Are you struggling to build a strategy that works for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), AI Optimization (AIO), and traditional SEO?

You’re not alone. But too many marketing leaders are chasing hype. They're debating generative AI prompts while their site is slow, semantically messy, or inaccessible.

Here’s the problem: if your DOM is div-soup, headings are skipped, links are vague, and your hero image takes three seconds to load, every downstream system—answer engines, agents, rankers, and even ad quality—gets worse. LLMs don’t hallucinate performance; they read what you ship.

Engines and agents reward the same fundamentals: fast, clear, consistent, and trustworthy pages. The inverse is also true: when pages load fast and structure is honest, extraction is reliable, and UX improves. That reduces bounce and lifts conversion.

So let's skip the hype and fix the base layer. This isn't “SEO busywork”. This is the non-negotiable foundation.

The 12-Part Base Layer Playbook

We’ve built a 12-part playbook to fix it. Each section explains the principle and, more importantly, how Siteimprove operationalizes it so your fixes actually stick.

1. What is a clean HTML hierarchy?

Clean, predictable HTML is the scaffolding every engine and every person relies on.

You must lead with a single, descriptive <h1> that states the page topic. Step down through headings in order (<h2>–<h6>) to express sections, never skipping levels or leaving headings empty. Write link text that names the destination (not “click here”) and avoid placeholder links like href="#”.

The result is machine-readable, accessible content that screen readers can navigate and agents can extract confidently—improving snippets, comprehension, and maintainability in one move.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Accessibility issue “Headings are not structured” acts as the source of truth for skipped levels.
• Policies enforce a single <h1>, ban empty headings, and block vague anchors (like a:contains("click here")).
• CMS Prepublish checks catch and fix issues inside your editor before publishing.

2. Why fast LCP is a prerequisite for success

Fast pages are a necessity. Your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) must land under 2.5 seconds. This boils down to making the hero (image or text) show up quickly.

Keep the LCP asset light, inline just enough CSS to paint above-the-fold, defer non-essential scripts, and always give images explicit width/height attributes so layout doesn’t thrash. Tackle your highest-value templates first.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Performance pinpoints the LCP element on each page and tracks LCP/INP/CLS over time.
• Prioritization dashboards let you fix top traffic-driving pages first to prove impact sprint by sprint.
• Policies create guardrails that require img[width][height] and flag blocking script patterns on core templates.

3. The “right way” to build accessible components

Accessible UI is how real people use your product.

Build forms that announce themselves (labels tied to inputs), components that can be operated by keyboard, and contrast that remains readable. Semantic HTML should do the heavy lifting; keep ARIA minimal and accurate. When components are correct once in the design system, every page that uses them inherits the win.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Accessibility provides automated checks at scale for labels, contrast, focus order, and table headers.
• Browser Extension audits staging and behind-auth areas where crawlers can’t go—ideal for validating your component library.
• Trend dashboards show issue types dropping as components get fixed and reused.

4. Defining your terms: why terminology governance is infrastructure

Terminology is infrastructure. If product names, feature labels, and role titles vary across pages, engines and humans both get confused.

Define a single glossary, use it consistently, and remove ambiguous fillers. Align the page title, <h1>, and URL so the main entity is unmissable. Consistent naming tightens snippets and stabilizes entity graphs.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Policies require preferred terms and flag banned variants (e.g., old product names, marketing clichés).
• Prepublish enforcement inside your CMS shows editors glossary violations before the page goes live.
• Dashboards monitor compliance by template and section.

5. How to structure comparison tables for machines and humans

When the structure is sound, agents and assistive tech can parse comparisons exactly as buyers do.

Good tables reduce sales cycles. Treat them as data, not decoration: every table must declare what it is (a <caption>), who the headers are (<th> with scope), and how to read it (no merged cells). Keep copy concise.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Accessibility checks for table semantics (headers, associations, captions) with examples of where relationships fail.
• Policies require <caption> and <th scope> on target templates, like pricing pages.
• Prepublish checks catch structural mistakes before launch.

6. What is basic schema (and what is it for)?

Schema isn’t magic. It’s documentation for machines. It's not a ranking factor but it does make it easier to understand your page.

