20 steps to improve your SEO and AEO today

A free, no-jargon action plan. Work straight down the list, no technical team required.

SEO (search engine optimisation) is how you get found on Google. AEO (answer engine optimisation) is how you get named by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. They share a foundation, and most of the work below helps with both. Pick a quiet few hours, start at step one, and tick your way down.

Part 1: 10 steps to improve your SEO today

1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile

Search your business name, claim the profile, and fill every field: categories, services, service areas, hours, photos and description. It is free, and for local and "near me" searches it is the single biggest lever you have. A complete profile with the right primary category can lift you into the map pack the same week.

2. Write one clear title tag per important page

Your title tag is the clickable headline in Google. Give each key page one, around 55 to 60 characters, leading with what you do and where, for example "Mortgage Broker Geelong | Your Business". Make sure no two pages share the same title, which confuses search engines about which to rank.

3. Add a compelling meta description

This is the grey text under your title in the results. Write around 150 characters that describe the page and give a reason to click. It does not directly rank you, but a sharper description earns more clicks, and click behaviour feeds back into your visibility.

4. Fix your headings, one H1 per page

Each page should have exactly one H1 that states the topic plainly, then H2s for each section. Google and AI tools both use headings to understand your page. Missing or duplicated headings make your content harder to rank and harder to quote.

5. Add internal links to your most important pages

From your homepage and your most-read posts, link to your money pages (services, contact) using descriptive anchor text rather than "click here". Internal links pass authority and tell both Google and AI which pages matter most on your site.

6. Compress your images

Oversized images are the most common cause of a slow site, and speed affects rankings and conversions. Run your images through a free tool like TinyPNG or Squoosh and re-upload them. Aim for under 200KB each where you can without visible quality loss.

7. Check your site on your phone

Most searches happen on mobile, and Google ranks the mobile version of your site. Open your site on your phone: is the text readable, are buttons easy to tap, does it load quickly, is anything cut off? Fix the obvious problems today.

8. Add alt text to every image

Alt text is a short description of an image for screen readers and search engines. Write an accurate sentence for each image rather than stuffing keywords. It improves accessibility, helps you show up in image search, and gives AI more context about your page.

9. Set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap

It is free, and it is how you see what Google actually thinks of your site. Verify your site, submit your sitemap (usually yoursite.com/sitemap.xml), and you will start seeing which searches you appear for. You cannot improve what you are not measuring.

10. Ask three happy customers for a review today

Reviews are one of the strongest signals for local SEO and for trust, as BrightLocal's annual consumer research consistently shows. Message three recent, happy customers with a direct link to your Google review page. Three genuine reviews a week compounds quickly.

Part 2: 10 steps to improve your AEO today

11. Add an answer-first paragraph to your top pages

At the top of each important page, answer the main question a buyer would ask, directly, in two or three plain sentences, before you explain anything else. AI assistants lift these passages almost word for word. Bury the answer and you give them nothing to quote.

12. Build a real FAQ section

List the actual questions your customers ask and answer each one plainly. This is prime material for AI answers and for Google's "People also ask". Use the words your customers use, not industry jargon, because that is what they type and say.

13. Add FAQ and Organization schema

Schema is code that tells machines what your content means. Add FAQPage schema to your FAQ and Organization schema (name, address, phone, services) to your site. It removes ambiguity, and ambiguity is exactly what gets you skipped by AI assistants.

14. Make your business details identical everywhere

Your name, address, phone, services and credentials should match exactly across your website, Google Business Profile, social profiles and directories. AI tools distrust conflicting details. Pick one format and fix every inconsistency you can find today.

15. Ask the AI assistants your buyers' questions

Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and ask "who is a good [your service] in [your area]", plus the other questions your customers ask. Note where you are named, where a competitor is named instead, and where the AI gets you wrong. Each gap is your to-do list.

16. Create one specific page for a niche you want to win

A precise page such as "bookkeeping for dentists" gets named where a generic "bookkeeping services" page is ignored, because the AI can match it to a precise question. Pick your strongest niche and draft that page today.

17. Earn one trusted mention

For AI, being mentioned matters more than being linked to: an Ahrefs study of around 75,000 brands found branded web mentions correlated with AI visibility far more strongly than backlinks. Get named on one credible third-party site today: a local directory, an industry association, a chamber of commerce or local media.

18. Add your business to the directories AI reads

Beyond Google, list your business on the reputable general and niche directories relevant to your industry. Consistent listings on trusted sites feed the data AI models learn from, and they are quick wins you can knock over in an afternoon.

19. Publish one genuinely helpful, quotable article

Write one clear, answer-first piece on a real question your customers ask. Lead with the answer, keep it plain, and make it genuinely useful rather than salesy. This is the kind of content AI tools cite and customers trust.

20. Keep your facts consistent and current

AI assistants lean heavily on training data, so stale or conflicting information lingers long after you have moved on. Update your hours, services, prices and credentials wherever they appear, and keep them consistent. Accurate, repeated information is what gets baked in and quoted back.

What to do after today

These 20 steps will move the needle on their own, but the businesses that win keep going: they track their AI visibility monthly, publish answer-first content regularly, and build trusted mentions over time. If you would like short, practical prompts to keep that momentum, join our newsletter. And if you want the whole system as checklists, prompt scripts and a 30-day plan, the AI Visibility Playbook takes it from here.

Sources: Gartner, search engine volume forecast; Pew Research Center, AI Overviews and click behaviour; Google, AI Overviews in Search; BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey.