A website brief for SEO, GEO and AEO
“Build a site that performs in search and gets recommended by AI” tells a developer nothing about what to deliver. A brief they can work from names the pages, the information and the actions the site must support, and gives a way to check each requirement. How the site performs in search is measured later, once it is published.
In this brief, SEO covers conventional search needs, GEO covers visibility in AI-generated answers and AEO covers clear, complete answers. Treat them as working labels for tasks that overlap. They are not three independent technical standards.
Describe the starting point
Explain what you sell, who chooses it and what makes the choice hard today. Then set priorities: which languages, which markets, and which action you want from the visitor (an inquiry, a demo booking or a purchase). For an existing site, add its URLs and any platform constraints you already know about.
List the evidence you have: analytics, search reports, questions that come up in sales, product documentation. Where data is missing, say so. “JavaScript is why we are not recommended” is a hypothesis to test before anyone treats it as an instruction to replace the platform.
Explain how each requirement will be checked
| Requirement | Acceptance check | Who needs to be involved |
|---|---|---|
| Pages answer buying questions | Agreed answers and conditions can be found | Sales and service owner |
| The HTML returned by the server includes the main text | Check the agreed passages in the HTML of sample pages | Editor and developer |
| URLs and canonical tags are defined | Match the URL map to final HTML | SEO owner |
| Language versions connect correctly | Check URLs, language, hreflang and switching | Localization and development |
| Structured data matches the offer | Compare the information in the markup with the visible content | Data owner |
| Inquiries reach the team | Controlled test with an agreed recipient | Person responsible for responding to inquiries |
| Content can be maintained | Editor completes an agreed update | Person who will maintain the site |
Having the important text in the server’s HTML is a requirement you can choose to set for this project. Setting it doesn’t mean every search or AI service handles JavaScript in the same way. Spell out the content that must be present, such as the offer, conditions and product details. Otherwise a page with nothing but its heading would pass the check.
Supply one reference page
Choose one priority service or product and prepare its facts, limits, links and the action you want the customer to take. Agree on the text, the template and the checks for that page before anyone builds the rest. A missing field found here is one fix; found later, it has already spread across every translation.
A migration needs three more things in the brief: an old-to-new URL map, redirect rules and checks of key customer actions after launch. A new site can skip that section. See the website rebuild decision guide and multilingual guide.
Assign responsibility for publication and future updates
Name the people who approve the facts, review the technical work and publish the site. Agree where editable files will be stored, which corrections are included and who maintains the site after handover. For inquiry-form tests, agree on the recipient and mark the messages as tests.
Google’s AI search documentation does not require special AI markup or a dedicated AI file. And a promise of guaranteed citations is no substitute for website requirements you can verify.
Before you approve the brief, check that each important requirement names the pages, the work, the approver and the verification steps. With that in place you can discuss a specific implementation scope. If you don’t yet know what the current platform can support, start with an audit.
Published: · Reviewed by the geo-rank.ai editorial team · Our methodology