AEO tools: what to use for answer engine optimization
·4 min read
Answer engine optimization tools help you make one page easy to quote. You need four kinds. Question research finds what people ask, an answer check shows whether each section leads with a quotable answer, a schema validator catches broken markup, and Google's Search Console shows which pages already earn AI Overview impressions.
That last point comes from Google. Its guide to AI optimization says no third-party tool has access to its ranking or AI systems, and that optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO. Treat every score below as an editing aid. New to the term? Read what answer engine optimization is first.
What answer engine optimization tools actually do
AEO tools work on the page itself. Tracking whether ChatGPT names you belongs to LLM visibility tools, and crawler access and off-site mentions belong to GEO tools.
| Job | What to use | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Find the questions | AlsoAsked, AnswerThePublic, our Question Finder | Real question wording to put in headings |
| Check the answers | Frase, our Citability Analyzer, a careful editor | Sections that bury the answer or lean on earlier context |
| Validate schema | Rich Results Test, Schema Markup Validator, our Schema Markup Checker | Parse errors and missing properties |
| See what already works | Search Console | Pages with AI Overview and AI Mode impressions |
Vendor features change often. Everything below about other companies comes from their own sites, checked in October 2026.
AEO tools for question research
Question research tools show the exact wording people search with, so your H2s match it. They differ in where the questions come from.
AlsoAsked is built on Google's People Also Ask boxes. Its homepage describes live "People Also Asked" data with intent clustering, targeting down to city level, and an API for monitoring when questions shift.
AnswerThePublic takes a keyword or a URL and says it shows the questions people ask across Google, YouTube, Amazon, ChatGPT and more. It also drafts content from the results. Keep the question list and skip the drafting.
Our Question Finder uses Google autocomplete, groups the questions by intent and, if you add a URL, marks which ones your page answers, covers only with a heading, mentions in passing or misses. It does not include People Also Ask, has no search volumes and doesn't run JavaScript. Our post on AnswerThePublic alternatives compares more options.
Tools that check answer structure and citability
An answer check tells you whether each section opens with a direct answer that makes sense when quoted alone. Most teams skip this step.
Frase lists content optimization to "score and lift pages for Google", a GEO optimization feature for AI citations and an AI visibility monitor. It also writes and publishes, so it suits teams that want one platform.
Our Citability Analyzer does one narrow thing. It reads a page section by section and flags passages without a short lead answer, passages that depend on earlier context, and claims with no numbers or sources behind them. Its heuristics are tuned for English, it doesn't rewrite anything, and its score is not a prediction that any engine will cite you.
A good editor does this too. Read each H2 and its first sentence only, and rewrite any pair that doesn't answer the question. Our guide to citable content shows the patterns.
Which schema validator to use
A schema validator confirms your structured data parses and has the properties Google requires. Valid markup makes a page eligible for rich results, and Google still decides whether to show one.
Google's Rich Results Test has the final word on which Google rich results a page qualifies for. The Schema Markup Validator from schema.org checks markup against the schema.org vocabulary in general. Our Rich Results Test guide walks through reading the output.
Keep schema in proportion. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results for every site on May 7, 2026, after limiting them to government and health sites in August 2023. And Google's AI optimization guide says structured data isn't required for generative AI search. Markup won't rescue a page that buries its answer.
Which pages to work on first
Search Console is the only AEO tool with Google's own data. Since August 31, 2026, every site has the Generative AI performance report. It shows impressions by page, country, device and date, with AI Overviews and AI Mode combined, and no clicks.
Use it to choose where to work. A page with AI impressions is already eligible, so tightening its answers is the fastest win. For tracking specific queries over time, see our post on the AI Overview tracker.
Google's AI features documentation says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear as a supporting link. Confirm it with URL Inspection before buying anything.
Check your pages with our AEO tools
Our AEO tools each run on their own, paid per run in credits. Question Finder costs 15 credits and returns autocomplete questions grouped by intent, plus page coverage when you give it a URL. The Schema Markup Checker costs 8 credits. It validates a page's JSON-LD against Google's rich result rules, lists missing required and recommended properties, suggests schema.org types the page lacks, and checks pasted JSON-LD before you publish. It reads JSON-LD only, not Microdata or RDFa, and it is not the Rich Results Test.
The Citability Analyzer costs 5 credits per page and sits in our GEO group. None of them run JavaScript, read your Search Console data or predict whether Google picks your page. Rerun them after you edit.