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Plain-language guides to search, AI answers and the pages that work in both. Written from what we see in audits, not from press releases.
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What is AEO (answer engine optimisation)?
AEO is writing and structuring a page so an assistant or an AI answer box can lift a correct answer from it and name you as the source. Here is what that means in practice.
2 min read
What is GEO (generative engine optimisation)?
GEO is making sure AI assistants can read your website, know who you are, and send visitors to you. It is about access and identity, not about any single page.
2 min read
llms.txt: what it is and how to write one
llms.txt is a short Markdown file at the root of a website that tells AI assistants what the site is and where its important pages are. Here is the format and a working example.
1 min read
AI Overviews: how to know if they cite you
Google’s AI Overviews answer a query above the results and cite a few pages. Here is how they pick sources, how to track whether you are one, and what to do if you are not.
1 min read
AI crawlers and robots.txt: who to allow
GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-User, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended: what each one does, what blocking it changes, and the robots.txt lines to use.
1 min read
Answer-first pages: a template that gets quoted
A page that answers in its first paragraph, asks the question in its heading and shows its author and date is the page assistants quote. Here is the template and a before-and-after.
1 min read
About one email a month
What changed in search and AI answers, from what we see in audits. No card, no pitch, one click to leave.