SEO got you clicked. AEO gets you cited.
Eight pillars, in three layers, that make your content the source AI engines read, trust, and quote. Not tricks — the conditions under which any well-built engine recognizes you as the best answer.
≈ 75% carries over from strong SEO — crawlable, authoritative, high-quality
+ the new layer
AEO is SEO extended, not replaced.New: passage-level extraction · conversational queries · per-engine measurement
Foundation
Can the machine use you?
- 1Access
- 2Alignment
- 3Extractability
Reputation
Does the web vouch for you?
- 4Authority
- 5Credibility
- 6Originality
Momentum
Do you stay chosen as things move?
- 7Freshness
- 8Adaptability
The pillars are a cascade, not a checklist
Tap a pillar to exploreFoundation· Can the machine use you?
Reputation· Does the web vouch for you?
Momentum· Do you stay chosen as things move?
Pillar 01 · Foundation
Access
If a machine can’t read your page, it can’t quote you.
The metaphor
The locked door. Pass or fail — no partial credit, no workaround.
The evidence
0
JavaScript executed by GPTBot — it reads raw HTML only (Vercel, 500M requests)
The moves
- →Allow AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) in robots.txt
- →Serve server-side or static HTML — not browser-assembled
- →Stay fast: FCP under 0.4s earned ~3× more citations
Next gate → Alignment
⌖Find where you break →
Use it as a diagnostic
Walk down the pillars in order. Earlier failures make later efforts irrelevant — a brilliant page behind a blocked crawler is wasted. The first pillar where you break is the place to work.
“The principles endure. The specifics are written in pencil.”