FAQs

AI helps us with an outline, with organising information and with writing. People check what we deliver: the writer works from your brief and sources, a reviewer checks facts and readability, and you approve before anything goes live. We do not claim a text was made without AI if that is not true. Our own resources were written with the help of AI and released by our founder.

A new check in Atlas starts with a specific research question, for example from new documentation by a search engine or from something a specialist came across on a website. The team decides which source data is needed, builds or improves the check and tests it on sample cases. Only then is the change put to use.

No. The team behind Atlas follows the public, official documentation of Google, Bing, OpenAI, Anthropic and other providers. That is not a partnership, an endorsement or access to secret ranking rules. A new publication is input for us to research and test, not something that ends up in Atlas automatically.

It means that work on the development of Atlas continues around the clock: research, new checks, improvements and tests. It is not a promise of 24/7 customer service, of a particular level of system availability or of daily measurements for your website. What you get per plan or project is set out in your agreements.

When we use AI tools, we only use the information needed for the work we do for you. Exactly what we do with personal data is set out in the privacy statement. If there is confidential information you do not want in an AI tool, you can tell us in advance; we record that in the agreements.

The articles in our resources were written with the help of AI. Every article names its sources, and our founder released the resources for publication. Every article lists Outseen as the author, together with the date on which the text was last updated. If you spot a mistake, let us know; we correct mistakes as soon as we see or hear about them.

The name Outseen refers to becoming visible among the options a customer is considering. Our brand line sums it up: from unseen to outseen. That is the meaning we give the name, not a dictionary definition. The name suits SEO, GEO and website development and does not depend on any single search engine or AI provider.

We are not the right fit if guaranteed rankings or AI mentions are a requirement, if no reliable product or business information is available, or if unlimited work is expected within a plan with a defined scope. We would rather discuss that in advance than have it lead to disappointment later.

If we made a factual error in a text, we correct it without counting it as an extra round of revisions. You flag the error next to the text in your portal, the writer fixes it and the second reader checks the correction. New requests that fall outside the brief are not errors: we discuss them first, and you receive a proposal for them in advance.

Report the error through the contact page and name the page and what you think is wrong, ideally with a source. We check the report, correct the text if the report is right and add the new date to the article. For a correction to the content, we note at the bottom of the article what has changed.

We prefer primary sources: the documentation of Google, Bing and the AI companies themselves, legislation, official bodies and the original research. We only cite figures with a source and a year. Anything we cannot confirm in a reliable source, we leave out.

Our websites are outseen.io (the website), app.outseen.io (the client portal) and atlas.outseen.io (the internal Atlas environment, for staff only). Emails about the Quickscan and your account come from noreply@outseen.io. If you doubt whether a message really comes from us, get in touch through the contact page on outseen.io.

A writer creates the content based on your brief and sources. A second person, the reviewer, checks the facts, the readability and how well the text answers the customer’s question. You then get the agreed opportunity to give feedback and approve the right version. Only then do we publish.

We build Atlas because we want to be able to show what every piece of technical advice is based on. For every finding, Atlas records the source, the URL and the moment of research, and it can check again after a change. That lets us back up our advice and check whether an improvement worked, without relying on generated text.

Outseen combines specialist execution with its own technology. We develop Atlas ourselves: a research engine that records, for every technical finding, what was found, where and when. You speak to the people who work on your website, your portal shows what was agreed and delivered, and we do not promise rankings or AI mentions that nobody controls.

You are in touch with the specialist who works on your website. You ask questions about a piece of advice or a text in your portal, next to the work they relate to. How quickly you get a response and how often you meet depends on your plan and is set out in your agreements.

You follow the agreements, schedule, drafts and deliverables in your own portal. You can see what is ready for your review and what we still need from you. With each report, we explain what was researched and which period the data covers.

We write content for clients in Dutch. Our website is also available in English, but that does not change the language of your plan. Content in another language, such as English or German, is discussed in advance and gets its own proposal.

We work for businesses with a relevant offer and knowledge that helps customers choose. Our standard approach for ongoing SEO and GEO work focuses on online shops on Shopify and WooCommerce. We build websites on the basis of a quote, for service providers too. For several websites, markets or teams, we make a custom proposal through Enterprise.

Outseen helps businesses with SEO, GEO and website development. We research the technology and content of your website and carry out the agreed improvements, using Atlas, the research engine we develop ourselves. You work directly with the specialists who do the work and follow the progress in your own portal.

