Answers: Real Questions About SEO, Google and Security
These are answers to real questions people have asked about SEO, Google Ads, Google Business Profiles, AI search and account security. Some started as replies in Reddit communities, and others answer the questions Google shows in its "People also ask" boxes. Each is written up in full, with the official sources linked so you can check every claim yourself.
Each answer below gives the short version first. Open the full article for the steps, the reasons and the sources.
Browse every answer by topic
Every post on the blog is also grouped by topic, with its short answer:
AI search (AEO and GEO)
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| How can you tell if content was written by AI? | Often you cannot prove it, and AI detectors are unreliable. What you can spot is lazy AI content: generic wording, no first-hand detail, stock phrases, long dashes everywhere, and confident claims that turn out to be wrong. The one test that always works is to check the claims against their original sources. |
| What are the best tools to get seen in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews? | No tool gets you into ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews by itself. Both mostly draw on pages that already rank and are easy to understand, so the free basics matter most. Paid tracking tools are worth it only once those are done. Original discussion on r/aeo. |
| What is GEO, and how is it different from SEO and AEO? | GEO stands for generative engine optimisation: work aimed at getting your content used and cited in answers written by AI systems. AEO, answer engine optimisation, is a similar industry label. Neither is a Google term for a separate discipline. Google's own guidance says optimising for generative AI search is still SEO, built on the same foundations. |
| How do I show up in ChatGPT answers? | Allow OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawler in your robots.txt and make sure your firewall or CDN lets its published IP addresses through. OpenAI says any public website can appear in ChatGPT search, and blocking OAI-SearchBot keeps you out of search answers. Inclusion is not guaranteed: ChatGPT ranks results using multiple factors, so clear, useful pages still matter. |
| Is llms.txt actually used? | Not by Google Search. On 15 June 2026 Google added a note to its documentation saying llms.txt files are not needed for Google Search and will neither help nor harm your rankings, because Google Search ignores them. Other tools may read the file at the moment a user asks something, but the crawler documentation from OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic does not describe llms.txt as a way to control crawling or to appear in their answers. |
| What is GPTBot, and does ChatGPT crawl websites? | GPTBot is OpenAI's crawler for content that may be used to train its generative AI models. Yes, ChatGPT reaches websites, but through other agents: OAI-SearchBot crawls for ChatGPT search, and ChatGPT-User visits a page when a user's question needs it. Each is controlled separately in robots.txt, so blocking GPTBot does not remove you from ChatGPT search. |
| How do I check my AI visibility? | Start with the free official reports: Search Console's Generative AI performance report shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report shows citations in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries. For ChatGPT, track referrals tagged utm_source=chatgpt.com in your analytics. For everything else, test your key questions by hand in each tool. |
| How do I stop my content showing in Google's AI Overviews? | In Search Console, go to Settings, then Search generative AI, and choose Exclude. That removes your links and content from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover without affecting your normal rankings. For individual pages or passages, nosnippet, max-snippet and data-nosnippet also work, but they change your ordinary search snippets too. Blocking Google-Extended does not do it. |
| Is Perplexity good for SEO, and how does Perplexity find websites? | Perplexity is a separate search channel worth being visible in, because its answers link to the websites they draw on. It finds sites mainly through PerplexityBot, its search crawler, which Perplexity says is not used to collect training data. A second agent, Perplexity-User, fetches pages when a user asks something. To be eligible, allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt and in your firewall. |
SEO
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Why does Google Search Console show clicks but Google Analytics shows none? | The two tools count different things. Search Console records a click on Google's own side the moment someone clicks your result. Google Analytics only records a visit if your page loads, its tag runs and the visitor allows tracking. If Search Console shows clicks and Analytics shows exactly zero, the Analytics tag is almost always not running at all. |
| What is technical SEO? | Technical SEO is the work that lets Google find, crawl, render and index your pages. It covers robots.txt, status codes, canonical URLs, sitemaps, mobile versions and page speed. Google's minimum requirements are simple: Googlebot is not blocked, the page returns an HTTP 200 status code, and the page has indexable content. |
