Guides
Plain-English guides on getting found by Google and AI. No jargon, just how the systems read your site and what actually moves the needle.
AI search statistics 2026
Every AI search number worth citing, traced to the study that produced it. Audience, referral traffic, click loss, conversion, citations, freshness and cost, each with its sample size and date.
How Perplexity picks the sources it links
Perplexity shows its sources next to every answer, and its crawler exists only to surface them. What it looks for, and why it drops pages that go quiet.
How ChatGPT decides which sites to cite
ChatGPT uses two crawlers with similar names, and only one of them decides whether you can appear in its answers. Which is which, and how to check yours.
Google's preferred sources button: is it worth adding?
Google now lets readers mark your site as a preferred source, and hands you a button to ask them. What it changes across Search, Discover and AI Mode, and why it only pays off once you have readers.
Google now checks if AI agents can use your site
Google added a new score, Agentic Browsing, for whether AI assistants can read and click through your pages. What it checks, why it matters, and how to pass it.
SEO jargon you keep hearing: what actually matters
JSON-LD, schema, canonical, semantic HTML, meta keywords. A plain-English verdict on the technical terms people throw at you, and which ones actually move the needle.
Do you need AI visibility monitoring? Probably not yet
Monitoring tools ask the AIs about you every week and send a report with homework attached. What that buys you, what it quietly leaves on your plate, and why fixing your signals comes first.
The dirty side of AEO is making headlines
A shady version of AEO is in the news: planting fake posts to steer what ChatGPT and Google's AI say. Why the shortcut backfires, and why honest signals outlast it.
Put the answer up top, or AI will skip past it
AI engines lift short passages, and most come from the top of the page. Why a great answer buried in the middle gets skipped, and how to put it where a model will find it.
Why AI stops citing pages that go stale
AI answer engines lean on recent pages. Most citations go to content updated in the last year, and a page that goes stale quietly drops out. How to keep yours fresh without rewriting it.
Rented or owned? Where your SEO fixes really live
Some tools inject your fixes from their own server on a monthly plan, so they vanish the day you stop paying. Why fixes that live in your own site are stronger and yours to keep.
Got an email saying your site is not ranking? Spot the scam
Strangers email that your site is not on Google and they can fix it for a fee. Most are templated scams. The red flags, and what an honest audit looks like.
Is AEO just SEO hype? An honest answer
Plenty of agencies resell ordinary SEO as AEO at a premium. What is genuinely new, what is repackaged, and where your effort actually pays off.
When AI gets your brand wrong, and what to do
An AI can confidently state something false about your business, to people who never visit your site to check. Why it happens, and how to fix it.
ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity do not cite the same way
Each AI engine favours different pages: product pages, blog posts, the freshest result. Why a single AEO recipe under-performs.
For AI citations, mentions may matter more than links
Classic SEO runs on backlinks. AI citation seems to run on something looser: how often your name comes up across the web, linked or not.
Why a #1 ranking does not guarantee an AI citation
Most pages AI cites do rank on Google, but rarely at number one. ChatGPT and Perplexity reach past the top result for the cleanest answer.
How to write content AI will actually quote
AI engines pull short passages, not whole pages. How to structure what you write so a model can lift a clean answer and credit you.
SEO, AEO, GEO, SXO, AIO: which letters actually matter
Five acronyms, endless threads, and a lot of noise. What each one really means, how much they overlap, and the short list worth your time.
Why AI crawlers may never see your JavaScript
If your titles, meta and schema are added by JavaScript, many AI crawlers never see them. Why HTML first wins.
Why asking AI if it knows you is the wrong test
Typing do you know my brand into a chatbot is not a real visibility check. Why it misleads, and what to measure instead.
What is llms.txt, and do you need one?
The new file everyone in AI search keeps mentioning. What it is, what it is not, and whether it is worth adding.
Is your robots.txt blocking AI crawlers?
Your robots.txt can quietly shut out GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot. How to check yours and let the right crawlers in.
What are backlinks, and why they matter for SEO and AI
Another site linking to yours is still one of the strongest trust signals on the web. How Google weighs them, and why they help AI cite you.
How to get cited by AI (it is mostly SEO)
Around seven in ten pages cited in AI answers already rank on Google. What that means, and what actually gets you quoted.
SEO vs AEO: how to get found by Google and AI
What SEO and AEO are, how they differ, and the five questions everyone asks about both.