AI SEO Pop Quiz
THE CONCEPTS BEHIND THE QUIZ
AI SEO essentials, explained
Take the quiz above or explore the ideas below. These short explanations cover content, discovery and page experience, with links to the original guidance.
AI answers and traditional SEO
AI SEO focuses on visibility in AI-generated answers and their supporting links. Google says its AI features use the same SEO foundations as Search: crawlable, indexable pages with helpful content, with no additional technical requirements.
Clear heading hierarchy
Use a descriptive main heading and nested subheadings to show how the page is organized. This helps readers and assistive technology navigate the content; it is a structure and accessibility practice, not a special single-H1 rule for AI rankings.
The purpose of llms.txt
llms.txt is a proposed convention for giving AI systems a concise Markdown overview and links to key site content. It does not guarantee AI citations, and Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode do not require a new AI text file.
Private pages and AI training
Private admin and staging pages should be protected with authentication; robots.txt alone does not keep them secure. OpenAI separates GPTBot training controls from OAI-SearchBot search controls, so opting out of training is a different choice from opting out of search.
Descriptive internal links
Anchor text should describe the linked page clearly and concisely. Google uses links to discover pages and understand their relevance, and descriptive wording helps people know what to expect before they click.
Query fan-out
Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may issue several related searches across subtopics and data sources to build a response. Answering relevant follow-up questions with useful content can support discovery, but does not guarantee inclusion or a citation.
Canonical pages in sitemaps
List the canonical, indexable URLs you want search engines to discover and show in results. A sitemap is a discovery hint, not a guarantee that every listed page will be crawled or indexed.
Useful questions and answers
A useful FAQ answers real user questions with clear, helpful text. That follows Google’s guidance for AI features, but an FAQ format or special schema does not guarantee rankings or AI citations.
Core Web Vitals
The current Core Web Vitals are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) for loading, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) for responsiveness, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) for visual stability. They measure real-world page experience, rather than whether an AI system will cite your content.
Bot-specific robots.txt rules
Use robots.txt rules for the specific crawler: GPTBot relates to OpenAI training, while PerplexityBot supports Perplexity search results. These rules rely on crawler cooperation, and user-requested fetchers may behave differently, so they are not a security barrier.
Want a broader introduction? Read our Understanding AEO guide.