You choose how to pay when you order. With three months you pay monthly. With twelve months you pay monthly or a year in advance, and with twenty-four months you can also pay the whole term in advance. The more you pay in advance, the lower the monthly amount. Before you pay, you see the VAT and the total.

Yes. Choose a free call on this page and discuss with one of our specialists which approach and how much work suit your situation. You do not have to pick a plan first, and requesting a call is not an order.

We confirm your order and plan the start with you. In the first weeks we get to know your business, ask for the information and access we need and investigate your website. Then we agree on priorities, and you can see the planning in your client portal.

Your plan runs for the term you choose when you order: three, twelve or twenty-four months. After that it continues monthly and you can cancel with one month’s notice. You see the cancellation conditions before you agree; they are part of your order.

No. Our plan prices are monthly prices and exclude VAT. When you place an order, you see the VAT and the total amount before you pay, so the full amount is clear to you before you commit to a plan.

For us, a content page is a new or thoroughly reworked page with its own purpose and useful content, on a single URL. A small change to just a title or a short description does not count as a full content page within your plan.

Yes. Tell us what you want to improve and what you are unsure about, and we will discuss which approach and how much work suit your situation. You do not need to choose a plan in advance. A request for an introductory conversation with us is not an order.

Then we discuss it with you first. You receive a proposal for the extra work before we carry it out, or we look at whether a larger plan fits better. We do not carry out work outside the agreements without your approval.

With a plan, you choose a term of three, twelve or twenty-four months. After that, the plan continues month by month with one month’s notice. Before you agree, you see the term, the invoicing and the cancellation conditions for your plan.

Each of our plans covers one website. If you have several websites, markets or teams, Enterprise is a better fit: we define the work for each website and make a custom proposal for the execution and the reporting across all your websites.

Our plans do not include advertising budget, bought links or reviews, website development, full migrations, translations, unlimited technical development or daily automatic AI monitoring. These are not part of any plan. For a larger technical or migration project, you receive a separate proposal from us.

Rise, Scale and Lead differ in the amount of work and support each month. Rise is a focused start with recurring SEO and GEO work. Scale gives more room for content, technical work and support. Lead is a more extensive programme with more content and strategic support. The exact quantities and prices are listed per plan on the plans page.

No. With us, building a website is a separate project with its own quote. That quote describes which SEO and GEO foundations we take care of during the build. You can agree ongoing SEO and GEO work alongside it with a plan.

That depends on the number of topics and pages you want to work on, and on how much information your team can provide. A smaller online shop with a clear range can often start with Rise. More categories, products or services sooner call for Scale or Lead. If you are unsure, ask for a conversation; you do not need to choose in advance.

Yes. We discuss the new work, the price and the start date with you before you agree. The conditions of your order determine how a change to your plan takes effect. We do not change existing agreements without telling you.

As an existing client, send your message through your portal at app.outseen.io. Your specialist can see the page, the schedule and earlier agreements there, so your question reaches your specialist with the right context more quickly than a separate message would.

We get in touch at the email address you provided, to discuss your question or arrange a time to talk. A request for an introductory conversation is not an order, so sending one to us does not commit you to anything.

Tell us briefly what you want to improve and share your website. You can also mention what you are unsure about, for example which plan fits or whether you need a new website. You do not have to choose a plan before you contact us.

We ask for information about your business and offer, relevant sources such as product data, and the agreed access to your website and measurement environment. If facts are unclear, we ask follow-up questions. The schedule shows when we need your input or feedback.

Yes. We use AI as a working aid, to work more efficiently with existing information and to support the drafting. Atlas carries out the technical research and checks, without a language model. Our specialists assess facts, content and proposed improvements. For us, AI output never counts as measurement evidence, and responsibility for the work stays with us.

No. We put drafts in your portal for review. Once the required approval is given, we publish the content or make the change. A change to the content after your approval goes back to the reviewer before we publish it.

You give feedback in your portal, next to the draft it relates to. That keeps questions and comments with the work, and you do not have to piece together separate emails and documents. Your specialist sees your feedback in the same place.

We distinguish between the work we have carried out and the results we can observe. A technical improvement, a change in search data and a mention in an AI answer each tell you something different. With each report, we explain what was researched and which period the data covers.

Working with us follows five steps. We get to know your business, research your website and set priorities together, create and check the work, process your feedback, and carry out the work after your approval and discuss the next step based on the available results. You follow everything in your portal.

