AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and SEO are related but distinct disciplines as of 2026. SEO optimizes for ranking in classical organic search results (the blue links). AEO optimizes for citation in AI-generated answers — when an AI engine answers a question, the AEO goal is for your page to be one of the cited source links beneath the answer. The optimization tactics overlap substantially but have different emphasis. Shared with SEO: technical foundation, structured data, topical authority, citation/backlink earning. Distinct emphasis in AEO: (1) Explicit factual short-form answers near the top of pages (AI engines extract these as 'the answer' more readily than they extract from buried prose); (2) FAQ schema and Q&A formatting that AI engines parse cleanly; (3) Named author bylines with credentials (E-E-A-T at the document level, parsed by AI quality models); (4) Original data and primary research that no other page provides — AI engines preferentially cite unique sources; (5) Clean semantic HTML so the AI parser can extract claims unambiguously without being confused by complex layout markup. In practice, AEO is the next iteration of SEO — pages optimized for AEO also tend to rank better in classical SEO, while the reverse is less consistently true.