What is the difference between AEO and SEO for marketing?

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) focuses on providing a single direct answer for AI retrieval, whereas traditional SEO aims to rank a page in a list of web links. While SEO targets specific keywords to drive traffic to a site, AEO targets the underlying intent and context to satisfy a user's question directly. This shift requires moving from whole-page optimization to structured, concise answer optimization.