Sometimes. An AI answer can mention your business without a link, or show a source link the user can click. Clicks from ChatGPT, Perplexity or Copilot usually show up as referral traffic in your analytics tool. We keep mentions, source links and visits apart, because each of them tells you something different.

That takes repeated, comparable measurements. We agree the questions in advance, ask them by hand once a month in the AI assistants included in your plan and record the answers with the date and sources. That way you compare the same questions over time. A technical website check alone does not tell you how often an AI assistant mentions your business.

Every plan includes a fixed set of questions that we ask AI assistants by hand once a month and then assess. Rise: 10 questions in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Scale: 25 questions, adding Perplexity and Gemini. Lead: 50 questions, adding Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Mode. We keep every answer with its date and sources. Automatic or daily measurements are not included.

Google Analytics 4 only sees visits where the source is passed on. If someone reads your business name in ChatGPT and then types your address themselves, GA4 counts that as direct traffic. Redirects, shortened links and ad blockers can also strip the source, according to Google. So ask new customers how they found you as well, for example with a dropdown field in your contact form.

No. In Google Analytics 4, clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode fall under the Organic Search channel, together with ordinary clicks from Google. According to the documentation, the AI Assistant channel explicitly excludes those Google features. To see how often you are shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, look at the generative AI performance report in Google Search Console.

Not necessarily. For most websites, the default AI Assistant channel in Google Analytics 4 is enough to see how many visits come from AI assistants. A custom channel group is useful if you want to decide yourself which services count, or if you are missing a source Google doesn’t recognise. You can’t edit the default group, so for your own rules you always work on a copy.

Not on its own. More visits from AI assistants in Google Analytics 4 is an observation, not proof of cause. It could come from your own improvements, but also from more people using those assistants or from a change a platform made. So also look at what those visitors do, such as enquiries or purchases, and compare that with repeated measurements of the AI answers themselves.

No. Search engines and AI platforms decide for themselves what they show, and Google itself says that no one can guarantee a first position. We agree which research and improvements we deliver and explain which results we can observe. An agency that guarantees a position or an AI mention is promising something it does not control.

That varies by website, topic and competition. Technical improvements can be finished within weeks, while changes in search results or AI answers often take months. Google itself writes that the effect of a change is sometimes visible within hours and sometimes only after months. We agree a delivery schedule and assess the available data over a suitable period.

There is no fixed number. A small, stable set of questions that customers really ask tells you more than a large collection of questions nobody asks. Start with the questions you hear in customer contact and quote requests, split them into questions with and without your brand name, and only expand the set once you can repeat the first measurements. If you change the set, start a new series and don’t compare it with the old one.

AI answers are not fixed. The same platform can give a different answer to the same question at another moment, in another mode or with different account settings. Google, for example, says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use different models and techniques, so the answers and links they show can differ. Record who measured, where, when and with which settings, and ask the same question more than once.

Yes, but keep mentions without a link separate from citations with a link. An AI mention means the assistant names your business. A citation means the answer points to your website, so someone can click through. Both are observations in that one answer. Neither proves a visit or a sale; you only see those in your own visitor statistics, such as Google Analytics 4.

Yes, to a limited extent. After the technical report, our website check sends a short AI result: the same six questions to ChatGPT and Gemini through their regular, logged-out websites, showing whether your business appears in the answers. Perplexity and Copilot are still listed as not measured. It is a single moment, not a trend; for a reliable picture, ask the same questions repeatedly.

The Atlas development team follows official technical documentation from Google, Bing, OpenAI and Anthropic, among others. Relevant changes are turned into checks or features, which are tested before they are put to use. Questions that specialists come across on websites give the team further direction.

No. Atlas is a research engine. Its technical core fetches public sources, runs defined checks and links every finding to source data. That research works without a language model. AI can support the workflow around Atlas; the measured facts and check outcomes come from the engine.

A recheck is a new investigation of the same page with the same check, after a change. Atlas compares the outcome with the earlier finding, so you can see whether a technical problem was resolved at the time of that recheck. A finding simply disappearing from a report does not count as proof that it was fixed.

Atlas examines the public code and technical signals your website returns: HTML, titles and descriptions, headings, HTTP responses, robots rules, indexing instructions in code and headers, canonicals, internal links, language references and supported structured data. Atlas also brings target pages it has actually fetched into its checks, for example what a canonical URL itself returns.

