Start with the customer question
Before choosing a tool or an acronym, list the questions customers ask before they buy. What do you do? Who is it for? What does it include? What affects the cost? How does someone get started? A clear answer to those questions is useful wherever the customer finds it.
A service page should explain one coherent offer. A pricing page should show the actual scope and exclusions. A guide should answer a question in enough detail to be useful without forcing the reader to contact you for the basics.
SEO: make the website findable
Search engine optimisation includes technical access, page structure and useful content. Check that important pages load properly, have descriptive titles, are linked from relevant pages and work well on mobile. Give each priority service enough space to explain itself.
For a local business, accurate service areas, genuine project examples and suitable local profiles can add context. Do not create a separate page for every nearby place unless you have something useful and specific to say.
AEO: answer the question clearly
Answer engine optimisation is a useful label for content that responds directly to a question. Start with a concise answer, then explain the detail, conditions and examples. Use headings that help people scan the page.
A question such as “What is included in a £999 website?” needs a concrete list of pages, design, content, revisions and handover. Adding an FAQ label to vague sales copy does not make it a better answer.
GEO: make the information understandable and attributable
Generative engine optimisation is usually used to describe work that helps content become a useful source in AI-generated responses. Consistent business details, original expertise, accurate claims and clear source information all help people assess that content too.
Think about what makes an answer worth referring to: a worked example, an original checklist, a practical explanation or evidence you can actually support. Repeating an answer already available everywhere adds little.
Avoid buying a promise no one controls
Google says its normal SEO practices remain relevant to its AI features and that no special additional schema is required. Neither a technical checklist nor an agency can guarantee that a page will be indexed, ranked or cited.
FAQs can still help readers, but do not buy them on a promise of Google FAQ rich results for an ordinary business website. Those results have restricted eligibility.
Measure useful outcomes
Begin with your real baseline: indexed pages, relevant search impressions, visits and qualified enquiries. Where a platform reports AI citations, record what it actually measures. Keep a manual sample of relevant questions if that is useful, remembering that generated answers change.
Review what people do next. A page that attracts fewer visits but helps the right customer send a clear brief may be more valuable than a high-traffic article unrelated to your services.