Practical answers to AEO, SEO, and Astro questions
Each page below answers one specific question — the kind of question you'd type into ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. Designed to be useful on its own and citable in part. New answers added weekly.
How do I get my website cited by ChatGPT?
Allow GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt, deploy complete Schema.org coverage (especially Organization, Article, FAQPage, Person), publish a /llms.txt summary of your site, structure pages around real questions with direct answers, and earn authority through bylines, sameAs links, and citations from sites ChatGPT already trusts. First citations typically appear 4–12 weeks after implementation.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO optimises a page to rank in a list of links on a search results page. AEO optimises a page to be quoted inside an AI-generated answer. They share foundations — page speed, schema, internal linking — but diverge in content style, schema priorities, and how success is measured. AEO success is measured in citations; SEO in clicks and rankings.
Should I migrate my WordPress site to Astro?
Yes, if your site is content-led, slow on Lighthouse, costs more than £100/month to maintain, or you've struggled to be cited by AI search engines. Astro consistently scores 100/100 on Lighthouse, hosts for under $20/month on Vercel, and is structurally easier to make AEO-ready than WordPress. The migration typically takes 3–4 weeks for a small business site.
What is Answer Engine Optimisation?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your website's content, code, and metadata so that AI-powered search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude — surface and cite your business when users ask relevant questions. Where SEO optimises for ranked links on a results page, AEO optimises for being the answer the AI gives directly.
What is llms.txt and do I need one?
llms.txt is an emerging convention that gives AI engines a clean markdown summary of your website's structure and key pages. It lives at your site root (yoursite.com/llms.txt), pairs with /llms-full.txt for the full content dump, and helps LLMs ingest your site cleanly. If you care about being cited by ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity, you should publish one.