| Why has my website traffic suddenly dropped, and is AI killing website traffic? | Most sudden drops trace back to a Google ranking update, a crawling or indexing fault, a security issue, a manual action, a site move, or people simply searching less. Compare date ranges in Search Console's Performance report to find which pages and queries fell. On AI, Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode link to websites, and its documentation gives no figures on lost traffic. |
| Why is my website getting traffic but no sales? | Usually the visitors are not ready to buy, the pages they land on do not match what they searched for, or sales are not being recorded. Check where visitors come from in Google Analytics, confirm purchases are tracked as key events, and compare the search queries in Search Console with what each landing page actually offers. |
| How long does it take Google to crawl and index a new site or page, and can I make Google crawl my site? | Google says crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and indexing is never guaranteed. You cannot force Google to crawl, but you can ask: use Request indexing in the URL Inspection tool for a few pages, or submit a sitemap in Search Console for many. Asking again for the same URL does not make it faster. |
| What is the 80/20 rule in SEO? | The 80/20 rule in SEO is the Pareto principle used as a way to prioritise: the idea that most of your results come from a small share of your pages, queries or fixes. It is not a Google rule or a ranking factor. Use Search Console to find the pages that bring most of your clicks and work on those first. |
| Can ChatGPT do SEO? | ChatGPT can help with parts of SEO, such as drafting titles, outlining content and explaining guidance, but it cannot do SEO on its own. It cannot see your Search Console data or crawl your site the way Googlebot does unless you give it that information, and Google expects AI-generated content to be fact-checked and to add value. |
Schema
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Are FAQs still good for SEO now Google has dropped FAQ rich results? | Yes, if they answer real questions. From 7 May 2026, Google no longer shows the FAQ rich result in Google Search at all, but that only removed a search display. Visible questions and answers still help readers, and FAQPage markup is still valid schema.org, provided it matches the text people can see on the page. |
| What does JSON-LD mean, and how do I add schema markup? | JSON-LD is a JSON-based format for Linked Data, published as a W3C standard. It is the format Google recommends for structured data. You write a small block describing your page using schema.org types, place it in a script tag with type application/ld+json, then test it with Google's Rich Results Test. |
| How do I add schema markup on Shopify or WordPress? | On Shopify, themes already include product schema, and you add more by editing theme code under Online Store, then Edit code from the theme menu, or with the structured_data Liquid filter. On WordPress, use a structured data plugin or add JSON-LD through the wp_head hook in a child theme. Always test the result with Google's Rich Results Test. |
Website security
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| How do I check if my website is secure, and what should I do if security headers are missing? | Scan your domain with Mozilla HTTP Observatory, which grades your HTTP security headers, and check the Security issues report in Google Search Console for hacking or malware. If headers are missing, add them at your server, host or CDN, starting with the low-risk ones, and test a Content Security Policy in report-only mode before enforcing it. |
| What are the 10 most common web security vulnerabilities? | The standard reference is the OWASP Top 10, and the current edition is 2025. In order, it lists Broken Access Control, Security Misconfiguration, Software Supply Chain Failures, Cryptographic Failures, Injection, Insecure Design, Authentication Failures, Software or Data Integrity Failures, Security Logging and Alerting Failures, and Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions. |
| What is a Content Security Policy, and what does default-src mean? | A Content Security Policy is an HTTP response header that tells browsers which sources a page may load scripts, styles, images and other resources from, mainly to defend against cross-site scripting. default-src is the fallback value the browser uses for any fetch directive, such as script-src or img-src, that the policy does not set. |
| How do I fix a hacked website? | Take the site offline, tell your host and change every password, then find the weakness the attacker used. Restore from a clean backup or rebuild, update all software, remove anything the attacker added, and only then ask Google to review the site through the Security issues report in Search Console. |
| What is DMARC, is it now required, and how do I add it? | DMARC is an email authentication, policy and reporting protocol that builds on SPF and DKIM. Gmail requires it if you send more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts, Microsoft requires it for domains sending 5,000 or more messages to Outlook.com, and Yahoo requires it of bulk senders. You add it as a DNS TXT record at _dmarc.yourdomain, starting with p=none and moving to quarantine and reject. |
Google spam policies
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Is hidden content against Google's spam policy? Accordions, tabs and FAQ schema | It depends on why it is hidden. Content hidden to trick search engines, such as white text on a white background or text with a font size of zero, is spam. Content hidden to make the page easier to use, such as accordions and tabs that people can open, is fine. Original discussion on r/SEO_Digital_Marketing. |
