What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring your brand, content, and data so that AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews cite you as the answer. Unlike traditional SEO, AEO targets generative answers rather than ranked blue links.

How does Hertz help my brand appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity?

Hertz tracks every prompt where your category is discussed, measures your share of AI mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, and gives you a prioritized list of content, schema, and entity fixes so AI engines cite your brand as the answer.

What is the difference between SEO and AEO?

SEO optimizes for ranked search results on Google and Bing. AEO optimizes for the generated answers produced by AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. AEO uses entity clarity, structured data, and quotable, factual content so AI engines pick your brand when they answer a user.

Which AI search engines does Hertz monitor?

Hertz monitors ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Grok, and Microsoft Copilot. You see your visibility, sentiment, and share of voice on each engine in one dashboard.

How much does Hertz cost?

Hertz Starter is £149/month, Growth is £299/month, and Enterprise is custom-priced. Every plan includes a 7-day free trial and tracks all six major AI search engines.

How long does AEO take to work?

Most Hertz customers see measurable changes in AI mentions within 2–4 weeks of implementing prioritized fixes, because AI engines re-crawl and re-index content far more frequently than traditional Google rankings update.

Engines · 8 min · 2026-06-21

ChatGPT vs Perplexity for Research: Which Answer Engine Wins?

The short answer

For pure citation transparency, Perplexity is the stronger research engine: every paragraph is grounded in numbered sources you can click through. For conversational depth, tool use and integration with the user's broader workflow, ChatGPT pulls ahead. Buyers do not pick one — they pivot mid-research, which is why AEO programmes need to perform on both.

How each engine retrieves

ChatGPT blends pre-trained knowledge with live web search through its browsing tool, and increasingly with first-party connectors into apps the user has linked.
Perplexity is retrieval-first: every answer is generated against a fresh result set, with explicit numbered citations rendered inline.
ChatGPT favours fewer, higher-confidence sources and may paraphrase without citing. Perplexity exposes more sources per answer and is stricter about attribution.
Both lean heavily on Reddit, Wikipedia, G2 and trade media for B2B research prompts.

Citation behaviour in practice

Perplexity will routinely cite five to ten sources in a single research answer, which makes it the friendliest engine for niche or long-tail brands trying to break in. A well-structured page with clear headings and a TL;DR has a strong chance of being one of those sources.

ChatGPT cites more sparingly and weights authority more aggressively. To win citations there, brands need a coherent entity graph, presence on the third-party sources ChatGPT trusts, and content that answers the prompt unambiguously in the first paragraph.

Freshness and recency

Perplexity is the more aggressive engine on freshness, often surfacing content published in the last 24 hours for time-sensitive queries. ChatGPT skews toward established sources and may lag by days or weeks on news-style prompts.

For categories where buyer knowledge changes quickly — AI tooling, fintech regulation, ecommerce platforms — Perplexity will reward brands that publish consistently. ChatGPT will reward brands that accumulate citations over time.

What this means for AEO

Track both engines weekly at minimum — citation patterns diverge quickly and a single-engine view will mislead.
Invest in source-layer work (Reddit, G2, Wikipedia, listicles) to lift performance on both engines in parallel.
Use Perplexity as your early-warning system for new prompts and emerging competitors; use ChatGPT as your authority benchmark.
Do not optimise copy for one engine at the expense of the other — the underlying signals overlap heavily.

Frequently asked questions

Which engine has more users?

ChatGPT has by far the larger active user base, but Perplexity over-indexes on high-intent research sessions, especially in B2B and finance.

Do they cite the same sources?

There is significant overlap on Wikipedia, Reddit and major trade media, but each engine has idiosyncratic preferences that only continuous measurement reveals.

Should I optimise for one first?

Optimise for both from day one. The foundational work — entity hygiene, structured content, third-party citations — lifts performance on every major engine.

ChatGPT vs Perplexity for Research: Which Answer Engine Wins?