Cornerstone ยท 10 chapters

The Search Agents
Guide to SEO

A field guide to SEO in 2026. Ten chapters covering how search engines work, how content gets indexed and cited, and how AI answer engines surface what users actually read. Written for people who ship.

/01 How search engines work /02 SEO basics /03 Keyword research /04 SEO content /05 On-page SEO /06 Link building /07 Technical SEO /08 AEO and answer engines /09 Local SEO /10 Measurement
  1. /01

    How search engines work

    Before you change anything on a page, understand what's reading it. Crawlers, indexers, rankers, and now language models.

    • Crawling and indexing in 2026
    • How rankers turn signals into positions
    • Query understanding and intent
    • What changed when LLMs joined the stack
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  2. /02

    SEO basics Coming soon

    The handful of decisions that compound. Sitemaps, internal links, canonical URLs, the boring backbone that keeps everything else working.

    • Setting up the foundation
    • Site architecture that scales
    • Tracking what actually matters
    • Common setup mistakes
  3. /03

    Keyword research Coming soon

    Finding what people search for, what they mean when they search, and which queries are worth the work.

    • Mapping demand from data, not guesses
    • Search intent, classified
    • Difficulty, opportunity, and priority
    • Building a keyword universe
  4. /04

    SEO content Coming soon

    Briefs that survive review, drafts that read like a person wrote them, and updates that don't cannibalise their own siblings.

    • Briefs that produce useful drafts
    • Writing for users and models
    • Updating without cannibalising
    • When to delete versus rewrite
  5. /05

    On-page SEO Coming soon

    What goes on the page and where. Title tags, headings, internal links, structured data, and the order in which they matter.

    • Title tags and meta descriptions
    • Heading structure
    • Internal links that route attention
    • Schema and structured data
    • Core Web Vitals, calmly
  6. /06

    Link building Coming soon

    Links still matter and still get earned. The work is figuring out which links are worth chasing, and which are noise.

    • Why links still move rankings
    • Outreach that doesn't make you cringe
    • Digital PR, when it makes sense
    • Earning authority through content
  7. /07

    Technical SEO Coming soon

    The infrastructure layer. Indexing health, crawl budget, rendering, log files, and the audits that catch problems before they cost traffic.

    • Diagnosing indexing problems
    • Crawl budget on real sites
    • Rendering and JS SEO
    • What server logs tell you
  8. /08

    AEO and answer engines Coming soon

    Ranking on Google still matters. Getting cited by ChatGPT, surfaced by Perplexity, and trusted by Gemini matters now too. AEO is what that work looks like.

    • What AEO actually means
    • How LLMs read the open web
    • Structured data for AI retrieval
    • Citations as the new ranking signal
    • Brand mentions and AI trust
  9. /09

    Local SEO Coming soon

    If location is part of the buying decision, this chapter is for you. Google Business Profile, local pack signals, reviews, and the rest.

    • Google Business Profile setup
    • Local pack ranking factors
    • Reviews and reputation
    • Multi-location at scale
  10. /10

    Measurement Coming soon

    What to track when rankings are no longer the only output. Citations, share of voice across AI surfaces, and the metrics that survive the model swap.

    • From rankings to citations
    • Server logs as ground truth
    • GSC and GA4 in 2026
    • Tracking AI-surface visibility