--- title: "SEO & AI Search Optimization" slug: "seo" category: "seo" tags: ["moc", "seo", "discoverability", "schema-org", "llms-txt", "ai-search"] status: "stable" last_updated: 2026-08-14 summary: "Hub for the full SEO surface: technical foundation, content rules, structured data, discoverability files, AI/agent readability, and step-by-step howtos." --- > Search and agent discoverability as one coherent surface. Start at the foundation (technical), then layer content, structured data, and the discoverability files agents expect. Each row is one rule. ## Foundation The technical baseline. Get these wrong and nothing else matters. - [[seo/glossary]]: Comprehensive SEO glossary; every term defined and grouped by category. Start here if any term is unfamiliar. - [[technical]]: Crawlability, canonicals, sitemaps, URL hygiene, rendering choices. - [[content]]: Topical authority, intent matching, internal linking. - [[seo/e-e-a-t]]: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. - [[helpful-content-update]]: Google's Helpful Content System: the site-wide quality classifier and how to pass it. - [[algorithm-history]]: Timeline of major Google ranking updates (Panda through HCS) and what current updates target. - [[audit-checklist]]: Master single-page audit framework: pre-launch and quarterly. ## AI search and agent readability How to be quotable by AI engines and discoverable by autonomous agents. - [[ai-search-optimization]]: Optimize for the specific AI search engines: Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, and Bing Copilot. - [[llm-seo-best-practices]]: Pillar playbook for LLM SEO: topical clusters, literal-query titles, answer-first openings, structured metadata, and llms.txt. - [[generative-engine-optimization]]: What GEO is, how it differs from SEO and AEO, and the levers that move citation share in AI answers. - [[discoverable-by-ai-assistants]]: The end-to-end playbook for making a site discoverable, parseable, and citable by AI assistants. - [[answer-first-content]]: Lead every page with a direct, self-contained answer so LLMs can extract and cite the opening chunk. - [[structured-data-for-ai-crawlers]]: Which JSON-LD schemas help AI crawlers parse and cite a page, and why unbacked markup earns nothing. - [[seo/answer-engine-optimization]]: Become the cited answer inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. - [[seo/ai-overviews]]: Earn inclusion and a citation link in the Google AI Overviews SERP feature. - [[llm-discoverability-standard]]: The five core items every site ships to be legible to AI assistants; the standard this domain anchors. - [[seo/llms-txt]]: The /llms.txt standard for agent-facing site indexes. - [[seo/agents-txt]]: The /agents.txt agent-policy file: required keys, semantics, and validation. - [[seo/ai-txt]]: The ai.txt standard for AI training opt-out. - [[discoverability-files]]: Master catalog of every special file a public site ships at the root. ## Site architecture URL hierarchy, redirects, scale. - [[site-architecture]]: Silo structure, URL hierarchy, breadcrumbs, depth-from-home. - [[internal-linking]]: Anchor text, link depth, orphan audits, three-click rule. - [[redirects]]: 301 vs 302 vs canonical, chain depth, query handling. - [[hreflang]]: Multi-language and multi-region site setup. - [[pagination-and-facets]]: Large-site pagination and faceted-nav SEO. - [[seo/crawl-budget]]: Crawl budget for sites over 10k URLs. - [[seo/indexnow]]: IndexNow protocol for sub-hour change notification. - [[sitemaps-deep]]: Sitemap index, per-format sitemaps, news and image sitemaps, lastmod hygiene. ## Off-page and verticals Link earning, and the vertical content types that need their own playbook. - [[backlinks]]: Backlinks and link building: referring domains, original research, broken-link rebuilding, disavow. - [[video-seo]]: VideoObject schema, transcripts, hosting, video sitemaps. - [[news-seo]]: Time-sensitive ranking, NewsArticle schema, Publisher Center, AMP retirement. - [[ecommerce-seo]]: Product schema, OOS handling, faceted nav, review schema. ## Content strategy What to write, how to cluster it, how to keep it fresh. - [[content-clusters]]: Pillar pages plus cluster pages and the rules that bind them. - [[keyword-research]]: Tools, intent classification, long-tail terms. - [[title-tags]]: Title tag SEO as its own discipline: length, brand placement, click-magnetism. - [[serp-features]]: How to win featured snippets, People Also Ask, and knowledge panels. - [[content-refresh]]: When and how to refresh existing pages without triggering HCS downweight. - [[cannibalization]]: Detect and fix two pages competing for the same query. - [[author-entities]]: Connect authors to Google's knowledge graph to strengthen E-E-A-T signals. ## Structured data The markup that turns pages into rich results and AI citations. - [[structured-data]]: JSON-LD schemas worth shipping, and which still earn rich results. - [[schema-markup-deep]]: Product, Course, VideoObject, DefinedTerm, plus the retired HowTo and FAQPage types and what they are still good for. ## Performance and rendering Core Web Vitals, page speed, and the JS-side fixes. - [[seo/core-web-vitals]]: LCP, INP, and CLS thresholds and fixes. - [[page-speed]]: TTFB, FCP, image optimization, font loading, JS deferral. What CWV does not cover. - [[javascript-seo]]: How crawlers render JS, render-budget reality, SPA pitfalls. - [[mobile-first]]: Mobile-first indexing, viewport, touch targets, responsive. ## Images and social OG cards, image SEO, and the social-sharing surface. - [[og-images]]: OG image sizing and dynamic generation. - [[image-seo]]: Filenames, alt text, dimensions, formats, lazy loading, sitemaps. ## Local Geo-bound discovery. - [[local-seo]]: Google Business Profile, NAP, reviews, LocalBusiness schema. ## Howtos (step-by-step) When you need the procedure, not the rule. - [[howto/static-site-seo]]: Ship every SEO artifact at build time, end-to-end. - [[howto/seo-migration-playbook]]: Domain change, HTTPS migration, restructure, platform swap. - [[howto/master-google-search-console]]: Every major GSC report explained. - [[howto/add-jsonld-to-static-site]]: Pick the right schema types, inject JSON-LD, validate. - [[howto/write-meta-descriptions]]: 150-160 character descriptions with the primary keyword. - [[howto/optimize-core-web-vitals]]: Fix LCP, INP, and CLS at p75. - [[howto/audit-site-for-core-web-vitals]]: Lighthouse, CrUX, web-vitals JS triage loop. - [[howto/ship-llms-txt]]: Decide structure, write summaries, place at root. - [[howto/add-llms-txt-to-existing-site]]: Retrofit llms.txt onto a live site. - [[howto/audit-llms-txt-with-claude]]: Validate llms.txt against the spec with Claude. - [[howto/write-llm-friendly-content]]: The end-to-end agent-readability ruleset. - [[howto/optimize-images-for-web]]: Resize, convert, lazy-load, explicit dimensions. ## Glossary anchors Atomic definitions you can link to from any page. - [[glossary/lcp]], [[glossary/inp]], [[glossary/cls]]: Core Web Vitals metrics. - [[glossary/canonical-url]]: One URL form per page. - [[glossary/crawl-budget]]: When site-size starts to matter. - [[glossary/tree-shaking]]: JS-bundle-side fix for performance. ## Related MOCs - [[frontend/index|Frontend]] - [[writing/index|Writing]] - [[ai-agents/index|AI Agents]] - [[howto/index|How To]] - [[glossary/index|Glossary]]