Should you block AI crawlers?
For most sites that want to be found, no. Allow AI search bots, decide on training bots deliberately, and use robots.txt by named bot.
Daily briefings
What changed in answer engine, generative engine and agent optimization, checked against sources. Each briefing links its evidence and labels how well supported each claim is.
BriefingAgEO
Agent optimization briefing: MCP Server Cards, Cloudflare crawler rules and a new agent protocol
MCP Server Cards are now Final as an optional discovery extension, Cloudflare changed how Block treats mixed-use crawlers, and Sierra and Meta proposed a Personal Agent Protocol.
BriefingGEO
GEO briefing: a new study says retrieval, not page tweaks, drives most ChatGPT citations
An arXiv study of 468,037 ChatGPT citations reports that retrieval explains about 32% of citation variation against 2.8% for page properties. A small vendor study agrees on the sources.
Does llms.txt work?
llms.txt is a community proposal. No major AI provider has confirmed using it, and Google says you do not need it. It is cheap to add and unproven.
BriefingAEO
AEO briefing: Google adds links to AI answers and a site-wide AI control
Google announced more inline links in AI Overviews and AI Mode and now documents a Search generative AI control. Two small studies show AI assistants send little traffic.
Does schema markup help AI search?
Google says no special schema is needed for its AI features. Structured data is still useful for clarity, rich results and entity identity, if it matches the page.
What happened to FAQ rich results?
Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search in 2026. FAQPage markup is still valid schema.org, but adding FAQs only for markup is not worthwhile.
How to write answer-first content
Put the direct answer in the first sentence under each question heading, then add detail. It is a writing practice, not a Google requirement.
Is AEO different from SEO?
For Google Search, AEO and GEO are part of SEO. They are useful lenses for writing and structure, not separate systems with separate rules.