Yes, Atlas investigates the public code your store returns, including on Shopify and WooCommerce. That covers the HTML, indexing instructions, canonicals, internal links and supported JSON-LD such as product and breadcrumb data. Atlas does not investigate your theme’s original templates or the code on the server. We have a standard approach for online shops on Shopify and WooCommerce; we discuss other systems in advance.

No. Atlas investigates the technical signals your website returns, not your rankings in Google or mentions in AI answers. A technical check can show that a page has a noindex, but says nothing about how high another page ranks. We currently check AI answers by hand, with questions, environment and time of measurement agreed in advance. You can read search rankings in Google Search Console.

For every finding, Atlas records what it found, in which source, at which URL and when. That lets you trace the finding yourself, for example by looking at the same HTTP header in your browser. Like any software, Atlas can have limited coverage or an error in a check. That is why one of our specialists assesses the finding before anything on your website changes.

Then the outcome says so. Atlas does not quietly mark missing information as fine. If a page could not be fetched, or a source gives too little data for a conclusion, that is stated with the check. One of our specialists then decides whether further investigation is needed, for example with access to your CMS or with a different research method.

No, not by default. Atlas examines the HTML your website returns, without building the page in a browser. Content that only appears after JavaScript runs falls outside that research. That is useful in its own way: some AI crawlers do not run JavaScript, so what Atlas cannot find in the HTML, they may not see either.

No. Atlas supports our services and is not a separate self-service subscription. You can use the Quickscan, which Atlas runs, to get a first impression of your website’s technical points, or discuss with us which research and which work your website needs.

Unknown means that Atlas cannot draw a conclusion from the available data, for example because a page could not be fetched or the assessment needs human judgement. Atlas does not turn unknown into an error or a pass. A specialist can then investigate further.

For every technical finding, Atlas records which check ran, which URL and source were examined, what was observed and when. If information is missing or a check cannot reach a conclusion, that stays visible as unknown. After a change, Atlas can run the same check again.

Not with the standard research. Atlas examines what your website returns publicly. Private server files and the original theme or CMS templates need separate access and a research method of their own. Whether that fits your assignment is something we discuss with you beforehand.

No. An Atlas check says something about a technical property of your website, for example whether a page may be indexed. Your position in Google and mentions in AI answers need separate measurements. The findings do help to trace technical causes that can stand in the way of your search visibility.

We develop Atlas. You work with us for SEO, GEO and website development, and Atlas is our own technology behind the technical research. Your specialist remains your point of contact for advice and execution, also for questions about what Atlas found.

Atlas is our own research engine for SEO and GEO. Atlas investigates the public code and technical structure of a website, tests it against defined checks and stores the evidence with every finding: what was found, in which source and when. Our specialists assess what the outcomes mean for your website.

The audit examines how well your website’s content and technology match your customers’ questions, which matters for search engines and AI assistants. Whether we also record AI answers to a set of questions, and in which environment, is agreed in advance. A technical check on its own does not tell you how often an AI assistant mentions you.

That is agreed in advance. We record which pages and topics we examine and what you want to know, so it is clear what the report covers. An audit is not a full review of every URL unless we agree on that.

Yes, under conditions. If you pay for a plan for the same website within thirty days of the audit being delivered, we credit the audit price against your first invoice. You see the amount and the conditions when you request the audit.

An SEO and GEO audit is research into the agreed pages and topics of your website. Atlas supports the technical research, and specialists also assess the content, the structure and how well the website fits your customers. You get an explanation of the main points that need attention and a plan with the improvements to tackle first.

After an audit you get a report with the findings, an explanation of the main points that need attention and a plan with priorities and next steps. Technical findings come with the evidence from Atlas. You keep the report, even if you do not continue with us afterwards.

Yes. The plan from our audit is written so that you, your team or your web developer can get started with it. If you would rather have us do the work, that is possible with a plan or with a separate proposal for larger technical work.

Because GPTBot and ClaudeBot collect text to train AI models. The search features of ChatGPT and Claude use their own crawlers, such as OAI-SearchBot and Claude-SearchBot. You can refuse training and still stay readable for AI search features. At Google, Google-Extended controls whether Gemini may use your pages, separately from Google Search.

You can request one measurement per website per hour. If you request a report for the same website again within that hour, you receive the measurement that already exists. So after a change to your website, you can measure again once the hour has passed.

No. The GEO report tests the basics: whether AI services can read and understand your website. Whether ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity actually mention your business varies by question, service and moment, and needs a separate measurement with fixed questions. A good report is a precondition for a mention, not a guarantee of one.

