nhouseholder/seo-aeo

SEO & AEO — Be Findable by Search Engines and AI

Source: sanity-io/agent-toolkit seo-aeo-best-practices (cherry-picked, Sanity-specific code removed)

When to Apply

• During /site-redesign or /site-update — check SEO after visual changes
• During /site-audit or /site-review — include SEO checklist
• When building any new page or site
• When user asks about SEO, metadata, or structured data

Technical SEO Checklist

Metadata (every page)

• [ ] Title tag: unique, 50-60 chars, primary keyword near start
• [ ] Meta description: unique, 150-160 chars, includes CTA
• [ ] Open Graph: og:title, og:description, og:image (1200x630), og:url, og:type
• [ ] Canonical URL set (prevents duplicate content)

Infrastructure

• [ ] Sitemap at /sitemap.xml — dynamic from content, includes lastModified
• [ ] robots.txt — allow /, disallow /api/, /studio/, etc.
• [ ] HTTPS enforced
• [ ] No broken internal links

Performance (SEO impact)

• [ ] LCP < 2.5s, INP < 200ms, CLS < 0.1
• [ ] Images: WebP/AVIF, explicit dimensions, lazy loading below fold
• [ ] Fonts: display: swap, preloaded

JSON-LD Structured Data

Add to every page. Use @graph to combine multiple schemas:

function JsonLd({ data }) {
  return (
    <script
      type="application/ld+json"
      dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify(data) }}
    />
  )
}

Common Schema Types

Article/Blog Post:

{
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "...",
  "datePublished": "...",
  "dateModified": "...",
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "..." },
  "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "...", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "..." } }
}

FAQ Page:

{
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "...", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "..." } }]
}

Organization:

{
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "...", "url": "...", "logo": "...",
  "sameAs": ["https://twitter.com/...", "https://linkedin.com/..."]
}

Breadcrumb:

{
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [{ "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "...", "item": "..." }]
}

Combining Schemas

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [articleSchema, breadcrumbSchema, orgSchema]
}

Testing

• Google Rich Results Test: search.google.com/test/rich-results
• Schema.org Validator: validator.schema.org

EEAT Signals

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's content quality framework.

Implement on every site:

• Author bios with credentials and relevant experience
• Publication and update dates displayed prominently
• dateModified in structured data
• Contact information visible
• HTTPS + privacy policy
• Citations to primary sources

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

Optimize content for AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews):

Content Structure

1. Lead with the answer — direct answer first, then explanation
2. Heading = question — "What is X?" > "Overview"
3. Use lists and tables — AI extracts structured data more easily
4. FAQ format — question-answer pairs are ideal for AI extraction
5. Cover follow-up questions — anticipate related queries

AI Crawler Management (robots.txt)

# Decide per-site whether to allow AI crawlers
# Allowing = more AI citations. Blocking = no AI training use.
# User-agent: GPTBot
# User-agent: ClaudeBot
# User-agent: PerplexityBot
# User-agent: Google-Extended

Google-Extended blocks AI training while keeping Google Search indexing.

Next.js Implementation

// app/layout.tsx or page.tsx
export async function generateMetadata({ params }): Promise<Metadata> {
  return {
    title: "...",
    description: "...",
    openGraph: {
      images: [{ url: "...", width: 1200, height: 630 }],
    },
    alternates: {
      canonical: `https://example.com/${params.slug}`,
    },
  }
}

// app/sitemap.ts
export default async function sitemap(): Promise<MetadataRoute.Sitemap> {
  const pages = await getPages()
  return pages.map(page => ({
    url: `https://example.com${page.path}`,
    lastModified: new Date(page.updatedAt),
  }))
}

Rules

1. Every page needs metadata — title, description, OG tags, canonical
2. Every site needs infrastructure — sitemap, robots.txt, HTTPS
3. Add structured data — JSON-LD for the content type (Article, FAQ, Organization, Product)
4. Lead with answers — AI and featured snippets prefer direct answers
5. Show EEAT signals — author, dates, credentials, sources
6. Test structured data — use Google Rich Results Test before deploying
7. Decide on AI crawlers — explicit allow/block in robots.txt per site