{ "meta": { "name": "The Modern SEO + AI Optimisation Standard", "short_name": "SEO+AI Standard", "version": "1.1", "as_of": "2026-08", "maintainer": "Dog on the Table", "description": "A weighted, tiered, checkable standard for ranking in classic search AND being retrieved and cited by AI answer engines (Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini). One canonical data layer that drives the public guide, the downloadable checklist, the client scoring framework, and the infographic.", "based_on": "NotebookLM notebook 'Strategic SEO 2026: Mastering the New Search Reality' (18 trusted sources). Each criterion cites the source(s) it draws from. v1.1 folds in five checks informed by Aleyda Solis's AI Search Optimization Checklist (May 2026).", "disclaimer": "A high score reflects the signals current search and AI systems reward. It is a repeatable, defensible read on readiness, not a guarantee of ranking or citation. Use it to find weak spots, prioritise fixes, and win the argument about what to do next.", "principle": "Dual optimisation: every pillar serves both traditional Google ranking and direct visibility inside AI-generated answers. The biggest single lever is owning your facts and structuring them for retrieval.", "changelog": [ { "version": "1.0", "date": "2026-07", "note": "Initial release. 10 pillars, 27 criteria, weights sum to 100." }, { "version": "1.1", "date": "2026-08", "note": "Five new criteria (chr4, cgt4, afa4, com3, dik4): AI crawler access and rendering, machine-readable commercial facts, five-signal footprint audits, third-party profile accuracy, and best-for/not-for fit statements. New source: Aleyda Solis's AI Search Optimization Checklist. Eleven existing criteria (cgt1, cgt2, chr1, chr3, geo3, afa1, che3, dik3, com2, aut3, omn2) each ceded one weight point so the total stays 100. Weight rebalancing happened while no scores were public; from v1.1 the standard changes additively only, with any future rebalance reserved for an annual major version with full re-scoring." } ] }, "tiers": { "win": { "label": "Win", "order": 1, "definition": "High-impact lever. The biggest movement for the effort. Do these first.", "colour": "pink" }, "should": { "label": "Should do", "order": 2, "definition": "Baseline you are expected to meet under current best practice and guidelines. Table stakes.", "colour": "ink" }, "could": { "label": "Could do", "order": 3, "definition": "Advanced or incremental. Worth doing once the wins and shoulds are in place.", "colour": "ink-muted" } }, "scopes": { "page": "On-page content and structure of an individual page.", "site": "Site-wide architecture, content set, or policy.", "entity": "Off-site presence of the brand/entity across the wider web.", "process": "An ongoing workflow or operating habit, not a one-off artefact.", "strategy": "Planning, targeting, and measurement decisions." }, "automation_tiers": { "script": { "label": "Script", "definition": "Detected deterministically from a page fetch or API. Low false-positive. No LLM judgement." }, "llm_judge": { "label": "LLM judge", "definition": "An LLM reads the content and makes a qualitative call. Automatable but probabilistic." }, "hybrid": { "label": "Hybrid", "definition": "A script gathers a signal, then an LLM or human interprets it. The interpreting half is the load-bearing one." }, "manual": { "label": "Manual", "definition": "Process, strategy, or off-site reality that cannot be read off a page. Needs human or business knowledge." } }, "status_values": { "met": { "label": "Met", "score": 1.0, "definition": "Done well and consistently." }, "partial": { "label": "Partial", "score": 0.5, "definition": "Started or inconsistent. Real but incomplete." }, "unmet": { "label": "Not met", "score": 0.0, "definition": "Absent, or not done deliberately." }, "na": { "label": "N/A", "score": null, "definition": "Genuinely does not apply to this site/campaign. Excluded from the score." } }, "scoring": { "method": "Overall % = sum(weight x status_score) across all non-N/A criteria, divided by sum(weight of non-N/A criteria), x100. Pillar % is the same maths within one pillar.", "priority_rule": "Action priority = criterion weight x (1 - status_score). Unmet and partial criteria are ranked by this gap value, then surfaced tier-first (wins before shoulds before coulds).", "bands": { "leading": { "min": 85, "label": "Leading", "note": "Built for the new search reality. Hold the line and refine." }, "strong": { "min": 70, "label": "Strong", "note": "Solid foundations. A handful of