your pages so that answer engines (Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, featured snippets, People Also Ask, Bing’s Copilot answers and voice assistants) can find a clear answer to a question, trust it and quote it, with your business named as the source. Traditional SEO aims for a place in a list of links. AEO aims to be the answer at the top of it.
None of this needs special code. Google says there are no extra requirements and no AI-specific files or markup needed to appear in its AI features: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and the rest is clear, useful content. So AEO is mostly editorial work. Find the questions your customers really ask, answer each one plainly in the first sentence or two, back it with detail and evidence, and organise the page so a machine can tell which paragraph answers which question. Tamkoz does that for businesses and individuals, on the website you already have.
THE JOBS IT TAKES ON
ANSWER ENGINE OPTIMISATION (AEO)
“How long does a boiler service take?”
→ Your answer, quoted at the top
“Do I need permission for a porch?”
→ Plain answer, your page cited
People Also Ask
→ Your page answers the follow-ups
A question asked out loud
→ Read out from your page
Every month
→ Which questions you won, listed
Why answer engines quote someone else
When an AI answer or a featured snippet names a competitor, it is rarely because they are better at the job. Usually their page made the answer easier to find.
Your pages talk about you, not the customer’s question
→ Pages rebuilt around the questions buyers type and say, each answered in plain words near the top.
The answer is buried in paragraph six
→ A direct, quotable answer first, then the detail, so an answer engine can lift it whole.
Prices, times and areas hidden in images or PDFs
→ Key facts written as text on the page, where search engines can read them.
Search engines can’t reach some of your pages
→ Crawling, indexing and snippet settings checked, so nothing you want quoted is blocked.
Nothing shows you’re a real, trusted business
→ Company details, named experts, sources, dates and reviews that give an answer engine a reason to trust you.
No idea whether any of it is working
→ A tracked list of target questions, checked monthly, with what you won and lost.
One question, answered from your page
A homeowner asks about a boiler service before breakfast. Here’s how the answer finds a heating engineer’s website.
STEP 1
Question asked
“How long does a boiler service take?” Typed into Google on a phone at 07:52.
STEP 2
Engine looks
It reads the pages that cover the question. Most bury the answer under a sales pitch.
STEP 3
Finds yours
First line under the question: “About 45 minutes for most gas boilers, longer if a part needs replacing.”
STEP 4
Quotes you
Your sentence used in the answer, with your business named as the source.
STEP 5
Customer acts
Taps through to book, or remembers your name when the boiler next plays up.
ILLUSTRATION · A FICTIONAL HEATING ENGINEER
Who needs answer engine optimization?
Any business or individual whose customers research before they buy, by typing or asking a question.
Trades and home services
“How much does a new boiler cost?” and “Do I need permission for a porch?”: the questions homeowners ask before they ring anyone.
Clinics, dentists and therapists
Treatment, recovery and price questions answered carefully, without giving personal medical advice.
Accountants, solicitors and advisers
Plain answers to deadline and rules questions, with dates and sources, which is exactly what answer engines quote.
Shops and online stores
Sizing, care, compatibility and delivery questions that decide a sale.
Hospitality and tourism
Opening times, dietary questions, parking and “is it good for kids?” answered where people ask them.
Software and service businesses
“How do I…” and “X or Y?” questions that buyers ask before they choose a provider.
Experts and creators
Coaches, consultants and writers who want to be the named source on their subject.
A GOOD FIT IF…
- Customers ask the same questions before they buy
- You know your subject better than the sites Google quotes
- Your pages are long but never answer anything directly
- Fewer clicks reach you since AI answers appeared
What we do
A question map
The real questions your buyers ask, gathered from search suggestions, People Also Ask, your inbox and your sales calls, grouped by how close each is to a sale.
Answer-first pages
New or rewritten pages where each heading is a question and the first sentence under it answers it. Written with you, in your voice.
Facts on the page
Prices, areas, opening times, specifications and policies written as text, and kept consistent everywhere they appear.
Structured data that matches
Organisation, local business, product, article and breadcrumb markup that agrees with what the page says. No markup for things that aren’t there.
Technical checks
Indexing, snippet controls, page speed and internal links, so answer engines can reach and read every page you want quoted.
Trust signals
Who wrote it, when it was checked, which sources it relies on, and genuine reviews, shown where readers and answer engines will see them.
A monthly answer report
Your target questions checked in Google, Bing and voice assistants: who is quoted, whether it’s you, and what we’re changing next.
How answer engine optimization works with us
Questions first, then the pages, then a monthly check on who gets quoted.
- ORDER 001START
1×Map the questions
We collect the questions your customers ask before they buy, check who is quoted for each one today, and pick the ones closest to a sale.
- ORDER 002BUILD
1×Fix what blocks you
Indexing, snippet settings, page speed and facts hidden in images or PDFs, so the pages you already have can be read and quoted at all.
- ORDER 003CHECK
1×Write answer-first pages
Each question gets a direct answer in its first sentence or two, then the detail and the evidence behind it. Written with you, checked by you.
- ORDER 004GO LIVE
1×Track and refine
Every month we ask the questions again, report who is quoted, and improve the answers that aren’t winning yet.
Where the work shows up
Answer engines read the same web, and each shows its answers in its own way. We check them all.
- AI OverviewsAI ModeFeatured snippetsPeople Also Ask
- MICROSOFT
- Bing answersCopilot
- VOICE ASSISTANTS
- Google AssistantSiriAlexa
- YOUR WEBSITE
- WordPressShopifyWebflowSquarespaceCustom sites
- MEASUREMENT
- Google Search ConsoleBing Webmaster ToolsYour analytics
- STRUCTURED DATA
- OrganizationLocalBusinessProductArticleBreadcrumbList
Voice assistants take their answers from different search providers and change how they do it often, so we report what we can actually test rather than promise any one of them.
