ZOXO has published a practical guide to AI Search, answer engine optimization, and generative engine optimization. The guide is written for teams that need a clear model of the technology without treating every new convention as a ranking requirement.
What the guide covers
It explains how modern answer experiences can interpret a question, expand it into related searches, retrieve evidence, evaluate sources, and compose a response. It then connects that process to website work: crawl access, explicit page meaning, structured data, source quality, and measurement.
Mature foundations and emerging practices are separated
Server-rendered text, internal links, reliable URLs, accurate structured data, and useful evidence remain durable foundations. Newer practices such as llms.txt and AI agent traffic classification can be useful experiments, but their adoption and impact should be evaluated separately.
Primary sources are included
The guide links to current documentation from Google, OpenAI, Schema.org, and IndexNow. Platform documentation changes over time, so the guide includes a reviewed date and avoids claiming one permanent formula for every answer engine.