---
title: SEO AEO Best Practices
category: product
entity_type: skill
price: $15
canonical: https://forgehouse.ai/skills/seo-aeo-best-practices/
lang: en
hreflang_alt: https://forgehouse.ai/tr/skiller/seo-aeo-best-practices/
last_updated: 2026-06-20
---

# SEO AEO Best Practices

> SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) best practices.

A practical reference for optimizing content for both traditional search engines and AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It applies the EEAT framework, ships JSON-LD structured-data patterns, a full technical-SEO checklist, and AEO techniques so your content ranks and gets cited as a source.

## Use cases
- Implementing metadata, Open Graph, and Twitter Card tags
- Adding Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb, and Organization JSON-LD
- Writing direct-answer content formatted for AI citation
- Configuring hreflang for multilingual sites
- Managing AI crawler bots via robots.txt and llms.txt
- Evaluating content against EEAT and YMYL criteria

## Benefits
- Earn organic traffic worth $5-50 per click that paid ads would otherwise cost
- Get cited by AI answer engines with concise, fact-dense, quotable paragraphs
- Fix the 20% of technical issues that drive 80% of organic traffic gains
- Pass Core Web Vitals and page-experience signals that influence ranking

## What’s included
- EEAT and YMYL framework with experience, expertise, authority, and trust signals
- Four JSON-LD structured-data patterns (Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb, Organization)
- Technical SEO checklist covering metadata, hreflang, sitemap, and robots.txt
- AEO playbook for AI Overviews with direct-answer format and citable-fact patterns
- llms.txt template and AI crawler bot management directives
- Defensive patterns for canonical chains, duplicate content, and selective robots meta

## Who it’s for
Content and SEO teams who want a single reference to rank in classic search and get cited by AI answer engines, with structured data and technical checks baked in.

## How it runs
The skill applies one discipline to two audiences at once: classic search engines and AI answer engines. Its 2026 position is explicit and sourced: AEO is not a separate trick, it is good SEO executed precisely, exactly what Google's official AI Optimization Guide confirmed in May 2026.
1. Scores every page against the four EEAT axes: lived experience (real screenshots, case studies), expertise (credentials, technical depth), authority (who references you) and trust (HTTPS, contact info, transparent authorship), with stricter bars on YMYL topics like health and finance.
2. Implements the structured data layer: Article, Breadcrumb and Organization JSON-LD with sameAs profiles; FAQ schema is still produced for AI inference even though its visual rich result was deprecated in May 2026, and that distinction is stated openly instead of overpromised.
3. Works the technical checklist: unique 50 to 60 character titles, 150 to 160 character descriptions, canonical on every page, bidirectional hreflang on multilingual sites, a clean sitemap, and robots.txt with explicit AI crawler rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended.
4. Optimizes for answer extraction: the first sentence of a section answers its question directly, paragraphs stay fact-dense at 40 to 60 words, and claims carry statistics with named sources, the strongest measured GEO tactic (plus 41 percent visibility, Princeton GEO study).
5. Plans for engine divergence: ChatGPT and Perplexity overlap on only 11 percent of cited sources, and Google's AI Mode fans a single query out into many sub-queries, so the unit of optimization is the topic cluster, never one keyword; producing pages per question variant is scaled content spam.
6. Measures with the 2026 instrumentation: GSC's Generative AI report and GA4's AI Assistant channel, plus the standard validation pass of Rich Results Test, Core Web Vitals and mobile checks.

## FAQ
### Is this only for new sites, or can I retrofit an existing one?
It's a reference you apply to what's already live. EEAT evaluation, direct-answer formatting, the four JSON-LD patterns, and the technical checklist covering metadata, hreflang, sitemaps, and robots.txt all work as a retrofit pass, no rebuild required.

### Where does optimizing for AI engines differ from classic SEO here?
The AEO layer adds what classic SEO doesn't ask for: direct-answer content formats, concise fact-dense quotable paragraphs, an llms.txt template, and AI-crawler bot management directives. The target is being cited as a source by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews, not just ranking.

### Can it guarantee AI engines will cite my site?
No. It raises citability through format and structure, but AI engines choose their sources opaquely and the landscape keeps shifting. The skill gives you the controllable inputs, not the outcome.

## Price
$15, one-time, no subscription. VAT included.

Related guide: [How to automate SEO and AEO with Claude](https://forgehouse.ai/guides/automate-seo-claude/)