Weekly review · Oct 30, 2026

42 SEO and AEO rules hold today. 10 no longer work.

Every rule is checked against Google, Bing, OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic documentation each Monday. Changes land here with their sources.

Reviewed Oct 30, 2026 · next review Nov 2, 2026

Rules in force 42 across 7 areas

High impact 16 fix these first

Official 88% 37 from engine docs

Retired 10 stop doing these

Coverage by area and engine

How many current rules apply to each engine.

	Google	Bing	ChatGPT	Perplexity	Gemini	Claude
Crawling	7	7	7	4	2	5
Content	5	3	2	2	2	1
On-page	6	6	2	2	1	2
Structured data	4	2	0	0	2	0
Experience	3	1	0	0	0	0
AI answers	9	5	5	5	5	4
Links	3	3	1	1	1	1

0 9 rules

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Rules in force per area, split by impact

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How many current rules apply to each engine

All rules

42 in force · 10 retired · sorted by impact

High impact Medium impact Low impact

Stop doing this

10 tactics that no longer work, or never did. Each one has a fix.

Stop pinging Google's sitemap endpoint and setting priority or changefreq
Do instead
Submit sitemaps in Search Console or via a Sitemap: line in robots.txt
Crawling
Don't use crawl-delay to throttle Googlebot; Google ignores it
Do instead
Let Google adjust crawl rate automatically, or return 503/429 temporarily under overload
Crawling
Stop targeting keyword density or a minimum word count
Do instead
Write until the question is fully answered, then stop
Content
Stop changing publish dates without changing the content
Do instead
Change dates only when the content materially changes
Content
Stop filling in the meta keywords tag
Do instead
Remove meta keywords from templates
On-page
Don't add FAQPage markup expecting FAQ rich results in Google
Do instead
Keep visible Q&A sections where they genuinely help readers
Structured data
Drop HowTo, ClaimReview, course info, estimated salary and vehicle listing markup for Google
Do instead
Remove these types from templates unless another platform consumes them
Structured data
Stop optimizing for First Input Delay; INP replaced it
Do instead
Track INP in field data and aim for 200 ms or less
Experience
Don't chop content into tiny chunks or rewrite it 'for AI'
Do instead
Keep complete pages with clear headings and paragraphs
AI answers
Don't expect llms.txt to raise rankings or AI citations
Do instead
Keep an llms.txt only if you have docs that coding agents read
AI answers

Changelog

What changed in the rules and when. Each week's review lands here, newest first.

Oct 30, 2026
Rulebook published with 42 current rules and 10 retired ones, covering changes through October 2026 (FAQ rich results removed, Google AI optimization guide, Search Console AI controls).

Questions about the rulebook

How often is the SEO rulebook updated?

Every week. A research routine checks Google Search Central, Bing Webmaster, OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic documentation plus confirmed algorithm updates, then proposes changes. A person reviews every change before it goes live, and each one is logged in the changelog at the bottom of this page. Last review: Oct 30, 2026.

What do the evidence labels on each rule mean?

Official guidance means the search or AI engine states it in its own documentation. Proven in studies means several independent studies show the effect. Emerging evidence means early evidence points one way but the engines have not confirmed it, so treat it as a bet, not a law.

What is the difference between SEO and AEO rules?

SEO rules decide whether a page is crawled, indexed and ranked in classic search results. AEO (answer engine optimization) rules decide whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews retrieve your page and cite it in a generated answer. Most AEO rules build on SEO ones: a page that cannot be crawled cannot be cited.

Does every rule have its own page?

Yes. Open any rule to read why it works, the steps to apply it, the engines it applies to and the sources behind it. You can also browse the rules by area or by engine from this page.

See which rules your site breaks

RankRush scans your site against these rules and tracks whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini cite you, week over week.

Run a free scan Try the AEO checker

42 SEO and AEO rules hold today. 10 no longer work.

Coverage by area and engine

Browse by area

Browse by engine

All rules

Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt if you want AI citations

Treat training bots and search bots as separate robots.txt decisions

Audit your CDN and WAF bot settings; they can block AI crawlers that robots.txt allows

Ship primary content in the initial HTML; most AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript

Publish original, first-hand content that adds something the rest of the web hasn't said

Don't mass-produce pages for query variations, with AI or without it

Write a unique, descriptive <title> per page with the brand at the start or end

Link to every indexable page with crawlable <a href> links and descriptive anchor text

Serve the same content, links and markup on mobile as on desktop

Get indexed and snippet-eligible first; Google's AI answers draw only from that pool

Check that your site is included in the Search generative AI setting in Search Console

Put the direct answer and key facts near the top of a single-topic page

Publish original data and first-hand findings that others will cite

Earn genuine brand mentions on third-party sites, reviews and video

Never hide instructions or engineered text aimed at AI systems in your pages

Don't buy, swap or manufacture links to manipulate rankings

Don't use Google-Extended to control Search; it only governs Gemini training and grounding

Use noindex, not robots.txt Disallow, to keep a page out of search results

Submit an XML sitemap with lastmod values that change only on significant updates

Ping IndexNow when URLs are added, changed or deleted, for Bing and partner engines

Point redirects, rel=canonical, sitemaps and internal links at the same canonical URL

Return real 404/410 for missing pages and keep critical HTML under Googlebot's 2 MB fetch limit

Show who wrote it, how it was made and why it exists, with real bylines and author pages

Don't host third-party content that exists only to borrow your domain's ranking strength

Refresh key pages with real updates on a schedule; never just bump the date

Organize pages with one clear H1 and descriptive H2/H3 sections that match real questions

Use <img> elements with descriptive alt text and filenames; Google doesn't index CSS images

Use JSON-LD structured data that matches what's visible on the page

Target only rich results in Google's current gallery, like Product, Article, Organization

Define your brand entity with Organization markup: logo, url, sameAs profiles, contact

Keep LCP under 2.5 s, INP under 200 ms and CLS under 0.1 at the 75th percentile

Back claims with statistics, expert quotes and cited sources

Use nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet deliberately; they limit AI reuse too

Measure AI visibility with first-party reports plus prompt tracking across engines

Mark paid links rel=sponsored and user-submitted links rel=ugc

Keep your brand name, description and facts consistent everywhere you're mentioned

Don't rely on robots.txt to stop ChatGPT-User or Perplexity-User; they fetch on a user's behalf

Write a meta description that accurately summarizes the page; expect Google to rewrite it

Use short, readable URLs with words separated by hyphens

Don't expect schema to unlock AI answers; Google says no special markup is needed

Serve every page over HTTPS and avoid interstitials that block the main content

Ask loyal readers to add you as a Google preferred source

Stop doing this

Changelog

Rulebook published with 42 current rules and 10 retired ones, covering changes through October 2026 (FAQ rich results removed, Google AI optimization guide, Search Console AI controls).

Questions about the rulebook

See which rules your site breaks