How much does answer engine optimization cost?
No answer engine charges to quote you: being the source of an answer is earned, not bought. The cost is the work, which we quote in writing as a one-off set-up, a monthly plan, or both.
WHAT AFFECTS THE PRICE
How many questions
Ten priority questions are a small project. A full library for every service and area you cover is a bigger one.
The state of your website
Some sites need small edits. Others hide their content in ways answer engines can’t read and need fixing first.
Who writes
Giving us your expertise in a call is quickest; we can also research and draft the answers for your approval.
Competition
Questions where national publishers already hold the answer take more work than local or specialist ones.
Monthly tracking
Optional: every target question checked each month, with a short report.
WHAT GOOGLE AND THE RESEARCH SAY
- Google says there are no additional requirements and no special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup. A page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. Source: Google Search Central.
- Since August 2023 Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites, so FAQ markup alone no longer earns most businesses extra space in results. Source: Google Search Central Blog.
- In Pew Research Center’s study of 900 US adults’ Google searches in March 2025, people clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when none did, and clicked a link inside the summary in 1%. Source: Pew Research Center.
CHECKED 23 OCTOBER 2026. WHAT SEARCH ENGINES SAY AND DO CHANGES, SO WE RE-CHECK BEFORE EVERY PROJECT.
YOUR QUOTE · FIXED AND IN WRITING
We quote the set-up and any monthly plan in writing, in your currency, before anything starts.
How long does AEO take?
Technical fixes can show once search engines re-read your pages. Winning the quoted answer for a competitive question usually takes months, and some are never won, which is why we track them one by one.
Results depend on your competition and how often search engines revisit your site. We’ll be honest about both after the audit.
TYPICAL TIMELINE
YOUR QUOTE HAS THE REAL DATES
01 QUESTION MAP AND AUDITFIRST TWO WEEKS
Questions gathered, today’s answers checked, blockers listed.
02 FIXESWEEKS TWO TO FOUR
Indexing, snippet settings, facts and structured data put right.
03 ANSWER-FIRST PAGESMONTHS ONE TO THREE
Priority pages rewritten or added, most valuable first.
04 TRACKINGMONTHLY
Every target question checked and reported.
Answer engine optimization questions
Something else? Ask in the chat. A person answers.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
It’s making your pages easy for answer engines (Google’s AI Overviews and featured snippets, Bing’s Copilot answers, voice assistants) to find, trust and quote. In practice that means answering real customer questions directly and clearly, with the facts written on the page and evidence behind them.
What’s the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO aims to rank a page in a list of links. AEO aims to have your words used as the answer itself. They share the same foundations, because answer engines draw on search indexes, but AEO puts more weight on question-led structure, direct answers and signs that the source can be trusted.
What’s the difference between AEO and GEO?
The terms overlap and people use them loosely. We use AEO for being quoted as the direct answer in search results and voice answers, and generative engine optimisation (GEO) for being named and recommended in AI assistants’ longer answers, such as ChatGPT or Perplexity listing businesses. Many businesses need both, and we offer both.
Is AEO real, or just SEO with a new name?
Some of it is SEO with a new name, and anyone who says otherwise is selling. What’s genuinely new is that answers now appear above the links and fewer people click: Pew Research found Google users clicked a result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when none did. Being the quoted source is now worth working for in its own right.
Do I need special code, schema or an llms.txt file?
Not for Google. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special optimisation, no AI text files and no special markup: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Structured data still helps search engines understand a page, as long as it matches what the page says.
Will FAQ schema get me into the answer box?
Not by itself. Since August 2023 Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. We still write question-and-answer sections, because they help readers and answer engines, but we don’t promise extra space in results from the markup.
How do I optimise for voice search?
Voice assistants read a short answer aloud, so the same rules apply, only stricter: answer the question in one or two plain sentences, keep your business details (hours, address, phone) accurate everywhere, and make sure your Google Business Profile is complete. We test the questions that matter to you on the assistants your customers use.
How long until I see results?
Technical fixes can show once search engines re-read your pages, often within weeks. Becoming the quoted answer for a competitive question usually takes months. We track each target question every month, so you can see what has moved rather than take our word for it.
Can you guarantee my business will be the answer?
No, and nobody honestly can. Search engines choose the answers and change how they choose them often. What we can do is make your page the clearest, best-evidenced answer available, fix anything that stops it being read, and report openly on what we win.
Do I have to write the content myself?
No. One call, or a few voice notes, usually gives us enough to draft answers in your words. You check every page before it goes live, because your expertise is what makes an answer worth quoting.
Further reading
- Free AI readiness checkChecks whether your site states hours, prices and answers to common questions in a way an AI answer can quote.
- Is your website ready for AI search? A free 17-point readiness checkEvery check and its points, what we deliberately don’t score (llms.txt, training bots), and the fixes you can do yourself this week.
- How to rank in ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers in 2026How each AI assistant finds businesses, with a 12-point checklist you can start on today.
- Google’s AI is calling your business. Will you pick up?Another way Google’s AI now answers customers’ questions about you: by phoning to ask.
GOES WELL WITH
- Generative engine optimisation (GEO)We make your business easy for ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot to find, trust and recommend, so you’re on the shortlist when someone asks an AI who to call.
- SEO & local searchWe make it easier for local customers to find you on Google and Maps, and for AI search tools to recommend you.
- WebsitesFast, good-looking websites that tell people what you do, make it easy to buy or book, and look after themselves.
Be the answer they hear.
Tell us the questions your customers ask before they buy. We’ll show you who is quoted for them today, and quote in writing to change it.