wins left on the table." }, "emerging": { "min": 50, "label": "Emerging", "note": "The basics are forming. Clear, high-value gaps to close." }, "exposed": { "min": 30, "label": "Exposed", "note": "Visible to classic search at best, largely invisible to AI answers." }, "absent": { "min": 0, "label": "Absent", "note": "Not yet built for either ranking or AI citation. Start with the wins." } } }, "sources": { "hobo_aiseo": { "title": "Strategic AiSEO 2025", "author": "Shaun Anderson / Hobo Web", "type": "pdf", "url": "https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/hobo-seo-quadrilogy/", "group": "hobo_quadrilogy" }, "hobo_tech": { "title": "Technical SEO 2025", "author": "Shaun Anderson / Hobo Web", "type": "pdf", "url": "https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/hobo-seo-quadrilogy/", "group": "hobo_quadrilogy" }, "hobo_seo": { "title": "Strategic SEO 2025", "author": "Shaun Anderson / Hobo Web", "type": "pdf", "url": "https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/hobo-seo-quadrilogy/", "group": "hobo_quadrilogy" }, "whitehat": { "title": "How SEO Really Works in 2026", "author": "Whitehat", "type": "web", "url": "https://whitehat-seo.co.uk/blog/how-seo-really-works" }, "yt_seochanged": { "title": "SEO Has Changed: Here's What Works Now", "type": "youtube", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG_UeRQH01k", "author": "Semrush" }, "yt_7strategies": { "title": "7 SEO Strategies That Actually Work in 2026", "type": "youtube", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r4UeXEv5dc", "author": "Marketing School" }, "yt_playbook": { "title": "The SEO Playbook That Actually Works in 2026", "type": "youtube", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWHcOQCw4NU", "author": "Leveling Up with Eric Siu" }, "sel_traffic": { "title": "How to estimate the traffic impact of SEO fixes", "author": "Search Engine Land", "type": "web", "url": "https://searchengineland.com/estimate-traffic-impact-seo-fixes-479814" }, "reddit_dm": { "title": "SEO in 2026: What's Changing and What Actually Works Now?", "author": "r/digital_marketing", "type": "web", "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/digital_marketing/comments/1rg373g/seo_in_2026_whats_changing_and_what_actually/" }, "aleyda_checklist": { "title": "The AI Search Optimization Checklist", "author": "Aleyda Solis", "type": "web", "url": "https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/ai-search/ai-search-optimization-checklist/" } }, "pillars": [ { "id": "canonical_ground_truth", "title": "Own a canonical source of ground truth", "weight": 16, "summary": "Make your own site the undisputed, complete source of every verifiable fact about your entity.", "why": "Deployed AI uses retrieval-augmented generation: it scans live indexes for factual chunks to answer queries. If you own and publish those facts, the AI leans on your accurate content instead of guessing, stitching together fragments, or fabricating. This is the single biggest lever, and the foundation the other pillars build on.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "aleyda_checklist" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "cgt1", "tier": "win", "scope": "site", "weight": 5, "question": "Have you published a comprehensive, verifiable set of facts about your entity (history, products, services, specs, people, values) on your own site?", "good": "A deliberate, fact-dense set of owned pages that answer what a customer or an AI would ask about you.", "action": "Systematically gather every verifiable fact about the entity and publish it as canonical, structured content. Treat the site as the official reference, not the brochure.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "cgt2", "tier": "should", "scope": "process", "weight": 4, "question": "Is that factual content kept current, with a named owner and a review cadence, so your site stays the up-to-date knowledge base AI retrieves from?", "good": "Facts are reviewed and updated as they change. Updating a page updates what AI knows.", "action": "Assign ownership and a review cadence. Update the substance when facts change, not just the date.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "hobo_tech" ] }, { "id": "cgt3", "tier": "should", "scope": "site", "weight": 4, "question": "Is there one authoritative page per fact-set, with no fragmented or conflicting versions across the site?", "good": "Canonical pages, cleanly internally linked, no duplicate or contradictory facts competing.", "action": "Consolidate duplicate and conflicting information into single canonical pages and point internal links at them.