Answers for owners

Generative Engine Optimization: answer engines like ChatGPT should be able to read, understand and name your business.

A service that answers questions directly instead of listing results: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI overview.

A program that reads websites so a search or answer engine knows them. Googlebot, GPTBot and ClaudeBot are crawlers.

A text file on every website telling crawlers what they may read. Always check the delivered file, not the one in the code.

A text file giving answer engines an overview of the most important pages. It does not replace access via robots.txt.

Business details in machine form (JSON-LD): name, address, opening hours, services. Google and answer engines read them directly.

The one big heading of each page. Google uses it to tell what the page is about. Without it, the page has no topic.

The short sentence under the title in a search result. Unique per page so Google uses it.

Google's check tool in the Chrome browser. It scores 0 to 100 for speed, accessibility, best practices and search engines.

Three Google measurements of the loading experience: speed of the main content, response to input, page shifting.

Largest Contentful Paint: how long until the largest content of the page is visible. Measured in seconds, on mobile with a throttled connection.

Cumulative Layout Shift: how much the page shifts while loading. Zero is the goal; images without dimensions are the most common cause.

Images outside the screen load only when you scroll to them. Saves data and speeds up the first view.

Modern image formats, much smaller than JPEG at the same quality. Every current browser shows them.

The prompt asking whether services like Google Analytics may load. Needed only if the site uses such services; declining must be as easy as agreeing.

Small programs from Google, Meta and others that recognise visitors and measure bookings. Without consent they must not load.

A setting by which the website tells Google whether consent exists. Without it, Google measures as if everyone had agreed.

The Swiss data protection act, revised as of 1 September 2023. Requires transparency about who processes which data and why.

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation. Applies to businesses in Spain and to any website aimed at people in the EU.

The mandatory details about a website's operator: company, address, contact, registry. «Aviso legal» in Spain, «Impressum» in Switzerland.

The text stating which data the website processes, why and with which services. Must match the site, not a placeholder.

The encrypted connection, shown by the lock in the browser. Without it the browser warns and Google ranks the site lower.

Your address on the web, such as your-business.com. It belongs to whoever it is registered to; check that this is you.

The directory that points your domain to servers: website here, e-mail there. Whoever manages DNS holds the key.

The server where your website lives. Hosting is an ongoing service with updates, backups and someone to call.

A system for maintaining content without programming, such as WordPress. Needs updates; an old version is a risk.

A service where you click your site together yourself. Fast at first; the limits show in speed, privacy and when moving.

A file listing all addresses of your website for search engines. When moving, the list nobody may forget.

The permanent forwarding of an old address to a new one. Google transfers the old page's standing with it.

Google's tool for site owners: shows what each page is found for. Before a move, the source of the address list.

The statement of which address is the main version of a page when it is reachable under several. Prevents duplicate entries.

The statement of which language versions of a page exist. Google shows everyone the right one instead of German in Spain.

The details WhatsApp, Facebook and LinkedIn use to preview your page: title, sentence, image.

A document to download. Unsuitable for prices and menus: search and answer engines rarely read it, phones struggle with it.