The GEO report checks eight areas: whether AI search crawlers from Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Apple, among others, may read your homepage; whether your text is in the HTML without JavaScript; structured data; business details in the code; questions with answers; indexing; the sitemap; and visible contact details.

The GEO report looks at what AI services need to read your website, such as access for AI search crawlers, text without JavaScript and business details in the code. The Quickscan gives a first impression of technical SEO points on your homepage and at most two other pages, followed by a short AI result from six questions to ChatGPT and Gemini. Both send the result by email.

The GEO report is our free check of whether AI services can read and understand your website. Atlas fetches your pages the way a crawler does, without JavaScript and following your robots.txt, and tests eight areas, from access for AI search crawlers to business details in the code. The website shows where you stand; the report arrives by email.

First check your spam folder and search for the sender noreply@outseen.io. The AI result usually arrives within half an hour of the technical report; if other requests are waiting, it can take longer. There is a maximum number of AI results per day. If it has been reached, or the AI measurement did not work, you only receive the technical report. If that is missing too, check your email address and get in touch through the contact page.

Because the Quickscan result only arrives by email; the website itself shows no result. You receive two emails from noreply@outseen.io: first the technical report from Atlas with the points that need attention and what you can do about them, then the short AI result. You only get those emails, no newsletter.

Partly. After the technical report, we ask ChatGPT and Gemini the same six questions through their regular, logged-out websites and show in a second email whether your business appears in the answers. Perplexity and Copilot are still listed as not measured in that email. It is a single moment, not a trend. The Quickscan does not measure your position in Google.

Atlas only shows an indicative score when enough checks have a clear outcome. If a check cannot be assessed, for example because it needs human judgement or a page could not be fetched, it counts as unknown. With too many unknown outcomes, you see the findings without an overall score.

The Quickscan gives a first technical impression of your homepage and at most two other pages, checked automatically by Atlas, plus a short AI result from six questions to ChatGPT and Gemini. In an audit we agree in advance which pages and topics we investigate, specialists also review content and structure, and you receive a plan with priorities.

The Outseen Quickscan is a free technical check of your website by Atlas, followed by a short AI result. Atlas looks at your homepage and at most two other pages for search engine access, information in the code and structured data. The report arrives by email. Usually within half an hour, a second email shows the answers of ChatGPT and Gemini to six questions about your kind of business.

You can tackle the points for attention yourself or with your web developer; the report explains what was found. If you want to know what the result means for your approach, discuss it with us or request an audit for more extensive research.

The Quickscan examines your homepage and at most two other pages. On those pages, Atlas looks at access for search engines, information in the code and structured data. The report shows which pages were checked. For research that covers more pages, there is the audit.

You cannot buy a place in the organic AI answer. Some platforms do show adverts next to or inside AI answers; that is a separate, paid channel with its own rules. GEO is about unpaid mentions and source links, which depend on the information the system finds.

That depends on the search and the website. For informational questions, an AI Overview can be enough for the searcher, so fewer people click through; for other questions, a source link actually brings in visitors. Look at the clicks and impressions of your own pages in Google Search Console instead of relying on general figures.

Usually because the assistant finds more clear, consistent information about your competitor: on their website, in comparisons, in reviews or in other sources. Sometimes the assistant cannot fetch your pages properly. Look at which sources the answer uses and which questions your own website does not yet answer.

Start by finding out where the error comes from: look at the sources the answer cites. Improve the information on your own website and on profiles you manage yourself, such as your Google Business Profile. Ask whoever runs the other sources for a correction. Many AI assistants also have a feedback button next to an answer.

The term GEO is new, but the behaviour behind it is familiar: people ask questions and choose based on the answers. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 57 per cent of Dutch people aged 18 and over had used an AI chatbot at some point in 2025. Much GEO work is simply good SEO and clear content, so the investment stays useful if the term disappears.

Not as a guarantee. Google says that no special structured data is needed for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Bing describes structured data as supportive at most. Structured data that matches the visible content does help systems read facts such as product, price and organisation without ambiguity.

AI assistants put together each answer afresh. The wording of the question, earlier messages in the conversation, your location, the model and the sources fetched at that moment all affect the outcome. That is why one answer says little; repeated measurements with the same questions give a more reliable picture.

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation: working on the visibility of your business and information in answers from generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot. You make sure your website answers relevant questions clearly and with evidence, and that it is technically accessible. The term comes from a research paper published in 2023.

