Cheat sheet · MTW 2026
From SEO to AEO,
in one page.
Pin it. Print it. Screenshot it. Then do one of these things this week — that’s the whole point.
venture313.com
/mtw-2026
On your site
Say it in the first line
Above the fold, plain text. What you do, for whom. No riddles.
Answer real questions
Add an FAQ in plain language. Models love extractable Q→A pairs.
Make facts machine-readable
Clean HTML headings + schema. Never bury key facts in images or PDFs.
Be specific & verifiable
Swap adjectives for numbers, names, dates, proof. Specificity gets quoted.
Across the web
Be consistent everywhere
Same name, claims, and key facts on every profile. Contradictions kill trust.
Earn third-party mentions
Reviews, press, partners. Models weight what others say about you.
Show up where models look
Industry directories, reputable communities, structured listings.
Audit what AI says about you
Ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity monthly. That’s your new ranking.
The five-prompt worksheet
Answer honestly. On paper.
The gaps in your answers are your to-do list. No one needs to see them but you.
- 01If a stranger read only your homepage’s first sentence, what would they think you do — and would they be right?
- 02List the 5 questions a buyer asks before choosing you. Where on your site is each one answered in plain words?
- 03Pick one big claim you make. What specific proof — a number, a name, a result — sits right next to it?
- 04Search your company + your category. Is the story consistent everywhere, or does it contradict itself?
- 05Ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity about your space. Are you mentioned? Is what they say accurate?
Prompt library
Paste these into the AI of your choice.
Tap copy. Fill the brackets. Run it in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini. The answers are your audit.
AI self-test — what does AI think of you today?
Discovery test
See if AI even knows you exist for what you do.
You are an AI assistant. A potential customer in [city or region] asks you: "Who should I hire for [my service]?" Walk me through the top 3 options you would recommend, in order. For each, tell me what makes them a strong fit and where you got that information.
Accuracy test
Find out what AI gets wrong about your company.
Tell me everything you know about [my company name]. List what we do, who we serve, where we're based, and anything notable about us. Cite where you learned each fact.
Comparison test
See how you stack up when AI plays buyer.
Compare [my company name] to [competitor 1] and [competitor 2] for someone looking to [outcome]. Be specific about strengths, weaknesses, and which buyer should pick which.
Sharpen your copy
Headline stress-test
Pressure-check the first sentence on your homepage.
Here is the headline on my homepage: "[paste headline]." Pretend you're a busy founder seeing this for the first time. In one sentence, what do you think this company does, for whom, and why I should care? Then list 3 ways the headline could be sharper.
FAQ generator
Mine the 10 buyer questions you should already answer.
I run [company doing X for Y]. Generate the 10 questions a real buyer would type into ChatGPT or Google before hiring us. For each question, write the answer in 2-3 sentences using specific words a customer would search.
Track your AEO position
Weekly AEO position check
Paste into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. Track answers in a sheet.
I'm tracking how I show up in AI search. Run these queries on yourself and tell me, for each: do you mention [my company]? If yes, in what position and with what claim? If no, who do you mention and what makes them citable? Queries: 1. [priority query 1] 2. [priority query 2] 3. [priority query 3] 4. [priority query 4] 5. [priority query 5]
Spot your citation gap · freebie
Citation gap
Find out what makes a competitor more citation-worthy than you — right now.
For someone searching "[buyer's question or keyword]," walk me through how you'd answer and which companies you'd cite. Then compare: what makes [competitor] more citation-worthy than [my company] right now? What three signals — content, presence, or proof — would close that gap?
Service page skeleton
The structure agents read first.
Paste this into a doc and fill the brackets. Send the result to whoever ships your site.
Service page skeleton
H1 → one-liner → problem → how it works → why us → proof.
# [Service] for [Audience] [One sentence: what you do, for whom, and the outcome. Use the words a customer would search.] ## The problem - [Problem 1, in the customer's words] - [Problem 2] - [Problem 3] ## How it works 1. [Step 1 — what happens, in plain language] 2. [Step 2] 3. [Step 3] ## Why us - [Differentiator 1 — specific, verifiable] - [Differentiator 2 — specific, verifiable] ## Proof [One named client, one number, or one short quote. Specifics beat adjectives.]
Machine-readable starter pack
Drop these in. Hand them to a dev.
AI crawlers want clean signals: where to look, what you are, who wrote it. These four snippets cover 80% of the wins.
robots.txt
Lives at /robots.txt. Tells every crawler — Google's, OpenAI's, Perplexity's — what they can read.
User-agent: * Allow: / Disallow: /admin/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /private/ Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
FAQ schema (JSON-LD)
Add to any page with Q&A. Turns your answers into extractable pairs models love to cite.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What does [your company] do?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "[Your one-sentence answer with specifics: who, what, where, outcome.]"
}
}]
}Organization schema (JSON-LD)
Add once to your homepage. Ties your name to your social profiles so models stop confusing you.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "[Your Company]",
"url": "https://yourdomain.com",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/...",
"https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/...",
"https://x.com/..."
]
}Article schema (JSON-LD)
Add to every post. Real author + date = EEAT signal AI uses to decide who to trust.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "[Article title]",
"author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "[Author Name]" },
"datePublished": "2026-05-19",
"publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "[Your Company]" }
}EEAT note
Google’s EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) is now an AI citation signal too. Show real bylines, real credentials, real proof — not stock photos and “we’re passionate” copy.
The reframe
“Being cited by AI is the new ranking #1.”
The one thing
Stop optimizing to be found. Start earning the right to be trusted.
The agent is your most important reader. Be clear, be consistent, be verifiable — and it will bring you the customer.