Add JSON-LD that reflects what’s already true on the page: who you are (Organization), what the page is (Product, FAQPage, Article), and where it fits (BreadcrumbList). Keep it template-level, minimal, and accurate. The payoff is sturdier rich results and more confident extraction by agents.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Policies require JSON-LD presence on specific templates (Product, FAQ, Homepage).
• Drift detection flags mismatches between visible content and declared schema types.
• Prepublish checks ensure schema regressions are caught before release.

7. A framework for crawlability and indexability controls

You can’t win what engines can’t reach—or what you accidentally tell them to ignore. Maintain a reasonable robots.txt, publish fresh XML sitemaps, and use self-referential canonicals on primary pages. Be selective with noindex. 

How Siteimprove helps:

• QA/SEO checks for sitemap freshness, canonical mismatches, and noindex/nofollow misuse.
• Broken/redirected link reports uncover chains and loops that waste crawl budget.
• Policies block noindex on revenue templates and verify canonical patterns.

8. Solving for authority: internal linking and orphan control

Authority and discovery flow through links, not wishes.

Ensure your money pages sit close to the homepage (≤ 3 clicks) and that every important page is referenced by at least one descriptive anchor. Curate related-links blocks inside templates. This ensures crawlers find what matters faster and users don’t bounce into orphaned cul-de-sacs.

How Siteimprove helps:

• QA reports identify orphan pages and broken links, with page-level lists for your devs.
• Policies require links to top tasks or product CTAs within key templates and flag vague anchor text.
• Dashboards trend the orphan count down.

9. The “right way” to signal content provenance and freshness

Answers age. Make it obvious when a page was last updated and who owns it—especially for pricing, compliance, and API docs. Keep URLs stable. These signals help users trust you and help engines decide whether to surface your page for time-sensitive queries.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Policies require a visible “Updated on” date and owner block on documentation pages.
• Staleness rules flag priority URLs that haven’t been updated in X months for triage.
• Prepublish checks keep provenance elements from being dropped during edits.

10. Using FAQ blocks as an open data layer

Agents reward short, specific answers anchored to credible pages.

Build FAQ blocks that mirror real customer questions, then answer in 1–3 sentences with a link to deeper documentation. Keep each Q→A focused on a single intent. When FAQs live in templates, you create a dependable surface for extraction.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Policies require an FAQ module on target templates (docs, pricing).
• Schema guardrails verify that a valid FAQPage JSON-LD script is present when the module is used.
• Accessibility checks validate accordion patterns (focus order, ARIA state).

11. Establishing trust: the role of safety and legal pages

Trust demonstrates clear commitments in plain language.

Publish the pages buyers and agents check first: pricing, security/compliance (SOC/ISO), privacy, terms, and your accessibility statement. Link them in the footer, keep them indexable, and write them for humans.

How Siteimprove helps:

• Policies ensure these pages exist, are linked from global navigation, and aren’t noindexed by mistake.
• QA catches broken links to these pages.
• Dashboards track coverage and remind owners when statements are due for refresh.

12. Step-by-step operational guardrails (so fixes stick)

Without process, the base layer decays in weeks. Bake checks into authoring, assign named owners, and set simple SLAs. Ship small changes continuously: fix what the dashboards surface this week, and prevent regressions at the template level rather than chasing page-by-page mistakes.

How Siteimprove helps:

• CMS Prepublish lets editors catch accessibility, SEO, and policy issues before release.
• Policy Exceptions with expiry allow temporary deviations that automatically come due.
• Cross-module dashboards (Accessibility, Performance, QA, Policy) keep priorities visible and owned.

A pragmatic 30-day rollout

Here's a practical approach to get started without derailing your roadmap. Use it as a checklist for your content and web team.

• Week 1 — Baselines & Guardrails: Run crawls. Stand up 8–12 core Policies (headings, glossary, banned anchors, JSON-LD, noindex hygiene, image dimensions, trust pages). Enable the CMS plugin if you haven't already
• Week 2 — LCP Strike: Fix the top 25 pages by traffic. Compress/preload LCP assets, inline critical CSS, and defer non-critical JS.
• Week 3 — Accessibility & Structure: Close A/AA issues. Repair table semantics. Validate the component library in staging with the browser extension.
• Week 4 — Crawl, Link, & Provenance: Kill orphans and redirect chains. Add/update FAQs and JSON-LD. Enforce “updated-on” dates. Publish dashboards.