Partly, yes. You can answer your customers’ questions on your website yourself, make your business information consistent and track with a fixed set of questions whether AI assistants mention you. Technical research, such as access for crawlers, and writing and checking content at scale take more time and knowledge.

No. AI search services use different sources, search techniques and models, and the question and context also affect the answer. That is why we assess results within the environment and period that were researched. One mention on one platform does not tell you how your business appears everywhere.

No. Whether GEO makes sense depends on your customers and the questions around your offer, not on the size of your business. A specialist online shop or service provider can also have knowledge that helps with a specific comparison or choice. We discuss which topics are worth researching for your business.

We research which questions customers ask when they compare providers, and work on information that makes your expertise, offer and suitability clear. By keeping that content and the technical foundations up to date, you work towards a stronger position. We cannot guarantee a lasting lead or a mention.

Go through the GEO checklist at least after any major change to your website: a new theme, a migration, a different CMS or a new cookie or security service. Changes like these can quietly add a noindex or a block in robots.txt. For content and business information, a fixed round each quarter is a workable rhythm. The platforms’ official documentation does not prescribe a frequency.

No, you choose per bot. AI companies often use separate bots for search and for training models. At OpenAI these are OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot, at Anthropic Claude-SearchBot and ClaudeBot. According to OpenAI, those settings work independently. If you want to appear in search answers, allow the search bots. Whether you allow training bots is a separate decision about how your content may be used.

Mostly, yes. The checks on content, business information and mentions elsewhere need no technical knowledge. For robots.txt you open an address in your browser, and URL Inspection in Google Search Console shows whether Google may index a page. For HTTP headers, canonicals and structured data you need your browser’s developer tools or a validation tool. If you are unsure about a finding, have it assessed before you change anything.

An FAQ block helps if it answers real customer questions briefly and completely and the answers are in the HTML as text. Then an AI assistant that searches live can find an answer to part of a question. An FAQ full of generic questions nobody asks adds little. FAQPage markup describes the questions for machines, but Google says you need no special markup for its AI features.

Yes, if customers ask questions before choosing a local provider, as they do with an installer, a dentist or a lawyer. When someone asks an AI assistant for a provider nearby, your website and your Google Business Profile are important sources. Google explicitly lists an up-to-date Business Profile among the basics for its AI features. For a local business, GEO therefore starts with correct business details and pages that describe your services and service area in concrete terms.

You can, but you lose little by laying the groundwork now. Most GEO work is the same as good SEO work: technical access, pages that answer customer questions and correct business information. That work helps your visibility in Google, even if AI assistants do not yet play a big role for your customers. What you can postpone is extensive measurement of AI answers.

Ask them. Add a question to your contact or quote form about how someone found you, with ChatGPT or another AI assistant as an option. Also look in your web analytics for referral traffic from AI assistants. That only shows clicks: someone who reads your name in an answer and then phones you directly will not show up there. Conversations with customers often give the most honest picture.

That depends on the amount of work, not the label. For us, SEO and GEO are part of the same service, so you do not pay twice for the same work on your technical setup and content. The Rise, Scale and Lead plans differ in the amount of work; Enterprise is tailored. What each plan includes is on our plans page.

No, not from ChatGPT’s search answers. GPTBot collects content that OpenAI may use to train future models. For ChatGPT’s search feature, OpenAI uses a separate bot, OAI-SearchBot. According to OpenAI, the robots.txt settings for each bot work independently: you can allow OAI-SearchBot and block GPTBot. If you block OAI-SearchBot, your site will not appear in ChatGPT’s search answers.

There can be several reasons, and no platform publishes its full weighting. First check whether that platform’s search bot may fetch your page and whether the page is in the search index. Then check whether you have a page that answers exactly that question, with the information in the HTML as text. After that, ask the question a few times on different days. A single answer can be chance.

Yes. A language model that answers without searching live uses what it learned in training, and that knowledge stops at a certain date. An assistant that does search can also find an outdated page, such as an old business listing or a forgotten page on your own site. Keep your own website current and check your listings on other sites. Record incorrect answers with the date and platform.

With OpenAI and Perplexity, about a day. OpenAI says changes for its search feature need about 24 hours, and Perplexity mentions up to 24 hours. With Google it depends on when Googlebot fetches the page again; Google gives a timescale of days to months for reprocessing pages. With URL Inspection in Search Console you can ask Google to crawl a page again.

