Articles
Agent SEO, explained without the mystique
Guides to getting found and recommended by AI assistants. Each one is dated, cites its sources and says where the evidence runs out. Written by me, from what I have tested on my own sites.
All articles
The basics
What is Agent SEO? A plain-English guide
Agent SEO means making your website easy for AI assistants to find, understand and recommend. What it involves, how it differs from SEO, and where to start.
The basics
GEO vs AEO vs AI SEO: what the terms mean
Generative engine optimisation (GEO), answer engine optimisation (AEO), AI SEO and Agent SEO explained: where each term came from and whether they differ.
How-to
How to get recommended by ChatGPT
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT: what OpenAI says it needs, seven things that help, what does not work, and how to check your progress.
Technical
What is llms.txt, and does it actually work?
What llms.txt is, how to write one, and what the evidence says about whether ChatGPT, Claude or Google read it. An honest guide with a working example.
Technical
AI crawlers and robots.txt: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and the rest
A reference to the AI crawlers that visit your site (GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) and the robots.txt rules for each.
Technical
Schema markup for AI search: what to add and what to skip
Which schema markup helps AI assistants understand your business, with copy-and-paste JSON-LD for organisations, products and FAQs, and what to skip.
How-to
How to check if AI can find your website
A 20-minute check, no tools needed: test whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity can reach, read and recommend your website, and what to fix.
By business type
AI search visibility for local businesses
How local businesses get recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot: the listings that matter, what to put on your website, and a one-afternoon plan.
By business type
How to get your app recommended by AI assistants
How apps get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants: store listings, your own website, comparison pages, and what I found testing 11 of my own.
How-to
How to appear in Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews
What each AI assistant needs before it will cite you: Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Claude and Copilot, with the rules for each.
Technical
Bing, IndexNow and ChatGPT search: the overlooked basics
Why Bing matters for ChatGPT and Copilot, how to set up Bing Webmaster Tools, and how IndexNow tells search engines about new pages within minutes.
How-to
How to measure your AI search visibility
A simple, honest method for measuring AI search visibility: which questions to ask, how often, what to record, and which free reports and tags to use.
Find out what the assistants say about you
Send me your address. I check it by hand and reply with what I found, usually within two working days. It costs nothing, and any paid work comes with a fixed quote first.