How to optimize your blog for AI search (AEO)

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so that large language models can parse, extract, and cite it when answering user queries. Traditional SEO targets a ranked list of blue links; AEO targets a single sentence in an AI answer. The two overlap but the best practices are not identical.

1. Write answer-first paragraphs

LLMs are trained to grab the sentence that best answers a question. Put the answer in the first sentence of each section, then elaborate. Avoid burying the conclusion at the end of a long paragraph — the model will grab whichever sentence is most concise and declarative.

2. Use semantic HTML

VeloCMS renders every post with proper <article>, <h1>, <h2>, <time>, and <main> tags. You should never skip heading levels — if you have an h2, the next subheading has to be h3, not h4. LLMs parse the DOM tree and weight h2/h3 text heavily when extracting answers.

3. Ship JSON-LD structured data

Every post on VeloCMS automatically includes Article and BreadcrumbList JSON-LD schemas. This gives LLMs explicit metadata — publication date, author, headline, word count — instead of making them guess from the DOM. It also unlocks Google rich snippets and Bing answer cards.

4. Name your sections like questions

An h2 like "How to optimize images" is far more AEO-friendly than "Images". Query-shaped headings match the way users phrase questions to AI, and LLMs retrieve them more often because the match is more confident.

5. Allow the right bots

VeloCMS lets you toggle which AI crawlers are allowed via the site settings. We recommend enabling ChatGPT-User (OpenAI's live retrieval bot) and Google-Extended while keeping your traditional robots.txt permissive. Blocking LLM crawlers just because is how you disappear from answer engines entirely.