Search used to send you a list of blue links. Now it hands the traveler a finished answer with one or two businesses already named. Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is simply the work of making sure one of those names is yours.

What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?

AEO is optimizing your content so AI assistants and AI search results quote and recommend your business directly. Instead of fighting for a ranking position, you are making your pages easy for an AI assistant to lift a confident answer from.

The good news for a small operator: AEO rewards clarity and honesty more than budget. Here is the playbook, in the order I would actually run it.

Step 1: Find out where you stand today

Open Perplexity and ChatGPT and ask what a traveler would ask. 'Best walking tour in Porto.' 'Things to do with kids in Kyoto.' Write down every business the AI assistants name. That list is your real competition, and the gap between it and your name is the work.

Step 2: Write one page that answers one question

Pick the single question travelers ask you most and give it a page of its own. Lead with a direct, two-sentence answer, then add the detail. AI assistants quote the page that already sounds like the answer, so write the way you would speak to a guest at the meeting point.

The 60-word rule

Right under every important heading, put a self-contained answer of roughly 40 to 60 words. That block is the exact shape an AI assistant likes to quote. If your best answer is buried three paragraphs down, it gets skipped.

Step 3: Make the page machine-readable

  • Use real headings that match real questions, not clever slogans.
  • Add an FAQ section with the questions travelers actually type.
  • Add structured data (FAQPage, and a LocalBusiness or TouristTrip type) so the AI assistant can label your content instead of guessing.
  • State your city, neighborhoods, meeting point, languages, and group size in plain words.

Step 4: Be consistent everywhere your name appears

Your business name, city, and category should read the same on your site, your social profiles, and any travel listing you control. Memory-based engines build confidence from repetition. Mismatched details make one strong business look like three weak ones.

Step 5: Earn a little real proof

A handful of genuine reviews, real photos of real trips, and a mention or two from a local guide or blog do more than a wall of marketing copy. Proof is what lets an AI assistant recommend you without worrying it will disappoint the traveler.

Step 6: Re-check, because answers move

AI answers shift as the web changes and as models update. Re-run your questions every couple of weeks and watch your name move. AEO is not a one-time project. It is a habit, and the operators who keep at it pull ahead of the ones who set it and forget it.

You are not trying to trick the machine. You are trying to be the clearest, most trustworthy answer to a real traveler's question. The AI assistant just rewards you for it.

If you would rather see your starting score before you spend a weekend on this, Named In AI runs these checks for you and returns the fixes that will move your number the most.