AEO Prompts: Discover the questions your customers ask AI engines.
AEO prompts are the questions your customers type into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI engines when they're looking for a product like yours. If you don't know what those questions are, you can't optimize for them.
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What is an AEO prompt?
An AEO prompt is a question a user asks an AI engine — like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok, or Google AI Mode — that could surface your brand in the answer.
Example: a user typing "what's the best self-hosted analytics tool?" into ChatGPT is running an AEO prompt for tools like Plausible, Posthog, and Matomo. ChatGPT's answer might mention some, omit others, and cite specific sources for each claim.
Unlike SEO keywords, which target Google's link-based results, AEO prompts target AI-generated answers. Optimizing for them means making sure AI engines mention your brand when relevant questions are asked — and ideally, recommend you specifically as the answer to your category's question.
Why prompt visibility matters
When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best AEO tool?", the answer they see is the first impression of your category. If your brand isn't mentioned, it doesn't exist for that user — they won't click through to your site because there's no link to click.
This is different from SEO. In Google search, if you rank #20, you're at least visible if someone scrolls. In AI answers, you're either cited in the synthesized answer or you don't exist.
Every AEO prompt your customers ask without your brand mentioned is a lost first impression.
How to discover the AEO prompts customers actually use
You can guess. Brainstorm 30 questions a customer might ask AI engines about products like yours, write them down, run them through ChatGPT, see who gets cited.
Or you can ask the engines themselves. AI engines are trained on the same data customers search through — they can reliably generate the questions your customers would actually ask.
Quoted's approach: we use an LLM to generate 30 customer-style questions based on your website and your competitors. Then we run each prompt through six AI engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews — and analyze the answers for brand mentions, sentiment, competitor citations, and sources.
AEO prompt examples
Here are AEO prompts indie SaaS founders should track. Use these as a starting point — your real audit will surface prompts specific to your product, your category, and your competitors.
For developer tools
- "What's the best [language] linting tool?"
- "Best free alternative to [Postman/Insomnia]?"
- "Recommended CLI tools for [task]?"
- "Self-hosted alternative to [Vercel/Netlify]?"
For productivity SaaS
- "Best Notion alternatives for [use case]?"
- "What project management tools work best for [team size]?"
- "Alternatives to [Linear/Asana] with [feature]?"
For analytics
- "Best privacy-friendly analytics tools?"
- "Which product analytics platforms support [event tracking]?"
- "Alternatives to Google Analytics 4?"
For AI tooling
- "Best LLM observability tools?"
- "Which AI coding assistants work in [editor]?"
- "Open-source alternatives to [Cursor/Copilot]?"
See AEO prompts for your brand
The examples above are generic. Your audit needs to be specific to your product and your competitors. Enter your brand and we'll auto-generate 30 prompts customized to your positioning, then run them through six AI engines.
Free preview shows 5 prompts. $10 unlocks the rest plus a recommendations report.
No signup. No credit card. Pay $10 only if you want the full audit.
FAQ
How many AEO prompts should I track?
Most brands need 25-50 prompts to cover their core categories. Below 20 you miss long-tail questions; above 100 you get diminishing returns from noise. Quoted runs 30 by default.
What's the difference between AEO prompts and SEO keywords?
SEO keywords are search terms users type into Google's link-based search. AEO prompts are full questions users ask AI engines, which return synthesized answers instead of links. AEO prompts are usually longer (10-20 words vs 2-5) and more conversational.
Can I write my own AEO prompts, or does Quoted generate them?
Both. Quoted auto-generates 30 prompts based on your brand and competitors, but you can edit, remove, or add prompts before the audit runs.
Do AEO prompts change over time?
Yes. AI engines update their training data and retrieval methods regularly. A prompt that mentioned your brand six months ago might not mention you today, which is why you have to re-check, not optimize once and forget.
How is an AEO prompt different from a ChatGPT prompt?
They're the same thing from the user's perspective — any question someone asks an AI engine. "AEO prompt" specifically means a query where a brand could be cited in the answer.
What AEO prompts should I prioritize?
Buying-intent prompts ("best X for Y") matter most for conversion. Educational prompts ("what is X?") matter most for category-level discovery. Audit both, prioritize the buying-intent ones first.
For a more technical deep-dive on prompt architecture, see Overthink Group's AEO prompt architecture guide.