# SEO AEO best practices Human Guide

## What This Is For
Principles for optimizing content for both traditional search engines (SEO) and AI-powered answer engines (AEO). 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 best practices 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 best practices.
- 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 best practices 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
- Implementing metadata and Open Graph tags
- Creating sitemaps and robots.txt
- Adding JSON-LD structured data
- Optimizing content for featured snippets
- Preparing content for AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.)
- Evaluating content quality using EEAT principles
- `references/eeat-principles.md` — EEAT implementation and author schema
- `references/structured-data.md` — JSON-LD patterns (Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb, Product)
- `references/technical-seo.md` — Technical SEO checklist (metadata, sitemaps, hreflang, robots.txt)
- `references/aeo-considerations.md` — AI/AEO considerations (AI Overviews, crawler management)
- **Clarity:** Is the answer direct and easy to extract?
- **Authority:** Is the source trustworthy?

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: When to Apply, Core Concepts, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), References, Supporting file: references/aeo-considerations.md, How AI Selects Answers, Content Structure for AI, Direct Answers First.

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
- Avoid duplicate content across pages
- Avoid circular citations (sites citing each other)

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the SEO AEO best practices 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 sanity-io/agent-toolkit skill entry for `seo-aeo-best-practices`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# SEO & AEO Best Practices

Principles for optimizing content for both traditional search engines (SEO) and AI-powered answer engines (AEO). Includes Google's EEAT guidelines and structured data implementation.

## When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:
- Implementing metadata and Open Graph tags
- Creating sitemaps and robots.txt
- Adding JSON-LD structured data
- Optimizing content for featured snippets
- Preparing content for AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.)
- Evaluating content quality using EEAT principles

## Core Concepts

### SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Optimizing content to rank well in traditional search results (Google, Bing).

### AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Optimizing content to be selected as authoritative answers by AI systems.

### EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Google's framework for evaluating content quality.

## References

Start with the one reference that matches the task, such as technical SEO, structured data, EEAT, or AI-answer readiness. See `references/` for detailed guidance:
- `references/eeat-principles.md` — EEAT implementation and author schema
- `references/structured-data.md` — JSON-LD patterns (Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb, Product)
- `references/technical-seo.md` — Technical SEO checklist (metadata, sitemaps, hreflang, robots.txt)
- `references/aeo-considerations.md` — AI/AEO considerations (AI Overviews, crawler management)

---

## Supporting file: references/aeo-considerations.md

# AI/AEO Considerations

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) prepares content to be selected as authoritative answers by AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot.

## How AI Selects Answers

AI systems evaluate content based on:

1. **Clarity:** Is the answer direct and easy to extract?
2. **Authority:** Is the source trustworthy?
3. **Comprehensiveness:** Does it fully address the question?
4. **Recency:** Is the information up to date?
5. **Structure:** Can the AI parse and understand it?

## Content Structure for AI

### Direct Answers First
Lead with the answer, then explain.

**Bad:**
> The history of JavaScript dates back to 1995 when Brendan Eich... [500 words later] ...JavaScript runs in the browser.

**Good:**
> JavaScript is a programming language that runs in web browsers. It was created in 1995 by Brendan Eich...

### Clear Headings
Use descriptive H2/H3 headings that match user questions.

**Bad:** "Overview" → "Details" → "More Information"
**Good:** "What is X?" → "How does X work?" → "When should you use X?"

### Lists and Tables
AI extracts structured information more easily than prose.

```markdown
## Benefits of Structured Content

- **Reusability:** Use content across channels
- **Flexibility:** Change presentation without changing content
- **Scalability:** Manage large content volumes
```

### FAQ Format