Indie App Devs #8
Weekly tips for indie app developers.
Hello! đ
We have another guest today - Grant Oganyan. He is a maker of Pressdeck, Coursable, Finale To Do and a number of other apps.
Grant discusses AEO and how it can be a real advantage for independent developers if earned early.
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What is AEO and Why it is Crucial for Your New App
Launching a new iOS app in 2026 means competing in a world where users donât just âsearchâ - they ask AI assistants for answers.
App Store pages and keyword SEO alone are no longer enough to get discovered.
Today, you need your app to show up when someone asks ChatGPT: âWhatâs the best habit tracker for ADHD?â or âI need a simple budgeting app for freelancers.â
That shift is called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and learning it early gives indie developers a real advantage. Letâs break down what it is and how you can start using it to get your app noticed.
What even is AEO?
Weâve all heard of SEO and ASO by now, right? Well, unfortunately, now we have to learn yet another acronym: AEO.
What is the best app for habit tracking?
What tool lets me track my gym streaks?
Is there a pomodoro timer that is combined with a calendar?
These are the types of ambiguous questions users ask ChatGPT when searching for task manager apps. So, itâs in your interest as a hypothetical-task-manager-developer to have the LLM recommend your app above all else.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of making your app, product, and content recognizable and recommendable by LLMs, AI-powered assistants, chat interfaces, and voice search tools.
Instead of ranking web pages, answer engines analyze online data, authority signals, real-world usage, and trustworthy sources to decide what to recommend or surface. While SEO focuses on being visible in list-based search results, AEO focuses on being the answer a system gives when a user asks something specific.
A helpful way to think about it: SEO gets you into the room - AEO gets you chosen. Both matter, but AEO is where discovery is shifting. Just like developers once learned ASO to complement SEO, AEO has become the next essential layer for visibility and growth.
How to transition from SEO to AEO?
Transitioning from SEO to AEO means shifting focus from ranking pages to establishing your app as a verified, trustworthy source that AI systems can confidently recommend. Search engines reward keywords, backlinks, and content volume; answer engines reward clarity, authority, structured data, and relevance to user intent.
Optimize your content for AEO
Turn your website and App Store page into clear, factual sources. State what your app does, who itâs for, pricing, platforms, core features, and use cases in direct language.
Structure information so models can parse it easily. Use FAQs, feature tables, comparison sections, and schema markup (where relevant).
Publish content designed to solve specific, multi-step user questions instead of just ranking for keywords. For example, âbest reading timer app for neurodivergent kidsâ rather than âreading app iOS.â
Earn trust signals. Positive reviews, press mentions, developer identity transparency, and community presence help AI verify legitimacy.
Maintain consistency across touchpoints. Your website, social bios, App Store listing, and directories should present matching facts.
Think of SEO as optimizing for humans skimming results, and AEO as optimizing for machines deciding the answer. The tactics evolve, but the goal remains the same: help the right users discover your app.
Make it easy for LLMs to find your content
Publish your app in authoritative distributions, beyond the App Store: developer portfolio, product directories, review platforms, and social bios.
Create and maintain a structured press kit that will show up when an LLM searches for apps like yours. A platform like Pressdeck lets you create a clean, LLM-friendly press kit website and acts as a trusted reference that automatically ranks high on Google and in AI bots.
Publish press releases. They are directly ingested and parsed by modern LLMs and help establish trustworthy, time-stamped facts about your appâs launch, updates, and milestones.
Distribute your press releases to all of the internet. There are plenty of press release providers ready to publish your article in 200-300 authoritative news sites for a little fee. These are great for getting maximum coverage, especially since LLMs feed on these articles.
Can we track our AEO performance?
Simple answer: eeehâŠđ€·?
Complicated answer: yes, but not entirely accurate.
Today, tracking AEO is challenging because thereâs no single ranking system or dashboard for answer engines yet. Most AI assistants donât reveal exactly where or how they pull data, making visibility hard to measure.
However, the landscape is improving quickly. For now you can:
Track your AEO performance in a few major SEO platforms, like Ahrefs and Semrush
Track referrals from popular LLM websites (chatgpt, gemini, perplexity, etc) via your analytics software (Google Analytics, or others).
Several SEO platforms, like Ahrefs, Semrush, and others, are rolling out beta tools that monitor how chatbots and AI search systems mention or cite your brand, app, or content. These can give early insights into whether your information is appearing in AI-generated answers.
That said, a more direct approach is to use your existing analytics setup (if you donât have one, get on it!). LLMs often link your app or website as a citation and add a UTM tracking parameter to track referrals. So, if you see an influx of traffic from ref=chatgpt.com, it means your AEO is working and ChatGPT is actively recommending your app.
Donât wait, do AEO now
If you want your app to stand out in a crowded App Store and an AI-driven search world, the time to begin AEO work is now. Treat this like long-term infrastructure: it wonât deliver overnight spikes, but it builds durable organic visibility that compounds over months and years.
Indie developers who establish authoritative, structured information for LLMs early will become the default answers later.
Start by making your appâs facts clear, consistent, and easy for answer engines to parse. Create a press kit on Pressdeck so AI models can easily understand and reference your product, and publish your first press release to establish trusted, time-stamped information about your app all over the internet.
Consistency, clarity, and persistence are the foundation; small steps taken today will put you ahead as AEO becomes the new discovery engine.
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