AEO ranking usually means how often and how prominently a brand appears in AI-generated answers. Unlike a search results page, an AI answer has no fixed positions one through ten. An answer engine might name three brands in one reply and different ones when the same question is phrased another way.
So AEO ranking is measured as a share: the percentage of tracked prompts in which you are mentioned or cited, compared with competitors, broken out by engine. Where you appear inside the answer, and whether your site is linked as a source, both count.
The term is also used for rankings of AEO providers themselves. EliteAEO ranks AEO, GEO and AI SEO agencies on seven evidence-based factors, led by proof that an agency has gotten clients named or cited in AI answers, and the weighting is published on our methodology page.