SEO, AEO & Schema — A Plain-English Guide to Getting Your Pages Noticed

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Start here New here? The full plain-English walkthrough From a blank page to an optimised site, step by step with free tools — the overview that ties all the guides together.
Plain English Guide Local Business SEO Get your shop or service found on Google and Maps — plain English. Read the guide → Plain English Guide What Is Schema Markup? What schema markup is and how to add it — no coding. Read the guide → Plain English Guide Make Your Website Load Faster Why your site feels slow and the simple steps to fix it. Read the guide → Plain English Guide Get Mentioned by AI Search Get ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI to mention your site. Read the guide → Plain English Guide Get Found by Google Make sure Google can find, crawl and index your pages. Read the guide → For DIY Business Owners Local SEO for Business Owners Outrank local rivals and win the map pack as an owner. Read the guide → For DIY Business Owners Schema Markup Done Right Pick the right type, fix errors and win rich results. Read the guide → For DIY Business Owners Pass Core Web Vitals Diagnose and pass Google’s Core Web Vitals as an owner. Read the guide → For DIY Business Owners Win AI Citations Win citations over rivals — structure, trust and freshness. Read the guide → For DIY Business Owners Fix Indexing Problems Read the Page Indexing report and fix what is not indexed. Read the guide → For the Semi-Savvy Local SEO Strategy Competitive analysis, review velocity and query-area targeting. Read the guide → For the Semi-Savvy Advanced Schema Strategy Connected @graph, entities, sameAs and schema at scale. Read the guide → For the Semi-Savvy Advanced Web Performance The rendering path, real-user data and debugging INP. Read the guide → For the Semi-Savvy AI Search Strategy Measure citation share, build entity authority, run GEO. Read the guide → For the Semi-Savvy Technical SEO: Crawl & Index Crawl budget, JS rendering, link architecture and index bloat. Read the guide → For Pros & Agencies Local SEO Mastery Multi-location at scale, suspension risk, measurement and moats. Read the guide → For Pros & Agencies Schema Mastery Entity resolution, pipelines, CI validation and AI grounding. Read the guide → For Pros & Agencies Web Performance Engineering Read traces, prioritise resources, tame hydration, gate regressions. Read the guide → For Pros & Agencies AI Search Mastery Retrieval and RAG mechanics, semantic relevance, authority at scale. Read the guide → For Pros & Agencies Technical SEO Architecture Log pipelines, rendering budget, edge SEO and index control. Read the guide → For the Code-Curious Local SEO for the Code-Curious LocalBusiness JSON-LD with geo, hours and per-location generation. Read the guide → For the Code-Curious Schema for the Code-Curious Hand-write JSON-LD, connect the graph, generate and validate in CI. Read the guide → For the Code-Curious Web Performance for the Code-Curious preload, fetchpriority, defer, critical CSS and code-splitting. Read the guide → For the Code-Curious AI Search for the Code-Curious robots.txt for AI crawlers, llms.txt, FAQPage and answer-first HTML. Read the guide → For the Code-Curious Technical SEO for the Code-Curious robots.txt, canonical, sitemaps, noindex, redirects and log greps. Read the guide →
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SEO, AEO & Schema: a plain-English guide to getting your pages noticed

From a blank page to an SEO, AEO and schema-optimised website — a step-by-step guide for non-technical website owners, using free tools (FileZilla and Notepad++) and the AIWebPageSEO audit tools. No coding required.

Preface

Once upon a time there was a bookie who spent all year trying to get into the posh boxes at Ascot. One year he finally managed to secure a place for around £1,000 and went merrily along to set up his pitch, thinking it would be a good day. To cut a long story short, all you could hear was him moaning. Rich folk with £10k bottles of champagne were placing 25p each-way bets and wanting every penny back, and one chap had a tenner to win that wiped out his profit. The moral: sometimes what you think you get is not what you get — and we are here because we do not know what to do with a blank page.

Step 1 — The blank page

Every great web page starts blank. Over these steps we turn an empty page into something Google and AI search engines actually notice — one small step at a time, no jargon and no scary code.

Step 2 — Two free tools you will need

You will need two free programs: FileZilla to move files to and from your website, and Notepad++ to edit them safely (never use Word). These are what we use; any similar editor works. See our setup guide to download and configure both.

Step 3 — What are we trying to do?

SEO helps Google find and rank your page. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) helps AI answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity quote your page. Schema is a hidden structured-data label that tells both exactly what your page is. You only need to add the right bits.

Step 4 — A proper title and description

Your title is the headline Google shows; your description is the summary underneath. Use our Meta Analyzer to see what yours say now and what they should say, then paste the fix in with Notepad++ and upload with FileZilla.

Step 5 — Sort out your headings

Headings are like chapter titles search engines read to understand your page. Use one main H1 heading and clear sub-headings. Our Site Audit flags heading problems and how to fix them.

Step 6 — Add schema markup

Schema is hidden text that tells Google your page is a business, article, product or review. Our AI Schema Generator reads your page and writes the JSON-LD snippet for you, which can earn rich Google results with stars and extra info.

Step 7 — Check your schema works

Validate your snippet with our Schema Debugger, which scores your markup 0–100 against Google's rules and tells you what to fix.

Step 8 — Create an llms.txt file

An llms.txt file is a simple text file that tells AI search engines what your site is about and which pages matter. Our LLMs.txt Auditor checks for one and generates a proper file you upload to your site root with FileZilla.

Step 9 — See how AI engines view you

Our AEO Checker shows how visible your page is to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and what to tweak to get quoted more often.

Step 10 — Get found locally (Maps and more)

If you serve a local area this matters for Google and for AI answers recommending nearby businesses. Run our Maps Audit, Google Business Profile Audit and Local SEO Checker.

Step 11 — Readable and trustworthy

Google rewards pages that are easy to read and clearly written by someone who knows their subject (E-E-A-T). Run our Readability and E-E-A-T checks.

Step 12 — Make it fast

A slow page loses visitors and rankings. Our Core Web Vitals check measures your speed and identifies what is slowing you down, usually large images or clutter.

Step 13 — Your page now shines

You now have a proper title, clean headings, working schema, an llms.txt file, AI visibility, strong local signals, readable trusted content and good speed — a page Google and the AI engines notice. Run the full Site Audit any time to keep it sharp.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between SEO, AEO and Schema?

SEO helps Google rank your page, AEO helps AI engines quote your page, and Schema is structured data that tells both what your page is.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The guide uses free tools and the audit tools generate the schema, llms.txt and fixes for you to copy and paste.

What is an llms.txt file?

A simple text file in your site root that tells AI search engines what your site is about and which pages matter.

How much does it cost?

Pay-as-you-go with no subscription. Most checks cost between 1p and £3.99 per run, and credits never expire.