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "cgt4", "tier": "should", "scope": "site", "weight": 3, "question": "Have you published current prices, plans, specifications, availability, service scope and policies as visible page content, with matching structured data or feeds wherever appropriate?", "good": "Customers and machines find the same current commercial facts on the page and in relevant structured data or feeds.", "action": "Publish the commercial facts people need to compare and choose. Keep the page, structured data and feeds in step. If hiding prices is strategic, accept that answer engines will handle those selection prompts without you.", "sources": [ "aleyda_checklist" ] } ] }, { "id": "chunking_retrieval", "title": "Structure content for AI chunking and retrieval", "weight": 14, "summary": "Format pages so machines can extract self-contained, citable chunks.", "why": "AI does not read pages top to bottom. It retrieves standalone passages and stitches them into a synthesised answer. Structured, scannable pages are the path of least resistance to being extracted and cited.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "hobo_tech", "aleyda_checklist" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "chr1", "tier": "win", "scope": "page", "weight": 4, "question": "Are pages built around clear, question-based H2/H3 headings that match how real people ask?", "good": "Headings are natural-language questions an AI can map a query to.", "action": "Rewrite headings as the questions your audience actually types or speaks.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "chr2", "tier": "win", "scope": "page", "weight": 4, "question": "Are paragraphs concise and semantically self-contained, so each one still makes sense lifted out of the page?", "good": "Each passage is a standalone chunk: one idea, complete on its own.", "action": "Tighten content into self-contained chunks. Put a direct answer in the first 40 to 60 words of a section.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "hobo_tech" ] }, { "id": "chr4", "tier": "win", "scope": "site", "weight": 3, "question": "Can GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and CCBot fetch your priority pages as server-rendered HTML, with clean canonicals and no accidental noindex or snippet restrictions?", "good": "Priority pages return clean, indexable, server-rendered HTML to permitted crawlers, while every intentional block records its reason and visibility trade-off.", "action": "Test each priority page against the main AI crawlers. Fix rendering, canonicals, indexing rules and snippet limits. Treat Google-Extended separately: it controls Gemini training, while Googlebot controls eligibility for Google's AI Overviews.", "sources": [ "aleyda_checklist" ] }, { "id": "chr3", "tier": "should", "scope": "page", "weight": 3, "question": "Do key pages use FAQ sections and scannable formats (lists, steps, tables) with appropriate structured markup?", "good": "FAQ blocks and scannable structures, marked up so machines parse them cleanly.", "action": "Add FAQ sections, lists, steps and comparison tables, plus FAQ/Article schema.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "hobo_tech" ] } ] }, { "id": "geo_elements", "title": "Add the GEO trust elements: statistics, quotes and citations", "weight": 11, "summary": "Pack content with the evidence AI models look for before they cite a source.", "why": "Princeton and Georgia Tech research on Generative Engine Optimisation found that statistics, attributed expert quotes, and citations to authoritative sources lift visibility in AI answers by 30 to 40 percent. These are the corroboration models require.", "sources": [ "whitehat" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "geo1", "tier": "win", "scope": "page", "weight": 5, "question": "Do you include hard statistics roughly every 150 to 200 words, with the source attributed?", "good": "Attributed, specific figures at that density, not vague claims.", "action": "Add attributed statistics through the body at roughly that cadence.", "sources": [ "whitehat" ] }, { "id": "geo2", "tier": "win", "scope": "page", "weight": 4, "question": "Do you integrate attributed expert quotes, with the expert's credentials shown?", "good": "Named, credentialed quotes that add authority.", "action": "Add quotes from credentialed experts and show their credentials.", "sources": [ "whitehat" ] }, { "id": "geo3", "tier": "should", "scope": "page", "weight": 