No. A good article can answer a relevant question, but GEO also covers your other pages, technical accessibility and the consistency of your business information. Because your offer, your customers’ questions and AI search services keep changing, we keep assessing where improvement is needed.

Start with the technical basics and your most important customer questions, because they help SEO, GEO and AEO at the same time. First check whether your key pages are in Google and whether search bots may fetch them. Then pick the five questions customers ask most often before they buy, and make sure each one has a clear answer on a fixed page. Only after that does it make sense to start measuring AI answers.

Partly. Google Search Console counts AI Overviews and AI Mode in the Web search type, and since 2026 it also has a separate report that shows impressions in Google’s generative AI features. Referrals from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot or Claude do not appear in Search Console at all. You see those as referral traffic in your web analytics, if the visitor clicks a link. Whether an AI assistant mentions your business without a link, you can only measure by recording the answers yourself.

Not quite. A featured snippet is one display format in Google: a highlighted text extract above the ordinary results. We use AEO more broadly, for answering specific customer questions clearly on your website, whether that answer ends up in Google, in an AI assistant or with a visitor on your own page. A good AEO answer can appear in a featured snippet, but Google decides that.

No, not for Google. Google says you need no special schema.org markup for AI Overviews and AI Mode. The structured data you use for SEO, such as Organization or Product, also describes your content to other systems. What matters is that the data matches the text visitors see on the page. Structured data does not guarantee a rich result or a mention in an AI answer.

SEO focuses on visibility in search engines such as Google. GEO focuses on the visibility of your business and information in answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Much of the work overlaps: clear content and sound technical foundations help with both. We cover both in the same approach.

No. SEO remains the foundation, also for AI answers: Google uses pages from its own index for AI Overviews, and other AI assistants take information from websites they can fetch. We look at GEO together with your website’s technology and content, so you do not need two separate projects for the same improvement.

We research which questions customers ask AI assistants about your type of offer, improve the information on your website so those questions get a clear, well-supported answer, and use Atlas to check whether the technical foundations give access. Every month, we also ask a fixed set of questions by hand in the AI assistants included in your plan and record the answers.

Work on content and technology helps in all AI assistants that fetch information from websites, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot and Claude. Which assistants we check by hand every month depends on your plan: ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews in Rise, plus Perplexity and Gemini in Scale, and on top of those Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Mode in Lead.

Not for Google’s AI features. Google’s documentation for site owners says you need no new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org markup for AI Overviews and AI Mode. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in search results. For GEO with other AI assistants, what counts most is that their search bots may fetch your pages and that the content is in the HTML as text.

No, as long as you do GEO by making pages clearer and better supported. That work helps your SEO too. It becomes a risk when you stuff pages with keywords or publish lots of text in a short time to game search engines. Google says that using AI or automation mainly to manipulate rankings breaks its spam policies. In the 2024 GEO study, repeating keywords also did worse than changing nothing.

There is no fixed timescale for GEO. With AI assistants that search live, an improved page can count quickly once the search bot fetches it again. OpenAI and Perplexity say a change to robots.txt can take about 24 hours to take effect. Google says reindexing can take days to months. What a language model learned in training only changes with a new model version. So measure over a longer period with the same questions each time.

No. GEO is about unpaid visibility: the AI assistant mentions your business or links to your website because your information fits the question. Adverts are paid placements with their own rules on each platform. With GEO you work on your website and on information about your business. Whether and how a platform shows you is up to that platform, which is why nobody can guarantee a mention.

No. According to Google, Gemini Apps use Google’s search index for grounding. According to Microsoft, Copilot builds on the same foundation as Bing. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT search sometimes works with other search providers and also has its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot. Perplexity and Anthropic have their own crawlers. Which search index Claude uses is not in Anthropic’s public documentation. A good position in one search engine therefore does not cover every AI service.

For the content, usually not: clear pages that answer a question help with every AI service. The differences are mainly in access. Each service has its own crawlers with their own names in robots.txt, and some publish IP addresses that your firewall or CDN needs to let through. So check for each service whether its search crawler may fetch your site. For Copilot and Gemini, your inclusion in the Bing and Google indexes also counts.

Because each AI assistant uses different sources, searches and models. OpenAI describes how ChatGPT rewrites a question into new searches and can take location and saved memories into account. Gemini searches Google’s index, Copilot searches Bing’s. The same question at a different moment can also give a different answer. One observation on one platform therefore says little about how your business is represented everywhere.

