20 AEO fixes for 2026.

1. Organization + WebSite JSON-LD in the root layout, with a stable @id, an unambiguous description, and a sameAs array linking to LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and any other authoritative profiles.
2. Service JSON-LD on every service page, including hasOfferCatalog with prices when you have transparent pricing.
3. FAQPage JSON-LD on every page with five or more buyer questions. Question text in H2, answer in the first paragraph, the schema mirrors the on-page copy.
4. Article + BlogPosting JSON-LD on every blog post with author, datePublished, dateModified, headline, and a unique image.
5. BreadcrumbList JSON-LD on every non-root page so engines understand the site hierarchy.

6. Every cornerstone H2 is a buyer question. If your H2s are nouns ("Our Process"), models cannot extract anything to cite. Rewrite as questions ("How does our process work?").
7. 40 to 80 word direct answer in the first paragraph under each question-H2. This is what gets lifted into the synthesis. Save the long-form depth for paragraphs 2+.
8. One comparison page per category ("X vs Y", "X alternatives", "is X worth it"). Comparison queries punch above their weight in citations.
9. Glossary page with 10+ category-specific terms each defined in one paragraph. Engines love glossaries.
10. Bulleted lists and numbered steps in every long-form page. Lists are disproportionately favored by extractive engines.

11. llms.txt at the root. Five minutes, immediate effect on Anthropic and similar crawlers. Format documented at llmstxt.org.
12. robots.txt allows the AI crawlers. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, CCBot. If you blocked any of them by accident, you are invisible to that engine.
13. Sitemap with priority weights reflecting cornerstone importance. Submit to Search Console.
14. Core Web Vitals green on every cornerstone page. LCP under 2.5s, CLS under 0.1, INP under 200ms.
15. Canonical tags on every page pointing to the absolute URL.

16. 5 to 10 mentions on trusted third-party sites in 90 days. Trade press, podcast transcripts, GitHub READMEs, association directories, Reddit threads, niche wikis.
17. Wikipedia or Wikidata entry with cited third-party sources. The single highest-leverage knowledge-graph move.
18. Complete LinkedIn Company page with same description, same logo, same URL as your site.
19. Track citations weekly with a tool (Search Atlas, Profound, Otterly) so you can iterate on what worked.
20. Internal linking discipline: every new piece of content links to two cornerstones plus your primary CTA.

Items 1, 2, 6, 11, and 18 are the five highest-leverage moves. They cover schema, llms.txt, content shape, and knowledge-graph trust. If you ship those five inside a week, citation rates typically move within the next month. Not sure which to start with? Book a free 30 minute call. We ask the AI assistants what they say about your business in your city, read you the answer, and tell you what we would do.