2, "question": "Do you cite authoritative external sources inline within the content?", "good": "Claims are backed by links to authoritative, verifiable sources.", "action": "Cite authoritative sources inline so the model can corroborate your claims.", "sources": [ "whitehat" ] } ] }, { "id": "ai_footprint_audit", "title": "Run regular AI footprint audits", "weight": 9, "summary": "Know what AI currently says about you, and fix the gaps before customers see them.", "why": "Querying the answer engines maps your presence in the synthetic content layer: the inaccuracies, gaps and misrepresentations that exist before they reach a customer. It tells you exactly what content to publish to correct the record.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "aleyda_checklist" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "afa1", "tier": "win", "scope": "process", "weight": 3, "question": "Do you query ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with your brand, product and key people's names to see what AI says about you?", "good": "You have looked, recently, at what the answer engines actually return about the entity.", "action": "Run an AI footprint audit: ask the customer questions across the major engines and record the answers.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "afa2", "tier": "should", "scope": "process", "weight": 2, "question": "Do you turn audit findings (inaccuracies, gaps, negative sentiment) into a concrete content and FAQ backlog?", "good": "Every wrong or missing answer becomes a content task that corrects it.", "action": "Convert each finding into a page or FAQ that publishes the correct fact.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "afa3", "tier": "should", "scope": "process", "weight": 2, "question": "Is the audit recurring and tracked over time, not a one-off?", "good": "A monitored cadence, so you catch drift and measure improvement.", "action": "Schedule the audit (for example monthly) and track how answers change.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "afa4", "tier": "should", "scope": "process", "weight": 2, "question": "When you audit answer engines, do you record whether your brand appears, earns a recommendation, receives a link, is preferred to competitors and is described accurately across a representative prompt set?", "good": "Each sampled answer records five separate signals, making patterns across prompts visible instead of pretending one run is a ranking.", "action": "Record appearance, recommendation, link, preference and accuracy as separate fields for every answer. Review patterns across prompts, then assign the fix each weak signal calls for.", "sources": [ "aleyda_checklist" ] } ] }, { "id": "cyborg_human_eeat", "title": "AI drafts, humans verify (the cyborg technique)", "weight": 11, "summary": "Use AI for speed, but ship demonstrable human effort and expertise.", "why": "Google's leaked documentation confirms an LLM-based content effort signal that demotes low-effort, scaled or unoriginal AI text, and it is a site-level signal. Pairing AI drafting with expert human verification and original effort clears that quality filter.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "hobo_tech" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "che1", "tier": "win", "scope": "process", "weight": 4, "question": "Does every AI-assisted draft get fact-checked and enriched by a named subject-matter expert before it goes live?", "good": "A mandatory human-in-the-loop step: no AI draft publishes unverified.", "action": "Make expert human review non-negotiable. The expert fact-checks, adds first-hand experience and signs off.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "che2", "tier": "should", "scope": "page", "weight": 4, "question": "Does your content show high effort (original research, unique data, custom visuals or analysis) rather than templated or rewritten text?", "good": "Demonstrable intellectual and creative investment a competitor could not cheaply copy.", "action": "Invest visible effort: original data, custom visuals, genuine analysis. Use AI to enhance human work, not replace it.", "sources": [ "hobo_tech" ] }, { "id": "che3", "tier": "should", "scope": "site", "weight": 3, "question": "Is site-wide quality maintained, with no thin or low-effort pages dragging the whole domain down?", "good": "No weak pages diluting the domain. Quality is consistent across the site.", "action": "Audit for thin or low-effort pages and prune, merge or upgrade