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Answer Engine (AEO)

Who holds Google's answers for your keywords?

Answer Engine reads Google's featured snippet, AI Overview and People Also Ask for every keyword you track, every day. See which answers you hold, which you can win because you already rank in the top 5, the sites that hold the rest, and every question people ask. Check your page's answer readiness for free and get Claude's plan to win an answer for 2 credits. Included with rank tracking on every paid plan.

Start free See the Rank Tracker →
What you get

Every answer box for your keywords, and who holds it.

Featured snippet owner

The domain and page Google quotes above the results, with the start of the quoted text. If it's you, the Rank Tracker counts it as ranking.

AI Overview sources

The sites Google's AI Overview cites for each keyword, and whether you're one of them.

People Also Ask

Up to 8 questions per keyword and the page answering each — collected into one de-duplicated question bank, the ones you don't answer first.

Yours, winnable, rank first

Every keyword is sorted by what to do next: you hold the answer, you can win it (top 5), or ranking comes first.

Who holds the answers

The domains holding the most snippets, AI Overview citations and People Also Ask answers across your keywords. Your domain is always on the list.

Free readiness check

Checks your ranking page for a short direct answer, question headings, lists or tables and FAQ markup — guidelines, not Google rules.

A plan to win it

Claude reads who holds each answer and your page's readiness, and writes what to change. 2 credits, refunded on failure.

Wins and losses by email

Featured snippets won or lost appear in the daily rank email once the change holds for two checks. Client reports and the portal show answers held.

How it works

From tracked keyword to quoted answer.

  1. STEP 1

    Track keywords

    Answer Engine uses the keywords already in your Rank Tracker — no separate list to keep.

  2. STEP 2

    Read the answer boxes

    Each daily check records the snippet owner, AI Overview sources and People Also Ask answers.

  3. STEP 3

    Pick the winnable ones

    Filter to keywords where someone else holds the answer and you rank top 5. Check your page and get a plan.

  4. STEP 4

    Answer the questions

    Send any People Also Ask question to Content Studio as a draft, publish, and watch the daily email for the win.

Plans

Covers every keyword you track.

Free
—
no rank tracking
Starter
25
keywords
Growth
100
+ late AI Overviews
Agency
500
+ late AI Overviews
Scale
2,000
+ late AI Overviews

The dashboard and readiness checks are free. How-to-win plans use 2 of the AI credits included in every paid plan.

FAQ

Answer Engine (AEO) questions.

What is Answer Engine?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is getting your page quoted as the answer: Google's featured snippet, a source in its AI Overview, or the page behind a People Also Ask question. Answer Engine shows, for every keyword you track in the Rank Tracker, who holds each of those answers today, which ones you can realistically win, and what to change.
Where does the data come from?
From the daily rank check. The same Google results page that gives your position (via DataForSEO, top 100, your keyword's country, language and device) also carries the featured snippet, the AI Overview and its sources, and the People Also Ask questions. ItzSEO stores who holds each — domain, URL and the first 300 characters of the snippet — not the whole page.
How is this different from AI Search Visibility?
AI Search Visibility asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude your questions and checks whether they cite you. Answer Engine reads Google's own answer boxes — featured snippet, AI Overview and People Also Ask — for the keywords you already track. Many teams use both.
What does "winnable" mean?
Someone else holds the answer and your page already ranks in the top 5 for that keyword. Google usually quotes a page from the first results, so these are the answers most worth working on. Keywords where you rank lower are marked "rank first": improve the ranking before chasing the answer box.
Does it track every AI Overview?
It records the AI Overviews Google shows on the results page for your tracked keywords. Some AI Overviews load after the page does; on Growth and above the rank check waits for those too. AI Overviews are shown for some searches and not others, and change from day to day — the dashboard shows the latest check.
What does the readiness check look at?
Your ranking page's HTML, for the shape answer boxes tend to quote: a short direct answer (about 40–60 words) near the top, the question in a main heading, question-style subheadings, lists or tables, FAQ / HowTo structured data, and enough text to read without JavaScript. These are widely used guidelines, not Google rules, and meeting them doesn't guarantee a snippet. The check is free and only runs on your own domain.
What does the how-to-win plan cost, and what does Claude see?
2 credits per keyword, refunded if it fails. Claude sees who holds the snippet and its opening text, the sites the AI Overview cites, the People Also Ask questions, your position and ranking page, and your page's readiness results. It does not read the competing pages, and it is told not to invent facts about them.
Will I hear when I win or lose a snippet?
Yes. The daily rank email lists featured snippets won and lost — once the change has held for two checks in a row, so a one-day swap doesn't fill your inbox. Monthly client reports and the client portal show how many answers the project holds.
Which plans include it?
Every paid plan with rank tracking — it covers your tracked keywords: Starter 25, Growth 100, Agency 500, Scale 2,000. Late-loading AI Overviews are included on Growth and above. How-to-win plans use AI credits. Not on Free, which has no rank tracking.

Try Answer Engine (AEO) on your own workspace.

14-day trial. No credit card required.

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