What Is AEO and Why Does It Matter for North Hertfordshire Businesses?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. Most business owners haven't heard of it yet.
That's actually good news if you're reading this, because it means you're about to get a proper head start over your competitors. The concept is dead simple. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google Gemini "Who's the best plumber in Hitchin?", the AI gives a direct answer. It names a business. AEO is about making sure that business is yours.
How it actually works
AI tools scan the web for information they can trust. Your website, your Google Business Profile, reviews, directory listings, mentions of your business elsewhere online. They pull it all together and form a picture.
If your site clearly explains what you do and where you do it, AI has something solid to work with. If your site is vague (and most are, let's be honest), it moves on and picks someone who bothered to be specific.
I did an audit for a dentist in Letchworth last year. Beautiful website. Looked gorgeous. But it barely mentioned Letchworth anywhere, had no FAQs, and the service descriptions were all marketing fluff about "creating beautiful smiles". ChatGPT had absolutely no reason to recommend them for anything. And it didn't.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO gets you onto a list of ten blue links on Google. AEO gets you named as the actual answer.
The emphasis shifts from keywords and backlinks to questions and answers. Thankfully, they overlap quite a bit. Good AEO content tends to improve your SEO too. Clear writing, solid structure, proof that you're credible. Those things help everything.
We wrote more about this in our post on AEO vs SEO and which to invest in if you want the full comparison.
Why this matters right now for North Hertfordshire businesses
I've been watching this shift for three years. More and more people are using AI to search for local services. Instead of typing "electrician Letchworth" into Google, they're asking ChatGPT and expecting a direct recommendation.
If your business isn't set up for that, someone else gets the enquiry. And here's the kicker, you don't even know you lost it. There's no "missed call" notification. The lead just went somewhere else and you never knew it existed.
Most businesses in Hitchin, Baldock, Royston, Stevenage, and across North Hertfordshire haven't started AEO yet. The competition is thin. That won't last, I suspect. But right now, the door is wide bloody open.
What AEO actually involves
It's a set of building blocks that work together. None of them are particularly complicated on their own.
- FAQs that answer the questions your customers genuinely ask
- Service descriptions that spell out exactly what you offer (not marketing waffle)
- Location signals naming the North Hertfordshire towns you cover
- Proof content like case studies, testimonials, and real project descriptions
- Consistent business information across your website, Google profile, and directories
Getting these individual pieces right isn't the hard part. Structuring them so AI can easily parse and understand them, that's where it gets tricky. Most websites were built for humans to browse, not for AI to read. Different skill set.
If you want the specifics of what goes wrong, we've covered the biggest AEO mistakes local businesses make and what your website needs before AI will recommend you.
Where to start if you want to do it yourself
If I were a local business owner reading this, I'd do three things this week.
First, add five to ten FAQs to your website. Real questions that customers actually ask you, not the ones you wish they'd ask. Use plain language in the answers.
Second, make sure your website names every town you serve. Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Royston, Stevenage, wherever you work. Mention them on your service pages, your homepage, and your about page.
Third, publish at least one case study or gather some proper testimonials. Not "Great job!" but actual details about what you did and how it went.
That alone puts you ahead of most local competitors. Perhaps surprisingly far ahead, because almost nobody has done it yet.
Or if you'd rather have someone handle the lot, book a call with us and we'll build the whole system for you.