Get found in Google — and recommended by AI assistants.

1. Search is now two games: Google + AI answer engines

For 20 years SEO meant one thing: rank on Google. That’s still table stakes — but a growing share of buyers now ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini instead of typing into a search box. Winning today means being found in classic search AND being the answer an AI assistant recommends. We call the second half GEO — Generative Engine Optimization. The SEO Agent plays both.

2. Google Search Console — the foundation

Google Search Console (GSC) is where you tell Google your site exists, prove you own it, and watch how it’s doing. If it isn’t set up, you’re flying blind. The SEO Agent keeps it healthy:

• →Verify the domain and connect GSC on day one.
• →Submit the XML sitemap (sitemap-index.xml) and keep it fresh as pages change.
• →Request indexing on new and updated pages so Google re-crawls fast.
• →Monitor the Pages (Indexing) report — fix “Discovered / Crawled — not indexed”, redirects, and 404s.
• →Track queries, impressions, clicks and average position; double down on pages that are close to page one.
• →Watch Core Web Vitals and mobile usability, and fix what’s flagged.

3. Get recommended by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity & Gemini

AI assistants don’t “rank” pages — they read the web, then summarize and recommend. To be the brand they name, you have to be readable and quotable:

• →Publish a clear llms.txt describing the product, who it’s for, and links — the emerging standard AI crawlers look for.
• →Add structured data (Organization, Product, FAQ, Article JSON-LD) so machines parse facts, not guesses.
• →Write plain, factual, well-structured pages — headings, short paragraphs, comparison tables — the format LLMs quote.
• →Keep claims consistent across the site so an assistant can state them confidently.
• →Earn third-party mentions (below) — LLMs recommend what the wider web already talks about.

4. Allow AI bot traffic (don’t accidentally block your best marketers)

None of the above matters if your infrastructure blocks the crawlers. Many sites (and CDNs like Cloudflare) silently block AI bots by default. The SEO Agent makes sure the answer engines can actually read you:

• →robots.txt explicitly welcomes GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, anthropic-ai, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, CCBot and friends.
• →Confirm the CDN / WAF (e.g. Cloudflare’s “Block AI bots” toggle) isn’t blocking that traffic.
• →Serve fast, server-rendered HTML so crawlers get content without running JavaScript.
• →Distinguish good bots from bad — allow AI/search crawlers while still blocking abusive scrapers.

5. Build presence where AI and buyers already look

Both Google and AI assistants weight what the rest of the internet says about you. On-site work gets you eligible; off-site presence gets you chosen. The SEO Agent builds and maintains it:

• →Directories & marketplaces — AI-tool directories, category listings, and review sites (G2, Capterra).
• →Product Hunt — a launch and an evergreen profile that assistants cite for “best tools for X”.
• →Reddit & communities — genuine answers in the threads people (and Perplexity) actually read.
• →Comparison & listicle articles — the “Top 10 / X vs Y” pages LLMs love to summarize.
• →Crunchbase & knowledge-graph profiles — the canonical company facts assistants trust.

6. The on-page fundamentals we never skip

The classics still decide who wins the close calls:

• →Unique, keyword-aware titles and meta descriptions per page.
• →One clear H1, logical heading hierarchy, and descriptive internal links.
• →Fast load, mobile-first layout, clean canonical URLs, no broken links.
• →Content that targets real long-tail intent — not one impossible head term.
• →A steady cadence of genuinely useful content (like this post).