them. Site-level quality affects everything.", "sources": [ "hobo_tech" ] } ] }, { "id": "decision_intent_keywords", "title": "Pivot to decision-intent keywords", "weight": 9, "summary": "Shift from informational queries AI now answers for free, to bottom-funnel decision queries that convert.", "why": "Around 60 percent of Google searches now end with no click because AI Overviews answer definitions instantly, so informational traffic is plateauing. But visitors arriving from AI search convert at roughly three times the rate of traditional organic, and those are decision-stage queries.", "sources": [ "whitehat", "yt_seochanged", "reddit_dm", "aleyda_checklist" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "dik1", "tier": "win", "scope": "strategy", "weight": 4, "question": "Is your content and keyword priority weighted toward bottom-funnel, decision-making queries rather than top-of-funnel 'what is X' definitions?", "good": "Effort is concentrated where intent is to choose or buy, not just to learn.", "action": "Reprioritise the content plan toward decision-intent queries that convert.", "sources": [ "yt_seochanged", "whitehat" ] }, { "id": "dik2", "tier": "should", "scope": "strategy", "weight": 3, "question": "Have you re-baselined KPIs for the zero-click reality (presence in the answer, conversions, assisted AI traffic) instead of raw informational sessions?", "good": "Success is measured as being in the answer and converting, not just clicks.", "action": "Reset KPIs to AI-era metrics: answer presence, conversions, quality of assisted traffic.", "sources": [ "whitehat", "sel_traffic" ] }, { "id": "dik3", "tier": "could", "scope": "strategy", "weight": 1, "question": "Do you separately track conversions from AI-referred traffic?", "good": "You can see the higher-converting AI-sourced visitors as their own segment.", "action": "Segment and measure conversions from AI answer engines.", "sources": [ "whitehat" ] }, { "id": "dik4", "tier": "could", "scope": "page", "weight": 1, "question": "Do your commercial pages say who each offer is best for, who it isn't for and which trade-offs matter when comparing alternatives?", "good": "Clear statements about fit, poor fit and trade-offs give answer engines sound reasons to recommend you to the right buyers.", "action": "Replace claims that the offer suits everyone with specific fit criteria. Name the buyers it won't serve well and explain the trade-offs against realistic alternatives.", "sources": [ "aleyda_checklist" ] } ] }, { "id": "disambiguation_schema", "title": "Embed disambiguation factoids in schema", "weight": 8, "summary": "Tell AI exactly who you are, in machine-readable form, so it stops confusing or guessing.", "why": "LLMs make inferential leaps and confuse similarly named brands. Clear factual statements about your identity, wrapped in structured data, force entity-resolution systems to rely on your verified facts.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "dis1", "tier": "win", "scope": "page", "weight": 4, "question": "Do your About and bio pages state crisp disambiguation factoids: exact identity, founders, what you do and what you are not?", "good": "Plain, legible statements that pin down the entity unambiguously.", "action": "Publish concise disambiguation statements on About and entity pages.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "dis2", "tier": "should", "scope": "site", "weight": 4, "question": "Are those facts wrapped in Schema.org structured data (Organization, Person, sameAs)?", "good": "Machine-readable JSON-LD that confirms the entity and links its profiles.", "action": "Add Organization and Person JSON-LD with sameAs links to your verified profiles.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo", "hobo_tech" ] } ] }, { "id": "cooccurrence_mentions", "title": "Earn co-occurrence and brand mentions", "weight": 9, "summary": "Build entity consensus across trusted third parties, not just links.", "why": "Generative engines weigh entity-level consensus, not just link volume. A consistent pattern of brand mentions (linked or not) across diverse, trusted sources signals that you are an authority in that context.", "sources": [ "yt_7strategies", "hobo_aiseo", "aleyda_checklist" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "com1", "tier": "win", "scope": "entity", "weight": 4, "question": "Do you actively earn brand mentions on authoritative sites in your niche (for example via competitor backlink and mention-gap outreach)?", "good": "A deliberate programme that gets the brand named on trusted third-party pages.", "action": "Audit where competitors are mentioned and pitch to be named on those same authoritative pages.", "sources": [ "yt_7strategies" ] }, { "id": "com2", "tier": "should", "scope": "entity", "weight": 3, "question": "Is your brand consistently associated with your core topics across diverse trusted sources, not only on your own site?", "good": "Off-site corroboration: third parties connect your brand to your topics.", "action": "Build co-occurrence: get the brand and its topics mentioned together across trusted external sources.", "sources": [ "hobo_aiseo" ] }, { "id": "com3", "tier": "should", "scope": "entity", "weight": 2, "question": "Have you checked that the third-party profiles answer engines use, including review sites, Google Business Profile, Crunchbase, directories, marketplaces and partner listings, match your current canonical facts?", "good": "The profiles most likely to describe your business agree with your site on names, offers, locations, prices and other material facts.", "action": "List every material third-party profile. Compare each one with your canonical facts and correct stale or conflicting details. Repeat the check on a set schedule before chasing more mentions.", "sources": [ "aleyda_checklist" ] } ] }, { "id": "author_entities", "title": "Define author entities to prove E-E-A-T", "weight": 8, "summary": "Make your authors real, recognisable entities so Google can transfer their trust to your content.", "why": "Google's ranking infrastructure tracks author reputation and works out whether the entity named on a page is also its author. Surfacing real, credentialed authors proves the real-world experience AI cannot fake.", "sources": [ "hobo_tech", "hobo_seo" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "aut1", "tier": "win", "scope": "page", "weight": 4, "question": "Does content carry consistent named bylines that link to detailed author bio pages with credentials?", "good": "Every substantive page names its author and links to a real bio.", "action": "Add named bylines and build rich author pages that state credentials.", "sources": [ "hobo_tech" ] }, { "id": "aut2", "tier": "should", "scope": "site", "weight": 3, "question": "Are your authors established as real-world entities (consistent identity, connected professional profiles, Person schema with sameAs)?", "good": "Authors are recognisable entities Google can resolve and trust.", "action": "Connect each author's footprint across professional networks and mark it up with Person schema and sameAs.", "sources": [ "hobo_tech", "hobo_seo" ] }, { "id": "aut3", "tier": "could", "scope": "page", "weight": 1, "question": "Do authors demonstrate first-hand experience of the topics they write about?", "good": "Bios and content show the author has actually done the thing.", "action": "Surface first-hand experience in author bios and within the content itself.", "sources": [ "hobo_tech" ] } ] }, { "id": "omnichannel_search", "title": "Go where search now happens (search everywhere)", "weight": 5, "summary": "Syndicate your expertise to the platforms AI models actually source from.", "why": "Searchers spread queries beyond Google, and major LLMs have direct data deals with platforms like Reddit. Native content on YouTube, Reddit and Quora puts you into the third-party databases RAG engines crawl to build answers.", "sources": [ "yt_playbook", "reddit_dm" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "omn1", "tier": "win", "scope": "entity", "weight": 3, "question": "Do you repurpose your core expertise into native formats on high-authority secondary platforms (YouTube, Reddit, Quora)?", "good": "Your expertise lives natively on the platforms, not just as links back to your site.", "action": "Repurpose key expertise into platform-native YouTube, Reddit and Quora content.", "sources": [ "yt_playbook" ] }, { "id": "omn2", "tier": "should", "scope": "entity", "weight": 2, "question": "Are you present where LLMs source their data, so retrieval engines can surface you?", "good": "A presence on the data sources (Reddit, YouTube) that feed AI answers.", "action": "Build and maintain presence on the platforms LLMs are known to source from.", "sources": [ "reddit_dm", "yt_playbook" ] } ] } ], "source_groups": { "hobo_quadrilogy": { "title": "Shaun Anderson's excellent Hobo SEO Quadrilogy", "note": "the Strategic AiSEO, Technical SEO and Strategic SEO guides", "url": "https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/hobo-seo-quadrilogy/" } } }