We’re thrilled to announce next‑aeo, a new NPM package from Profound designed for Next.js developers who care not just about SEO, but AEO (AI Engine Optimization). It builds a bridge between your app and today’s answer‑driven LLMs.
What does next‑aeo do?
next‑aeo analyzes your Next.js app as part of the build process and generates a llms.txt file. This file lays out structured insights – page routes, key content areas, metadata – for answer engines to discover and reference your site more effectively.
Why does it matter?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is quickly becoming the new frontier in digital visibility. Rather than just ranking for keywords, modern LLMs like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot are pulling direct answers from web content.
New research shows that well‑structured, conversational content with clear signals significantly improves your chances of appearing in AI-generated responses.
How to get started
Before running next-aeo, you must build your Next.js app first. In the root of your project, run your build script e.g.
npm run build
Then, run the following command whenever there are significant changes to your site:
npx -y next-aeo@latest
The generated llms.txt file is saved to public/llms.txt, making it accessible at /llms.txt on your website.
Read more about CLI in the NPM package.
Why we built this
Profound’s mission has always been about human-centered AI visibility. Now, it’s time to bridge the gap between strategy and implementation.
next‑aeo slots right into your Next.js project – no heavy config, no guesswork. Just a single command to help LLMs better understand your website’s structure and content.
We hope next‑aeo becomes a staple in your Next.js toolkit – because as AI chat becomes the new search, being visible in answers is just as important as being visible in search results.
Curious to try it out? Check out the npm package for more details and let us know how you’re optimizing your AI presence.
Happy building! 🎉
