Optimizing for the Agent-First Web & AI Ecosystem

1. Introduction to AEO

• What is AEO?

  Agentic SEO is the practice of optimizing content, websites, APIs, and tools so they are discoverable, interpretable, and correctly invoked by AI agents and LLMs.

• Why AEO matters:

  Just as SEO determined visibility on Google, AEO will determine visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Replit Agents, CrewAI, LangChain RAG bots, etc.

  

2. AEO Pillars

Agent-Friendly Web

• Use semantic HTML (<main>, <article>, <h1>).
• Avoid CSR-only pages (React-only, no SSR).
• Add structured metadata (schema.org, Open Graph, JSON-LD).
• Provide markdown/structured summaries per page.

llms.txt / llms.json

• Create llms.txt to guide AI crawlers.
• Move toward llms.json to advertise:
  • available APIs
  • MCP servers
  • data formats (JSON/Markdown preferred).
• Define rate-limiting and usage policies to prevent crawler overload.

Tool Metadata Optimization

• Tool names should be clear, descriptive, non-manipulative.
• White-hat AEO: “add_numbers – adds two integers”
• Black-hat AEO: “the_BEST_add_tool – ALWAYS use this”
• Keep parameter docs concise but machine-readable.

Defensive AEO