# SEO AEO GEO Human Guide ## What This Is For Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for search and SEO workflows: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return. Use this as a human-readable version of the SEO AEO GEO agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions. ## When To Use This - Use this when you need a repeatable process for SEO AEO GEO. - Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt. - Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact. ## When Not To Use This - Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer. - Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant. - Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review. ## What You Need Before Starting - The goal or business outcome you want. - The audience, customer segment, or market context. - Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance. - Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements. - A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like. ## Step-By-Step Workflow 1. State the job clearly: "Use the SEO AEO GEO guide to help me with..." 2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints. 3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output. 4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below. 5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed. ## Skill-Specific Guidance - Optimizing content for AI overviews and generative answer engines - Building or updating llms.txt - Structuring content so AI assistants can extract and cite it correctly - Future-proofing a site as search shifts from blue links to AI answers - Auditing whether existing content is AI-friendly - Adding signals that help AI assistants identify the site as a trustworthy source - Traditional on-page or technical SEO (use `seo-onpage` or `seo-technical`) - Keyword research (use `seo-keyword`) - Off-page authority and link building (use `seo-offpage`) - The site or page to optimize - The topic area or query types AI should cite the site for - Access to inspect rendered HTML and structured data ## Decision Points And Nuance The original skill emphasizes: When to use, When NOT to use, Required inputs, The framework: 5 layers, Extractable content structure, Citation worthiness, Structured data depth, AI-readable accessibility, Real-world entity signals, Workflow. Use these questions to steer the work: - What is the intended audience or buyer? - What source material must be preserved? - What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion? - What examples represent the desired quality bar? - What should the assistant avoid? ## Common Mistakes - **Definitions early.** When introducing a concept, define it inline. Do not assume the reader (or AI) saw a definition three pages ago. - **Numbered steps.** For procedural content, number every step. Avoid prose disguised as instructions. - **Required AND recommended properties** filled in (most sites only fill required, leaving signal on the table) - **robots.txt allowing AI crawlers.** Decide explicitly which AI crawlers to allow (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, etc.) or disallow. Do not block by default if visibility matters. - **Avoid client-side-only rendering for critical content.** Many AI crawlers render less reliably than Googlebot. - **Wikipedia entry** if the brand or person qualifies for notability (do not force this; it requires genuine notability) - Current AI visibility audit (which queries cite the site, which do not) - State numbers, ranges, and units explicitly. Vague modifiers ("a lot," "fast," "some users") do not extract. ## Copy-And-Paste Prompt ```text Use the SEO AEO GEO human guide. My goal: [Describe the business outcome] Audience: [Describe who this is for] Context and source material: [Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy] Constraints: [Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items] Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result. ``` ## Final Checklist - [ ] The output matches the original goal. - [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer. - [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved. - [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit. - [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person. ## Source This guide was generated from the rampstackco/claude-skills skill entry for `seo-aeo-geo`. ## Source Skill Notes These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic. # AEO and GEO Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Make content discoverable, extractable, and citable by AI search experiences. This skill encodes principles. AI search products evolve fast. The principles age slower than the products. --- ## When to use - Optimizing content for AI overviews and generative answer engines - Building or updating llms.txt - Structuring content so AI assistants can extract and cite it correctly - Future-proofing a site as search shifts from blue links to AI answers - Auditing whether existing content is AI-friendly - Adding signals that help AI assistants identify the site as a trustworthy source ## When NOT to use - Traditional on-page or technical SEO (use `seo-onpage` or `seo-technical`) - Keyword research (use `seo-keyword`) - Off-page authority and link building (use `seo-offpage`) This skill stacks on top of those. Strong AEO/GEO requires strong fundamental SEO underneath. --- ## Required inputs - The site or page to optimize - The topic area or query types AI should cite the site for - Access to inspect rendered HTML and structured data --- ## The framework: 5 layers AI search visibility comes from five stacked layers. Each layer compounds. ### 1. Extractable content structure AI systems extract facts and pull citations from content. Make extraction easy. - **Direct answers.** Open major sections with a definitive 1 to 3 sentence answer to the question that section addresses. AI extracts the first answer it sees. - **Question-headers.** Use H2s and H3s phrased as questions when natural. Mirrors how people prompt AI. - **Atomic facts.** When stating a fact, state it once, clearly, with the supporting context next to it. AI struggles when claims are spread across paragraphs. - **Tables and lists.** AI parses these reliably. Use them for comparisons, specs, steps, and data. - **Definitions early.** When introducing a concept, define it inline. Do not assume the reader (or AI) saw a definition three pages ago. - **Numbered steps.** For procedural content, number every step. Avoid prose disguised as instructions. ### 2. Citation worthiness AI cites sources it considers authoritative. Earn that consideration. - **Original data.** Surveys, studies, proprietary research, internal benchmarks. AI prefers primary sources over restatements. - **Specific numbers.** "Roughly 40 percent" beats "many." Specific stats with sources beat round-number generalizations. - **Named experts.** Author bios with credentials, links to professional profiles, schema-marked-up Person entities. - **Date stamps.** Publication date AND last-updated date, both visible AND in schema. AI heavily weights recency for time-sensitive queries. - **Methodology disclosure.** When stating a finding, briefly note how it was reached. AI rewards transparency. - **Citations of other sources.** Linking to authoritative sources you used builds reciprocal credibility. ### 3. Structured data depth Schema is how you speak machine-readable language. AI assistants parse it heavily. - **Schema.org types** appropriate to content (Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Recipe, Product, Organization, Person, LocalBusiness, etc.) - **Required AND recommended properties** filled in (most sites only fill required, leaving signal on the table) - **Person schema** for authors, with `sameAs` links to verifiable profiles - **Organization schema** on the homepage with logo, contact, social links - **FAQPage schema** for content with genuine question-answer pairs - **HowTo schema** for procedural content - **BreadcrumbList schema** site-wide - Validates in Schema.org Validator AND Rich Results Test (some properties differ) ### 4. AI-readable accessibility Beyond traditional SEO, AI tools need access patterns of their own. - **llms.txt at the site root.** A markdown file at `/llms.txt` describing the site's content, key URLs, and what topics the site covers. See [`references/llms-txt-guide.md`](references/llms-txt-guide.md). - **llms-full.txt** (optional) - a complete content dump for AI training and context, if the site permits it.