What AEO is, and why it matters more than SEO in 2026

What changed on the results page

Ten years ago, Google gave you ten blue links. Today, on many searches, the first thing you see is a ready-made answer taken from some website — with a small link underneath.

For your business, that changes the stakes entirely. Being in position three is no longer enough. You have to be the source of the answer.

The figure that explains why it matters

A SparkToro study using Similarweb clickstream data, covering January to April 2026, found that 68.01% of Google searches in the United States end without a single click through to a website. In 2024, the figure was 60.45%. That is a rise of more than seven points in a single two-year span.

The authors state an important limitation themselves: the analysis does not cover searches made inside the Google mobile app, where they expect the share to be higher still.

Two caveats, so you do not use the figure wrongly:

1. It is an American number. No equivalent measurement has been published for the Republic of Moldova. Anyone showing you this percentage as „Moldovan” is inventing it.
2. „No click” does not mean „no value”. It includes searches where the person only wanted the time, an exchange rate or a phone number — and got it.

What remains solid: the results page increasingly answers on its own. If that answer is not yours, it is somebody else's.

The three places the answer appears

Since 2024 these have been joined by the AI-generated summary at the top of the page. Studies published in 2026 report very different frequencies for it — from roughly 20% to nearly 50% of searches — depending on sample, country and question type. The gap does not mean anyone is lying; it means „a search” is not a uniform unit. Informational questions get a summary far more often than commercial ones.

The practical conclusion does not change with whichever figure you believe: content that answers clearly has a better chance of being lifted, on any surface.

Why some questions never get a box

Not every search triggers an answer box, and it is not a matter of writing better.

Google explains officially that a featured snippet appears only when the algorithm judges that a fragment pulled from the page helps more than the regular result — usually for questions with a clear, factual or procedural answer. Three types of search behave differently:

The practical consequence: do not rewrite every page hoping for a box. Pick factual questions first — „what is”, „how much does it cost”, „how do you”, „how long does it take” — where the answer is short and checkable. Commercial pages (comparisons, recommendations) have a different goal: showing up in the regular results list, not the box.

What to change on the site

1. Put the answer first

Do not build towards a conclusion. Start with it.

The test is simple: if you cut the first paragraph and the reader still has not learned the answer from the title, that paragraph is wrong.

2. Format for extraction

A search engine lifts fragments it can delimit into the box. That means:

• Short paragraphs of 40–60 words, for definition-type answers.
• Numbered lists, for processes with steps.
• Tables, for comparisons and prices.
• H2 and H3 headings phrased as questions, where the section genuinely answers a question. Not everywhere — a declarative heading is better when the section describes rather than answers.

3. Write the way people speak

Voice searches are whole sentences, not keywords. Nobody says „price car service Chișinău”. They say „how much does a car service cost in Chișinău?”

In the Republic of Moldova, where part of the market speaks Russian, this doubles. The same question has two forms, and the difference is not only language but phrasing too:

If your page only answers the short, typed version, you are missing half the real questions — the spoken ones and the ones asked in the other language.

4. Be clear about who you are

Google increasingly ties an answer to its source, not just the raw text. Three things help:

• A named author, not „our team” or anonymous. The article page should show who wrote it.
• Organization structured data with the business's name, address and official links — Google publishes the exact fields that matter.
• The same terms everywhere. If one page says „car service” and another says „auto repair”, you have split the signal about the same topic in two, and an algorithm looking for consistency finds less of it.

This is why the articles on this blog carry a named author instead of a „⟨AUTHOR NAME⟩” placeholder — this one included.

A worked example

A real page about appliance repair, before and after being restructured for the answer box:

Before — the page opens like this: „Our company has been active on the Chișinău market for several years and specialises in repairing household appliances of all types, offering quality services at competitive prices for all our clients...” Three sentences, zero information about price or timeframe.

After — the first paragraph becomes: „A fridge repair costs, depending on the fault, between ⟨XX⟩ and ⟨XXX⟩ lei and takes 1–3 working days. Diagnosis is free if you go ahead with the repair.” The answer is there from the first sentence — a figure, a timeframe, a condition.

The difference is not stylistic. The first version cannot be extracted by any algorithm because it contains no delimitable answer. The second can be quoted almost word for word, by Google and by an AI assistant alike.

The truth about FAQ markup

This is the part many agencies still sell wrongly, and it is worth saying plainly.

The timeline:

You can verify the last point yourself: open Search Console and look for the FAQ report. You will not find it.

What this means for you:

• FAQPage markup remains valid structured data. It does not throw errors, does not bring penalties, does not hurt your ranking.
• The markup no longer earns you a special display in results.
• The FAQ section on the page remains useful — for readers, for „People also ask”, and for AI assistants looking for delimited answers.

In other words: keep the FAQ section because it helps people. Keep the markup if it is already there. But if someone sells you „FAQ schema implementation for increased Google visibility”, they are selling a result that has not existed for three years.

The same applies to HowTo markup, restricted in the same period.

What is worth having instead, as structured data: Article or BlogPosting for content — with the author field filled in —, Organization for the business, LocalBusiness if you have premises, BreadcrumbList for navigation, Product and Review if you sell products. These still produce visible effects.

A common mistake

Many sites in Moldova have good content, but buried. The answer to the question in the title appears at the fourth paragraph, after an introduction about the company's history.

If a reader has to scroll to find the answer, a search engine does not even look for it.

Moving the answer up costs nothing and is by far the highest-return change you can make in an afternoon.

How to check whether it works

The AEO-specific signal is the second row: rising impressions with flat clicks. That usually means your answer is being read on the results page. It is a result, not a failure — but it has to be measured as such, not mistaken for a decline.

What AEO does not do

It does not guarantee the box. Google shows it or not, depending on the question type, and withdraws it without notice — you can lose it to a better-rewritten page just as easily as you could win it from someone else.

It does not work without SEO. To be lifted into the box you generally need to already be in the first results.

And it cannot be bought. There is no auction for the answer box.

The first thing you can do today

Take your most important page and read the first paragraph. If it does not contain the answer to the question in the title, rewrite it on the model from the example above — a figure or concrete fact in the first sentence. It takes ten minutes and it is the only change in this article that needs nobody but you.

Sources

• SparkToro, „Zero-click searches” — analysis of Similarweb clickstream data, US Google searches, January–April 2026. Excludes the Google mobile app.
• Google Search Central, „Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results” — official announcement, August 2023, restricting FAQ results to government and health sites.
• Google, official documentation on featured snippets — how and when Google chooses to show an answer box.
• Google Search Console — the disappearance of the FAQ report, verifiable directly in your own account.
• Google's structured data documentation — the types that still produce rich results, including Article and Organization.

The zero-click figures are measured in the United States. No published equivalent exists for the Republic of Moldova, and we do not yet have our own data on this subject.