SEO and GEO: a site built for people and AI engines
Getting found today means two things: ranking in search (SEO) and being quoted accurately by AI answer engines (GEO, generative engine optimization). Both reward the same foundation, a site that loads fast, serves real HTML, describes itself with structured data, and is easy to crawl. Here is how I build that, using this site as the example.
Be fast, and prove it
Core Web Vitals, Google’s measures of loading, interactivity, and layout stability, are a ranking signal, and speed also helps crawlers and AI engines fetch your pages. This site is static HTML with almost no JavaScript, so the first paint is instant. It passes all three Core Web Vitals on green, with a page load around 1.2 seconds.
One source for humans and machines
Most sites write their content twice: the visible text, and the machine-readable structured data in a separate block. The two start in sync and drift apart, until the machine version describes a page that no longer exists, and search engines and AI quote something wrong. I keep one typed source and generate both views from it, so the page a person reads and the JSON-LD a search engine or AI reads can never disagree. Each page describes itself with schema.org structured data: who I am, what each project is, what each post is, and the breadcrumb trail.
Be easy to crawl, and to quote
Real HTML at build time means there is no blank page waiting on JavaScript, so a crawler or an AI engine sees the full content immediately. I welcome AI crawlers in robots.txt and keep a curated llms.txt index that points them at the important pages, and I write answer-first with question-shaped headings, so an assistant can lift a single clean section as an answer. The FAQ below is built exactly that way.
See it live
This whole portfolio runs on these ideas. You can read how it is built, or just look around: every page is fast, structured, and readable by people and machines alike. If you want the same for your site, the contact page is the best way to reach me.
Questions
What is GEO (generative engine optimization)?
Making your site easy for AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to read, understand, and quote, so they cite you accurately. It extends classic SEO from the search results page to the answers AI gives.
Does site speed affect SEO?
Yes. Core Web Vitals (loading, interactivity, and layout stability) are a Google ranking signal, and a fast, static site is also easier for crawlers and AI engines to fetch. This site passes all three on green.
How do I get cited by AI assistants?
Serve real HTML instead of a blank page that needs JavaScript, describe each page with accurate structured data, write answer-first with question-shaped headings, and welcome AI crawlers in robots.txt and an llms.txt index.
Can you build this for my site?
Yes, this is the kind of work I do, fast and static and well structured so it ranks for people and reads cleanly for AI. The contact page is the best way to reach me.