SEO and AEO
Rank on Google.Get quoted by AI.
SEO puts your site in the search results. AEO puts it inside the answers ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI write. I build sites that do both.
People used to search. Now they ask. Your site has to rank in the links and be the source the answer quotes. That's SEO and AEO, and I build both in.
SEO, search engine optimization
From page two to number one.
Page two is where sites hide.
Hardly anyone clicks past the first page of results. Here's how a site climbs off it, one fix at a time.
Make it fast.
Google measures how fast a page shows up and responds on a real phone. I build light, aiming for the first screen in about a second.
Say it in their words.
A title and description written for what people actually type, instead of “Home” and “Welcome to our website.”
Give it structure.
Clear pages, clean URLs, internal links and schema, so Google understands the site well enough to show its sections right in the result.
Earn the trust.
A complete Google Business Profile, real reviews, and other sites linking back. The same name, address and phone everywhere they appear.
- Make it fast
- Say it in their words
- Give it structure
- Earn the trust
AEO, answer engine optimization
Be the source the answer quotes.
More people ask an AI than scroll ten blue links. It reads a handful of pages, picks the clearest sentence, and cites where it came from. AEO makes that sentence yours.
where can i get tacos after midnight?
Answer
Your Restaurant is open every night until 2am, and the kitchen takes orders until 1:45.1 It's best known for al pastor carved off the trompo.1 Two other spots nearby close at midnight.2
- 1yoursite.com
- 2a city food guide
- 3a local forum
Answer first
The answer in the first sentence or two, then the detail. That first sentence is the part that gets quoted.
Questions as headings
Headings written the way people ask, so the page lines up with the question word for word.
Facts worth quoting
Hours, prices, sizes, names, numbers. Concrete beats clever when a model is choosing what to cite.
One name everywhere
The same name, address and phone on your site, your Google profile and every directory, so it all adds up to one business.
Talked about elsewhere
Reviews, local press, directories and forums. AI answers lean on what the rest of the web agrees on.
Kept current
Dates on pages and facts that stay right. Last year's hours are an answer you don't want quoted.
Two audiences, one page
Made for people. Readable by machines.
Every page has a second reader. Drag across to see what a crawler reads underneath the design, and why each line matters.
Open every night
Tacos till 2am.
Al pastor off the trompo, tortillas pressed to order.
See the menuHow late are you open?
Every night until 2am. The kitchen takes orders until 1:45.
<title>Late-Night Tacos, Open Till 2am | Your Restaurant</title><meta name="description" content="Al pastor off the trompo, open every night until 2am."><link rel="canonical" href="https://yoursite.com/"><h1>Tacos till 2am.</h1><img src="trompo.avif" alt="Al pastor carved off the trompo"><h2>How late are you open?</h2>
<p>Every night until 2am.</p><script type="application/ld+json">
{"@type": "Restaurant", "closes": "02:00" }Crawlers
Let the right bots in. Give them something to read.
Search engines and AI tools each send their own crawler. If robots.txt turns them away, or the page is empty without JavaScript, you're not in the answer.
- GooglebotGoogle Search and AI OverviewsAllowed
- BingbotBing and Microsoft CopilotAllowed
- OAI-SearchBotChatGPT searchAllowed
- GPTBotOpenAI, for trainingAllowed
- ClaudeBotAnthropic's ClaudeAllowed
- PerplexityBotPerplexityAllowed
- ApplebotSiri and SpotlightAllowed
Training crawlers like GPTBot are your call. The search ones are how you get cited.
What a crawler receives
<body>
<div id="root">
<h1>Tacos till 2am.</h1>
<p>Al pastor off the trompo,
tortillas pressed to order.</p>
<h2>How late are you open?</h2>
<p>Every night until 2am. The kitchen
takes orders until 1:45.</p>
…
</div>
<script src="/app.js"></script>
</body>The text is in the HTML before a single script runs. Any crawler can read it, quote it and link to it.
This page is prerendered: turn JavaScript off and every word is still here.
Speed
Fast is a ranking signal. Slow is a lost customer.
Google scores every page on three Core Web Vitals, measured on real people's phones. Pass all three and you're in the clear. Miss them and people leave before the page finishes.
Example readings. The bands are Google's thresholds for each metric.
Structured data
Don't make them guess. Tell them.
Schema is a layer of labeled facts hidden in the page: what you are, where, when you're open, what you sell. Search engines and AI read it directly instead of inferring it from the design.
Restaurant
What you are: a Mexican restaurant, its price range, its phone number. Stated outright, never guessed.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Restaurant",
"name": "Your Restaurant",
"servesCuisine": "Mexican",
"priceRange": "$$",
"telephone": "+1-555-010-0199",
"url": "https://yoursite.com/"
}Pick any node to see its markup. This page carries its own: a Service, an FAQPage and a breadcrumb trail.
How it works
New site or old, the same four steps.
I can build it in from day one, or take a site you already have and work through it.
Audit
I crawl the site the way Google and the AI crawlers do, test it on a phone, and ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google the questions your customers ask.
CrawlSpeed testAI answer checkFix
The technical layer: speed, indexing, titles and descriptions, schema, robots.txt, the sitemap, and HTML that reads without JavaScript.
Core Web VitalsSchemaSitemapWrite
Pages for the questions people actually ask, answer first, in the words they use. Plus a Google Business Profile that's filled in properly.
Service pagesFAQsGoogle profileTrack
Rankings and clicks from Google Search Console, visits from ChatGPT and Perplexity in your analytics, and regular checks of what the AI tools say about you.
Search ConsoleAI referralsAnswer checks
Proof
Don't take my word for it. Audit this page.
This section fetches the page you're reading the way a crawler would, before any JavaScript runs, and checks it live, right now.
FAQ
Questions, answered first.
Written the way this page tells you to write: the answer up front, the detail after.
What's the difference between SEO and AEO?
SEO gets your page ranked in search results so people click it. AEO (answer engine optimization) gets your page quoted inside the answers AI tools write, like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. Most of the work overlaps: fast, clear, well-structured pages win both.
Is SEO dead now that people ask AI?
No. Search still sends far more visitors than AI chat does, and AI answers draw on the same pages search engines rank. Good SEO is the foundation AEO is built on.
How long does it take to see results?
Technical fixes show up as soon as search engines recrawl the site, often within days to a few weeks. Ranking for competitive searches usually takes three to six months. AI answers can pick up a change as soon as their crawlers come back.
Can you do this for a site you didn't build?
Yes. I start with an audit of the site as it is, fix what can be fixed in place, and only suggest a rebuild if the platform itself is holding it back.
How do you measure AI visibility?
Two ways. I ask the main AI tools the questions your customers ask and record whether you're named and cited. And I track the visits they send, which show up in analytics as referrals from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and others.
What is llms.txt, and do I need one?
It's a short plain-text guide to your site for AI tools, proposed in 2024. It's cheap to add, so I add it, but it's no substitute for pages that answer questions well.
Services
The work, if you want it done.
This page shows the method. These are the jobs, written out as pages a crawler can read.
Contact
Let's get you found.
Tell me about your site and the searches you want to show up for. I'll get back to you with what I'd fix first.