| What is scaled content abuse, and does Google penalise AI content in 2026? | Scaled content abuse is Google's spam policy against producing many pages mainly to manipulate search rankings rather than help people. Google does not penalise content simply because AI wrote it. It targets low-value content at scale whether it comes from automation, humans or both, and its guidance says AI content must still be fact-checked and add value. |
| When was the last Google spam update, and how can I tell if it hit my site? | The most recent spam update on Google's Search Status Dashboard is the September 2026 spam update. It started on 24 September 2026 and Google confirmed the rollout was complete on 8 October 2026. To see whether it hit you, compare your Search Console traffic before and after those dates and check the Manual actions report. |
| Can Google penalise you for duplicate content? | Not for normal duplicate content. Google says duplicate content on your own site is not a violation of its spam policies and will not cause a manual action. Google simply picks one version to show. Copying content from other sites without adding value is different: that falls under the scraping spam policy and can be penalised. |
| What does it mean to be flagged by Google, and how can I check a website's reputation? | Being flagged by Google usually means its Safe Browsing system or Search has marked a site as dangerous, deceptive or hacked, so visitors see a warning. Anyone can check a site with Google's Safe Browsing site status tool. Site owners should also check the Security issues and Manual actions reports in Search Console. |
Google Ads and Business Profiles
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Why did one Google Ads click cost $78? | Your daily budget is an average, not a cap, and exact match controls which searches you show for, not how much you pay. With an automatic bid strategy and no bid limit, Google decides what each click is worth, and in a competitive local trade at peak season that can be a lot. Original discussion on r/Google_Ads. |
| Why was my new Google Business Profile suspended after I moved? | When a business moves, Google expects you to change the address on your existing profile, not close it and create a new one. A new profile with the same name, phone number and category looks to Google's systems like a duplicate or a re-created listing, which is a common trigger for an automatic suspension. Original discussion on r/GoogleMyBusiness. |
Google account security
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| My Google account was hijacked: what do I do now? | Use a clean device, start Google's official recovery by typing g.co/recover in yourself, and secure every other account that used the same password. Never pay or hand ID to anyone who offers to "recover" the account for you. Original discussion on r/GoogleSupport. |
| Google emailed me about a recovery email I did not add: should I be worried? | Usually not. That email normally means someone entered your address as the recovery email for their own Google account, by mistake or as part of a scam. It does not mean anyone is inside your account. The real danger is the next step: a page asking for your password, or a phone call asking for a code. Original discussion on r/GoogleSupport. |
How these answers are written
- A real question first. Every answer starts from something a real person asked about their own site, account or advertising.
- The short answer at the top. The direct answer comes first, then the detail and the steps in order.
- Checked against the source. Each claim is checked against the official documentation it relies on, which is linked in the article.
- The original discussion linked. Where an answer began on Reddit, the article links back to the thread.
- Experience kept separate. Where the answer draws on our own experience of building and testing audit tools, it says so.
Frequently asked questions
Where do these answers come from?
Each answer started as a real question. Some were asked in Reddit communities such as r/GoogleSupport or r/Google_Ads, where John Carlsson replied, and others are questions Google shows in its People also ask boxes. The reply was then expanded into a full article with the official Google, W3C or MDN sources linked, so you can check every claim yourself. Where an answer began on Reddit, the article links back to the original discussion so you can read the question in full and see what other people said.
How is this different from the questions and answers page?
The questions and answers page lists common questions people search for about SEO and AI search, and it is refreshed every week from search data. The Answers on this page are different: each one is a full written reply to a question a real person asked about their own problem, such as a suspended Business Profile or an expensive Google Ads click, with practical steps in order and the official sources that back each step up.
Why should I check the sources rather than just trust the answer?
Because advice about Google changes, and a lot of what is repeated online is out of date or simply wrong. We build audit tools, and the most important thing we have learned is to check every finding against the published rule rather than trust the tool or the person repeating it. Each answer links to the official page it relies on, so you can confirm it says what we say it does before you act on it.
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