Yes, if you want to be able to appear in Copilot. In the Bing Webmaster Guidelines, Microsoft says Bing and Copilot work on the same foundation of crawling, indexing and ranking. A page Bing does not know is hard for Copilot to use as a source. Bing Webmaster Tools shows whether Bing indexes your pages, and with IndexNow you can quickly report new, changed or deleted pages.

No, not for a place among the sources of a search answer. OpenAI says ChatGPT ranks search results on several factors and that placement is not guaranteed. Its explanation describes no way to buy a source position. Adverts are a separate part: OpenAI has its own bot for them, OAI-AdsBot, which checks submitted ad landing pages. Anyone who promises you a guaranteed mention in ChatGPT is promising something OpenAI itself does not commit to.

OpenAI says it takes about 24 hours for a robots.txt change to take effect in ChatGPT’s search feature. That only covers the access rule. OpenAI does not say when OAI-SearchBot will actually fetch your pages after that, or whether ChatGPT will use them in an answer. So also check your server logs for visits from OAI-SearchBot and make sure your hosting or CDN lets through the IP addresses OpenAI publishes.

Sometimes, but then the information comes from what the model learned during training. That knowledge has a cut-off date and can be outdated or wrong. You cannot see what information about your business a model holds. Only in an answer that includes a web search can you see and click the sources. So work on current, public information that ChatGPT search can find, rather than relying on what a model already knows.

Mostly not: clear pages, good internal links and correct business information help with both Google and ChatGPT. The biggest difference is access. ChatGPT search uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, which you have to allow separately in robots.txt and in your firewall or CDN. ChatGPT can also work with other search providers. A good position in Google therefore says nothing automatic about your visibility in ChatGPT.

Yes, but it also costs you your snippet in the ordinary search results. With the nosnippet rule, Google prevents your content from serving as direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and it also shows no snippet with your ordinary result. With max-snippet you limit how much text Google may use. Blocking Google-Extended does not help here: according to Google, that token has no effect on Google Search.

No. Google says no special schema.org markup is needed for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Structured data stays useful for other search features, such as product information in the results, as long as the data matches what is visible on the page. Anyone who tells you a particular schema will get you into AI Overviews is claiming something Google’s documentation does not support.

Partly. Clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode count towards the Search Console performance report, under the Web search type. In June 2026 Google also announced a separate generative AI performance report, which shows how often your pages appeared in these features. The announcement describes impressions; it does not mention a separate click figure. Track changes per page over a longer period, because the cause of a change is not visible directly.

Yes. Google’s help pages list the Netherlands and the Dutch language among the places where AI Overviews and AI Mode are available (checked on 11 November 2026), and English is available too. Google updates those lists when availability changes. For AI Mode in Search Labs, Google sets a minimum age of 18. Check the current help page if you want to know whether a new feature works in your country and language.

You cannot force a recommendation. For search questions, ChatGPT relies on sources it fetches, such as your own website, comparisons, reviews and mentions elsewhere. Make clear on your site who your offer suits and why, with concrete facts, and make sure that information matches what others write about you.

Yes. Google made AI Mode available in the Netherlands and in Dutch on 8 October 2025. AI Mode answers more complex questions with an AI-generated answer and links to websites. For your website, the same principles apply as for AI Overviews: be indexed and answer questions clearly.

According to Google, no extra requirements or special markup are needed. Your page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google’s search results with a snippet. After that, the usual SEO principles apply: technical accessibility, helpful content and a good page experience.

You cannot make ChatGPT mention you, but you can improve your chances. Make sure OpenAI’s search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) may fetch your pages, answer your customers’ questions clearly on your website, keep your business information the same everywhere and make sure others write about you online. Then measure with fixed questions whether you are mentioned.

Perplexity searches the web for every question and shows the sources with its answer. Make sure PerplexityBot may fetch your pages, that the key information is in the HTML and that your pages answer the question directly. As with other assistants, a mention in Perplexity cannot be guaranteed.

Yes. Google assesses the quality and usefulness of a text, not how it was made. Mass-publishing texts that add no value does fall under Google’s spam policies. Check the facts, add your own knowledge and experience, and have a person review the text before you publish it.

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Google uses links, among other things, to discover pages and to judge how relevant a page is. Buying links or swapping links to influence rankings falls under Google’s spam policies. Mentions you earn with useful content or partnerships are worth having.

There is no fixed frequency. A new page helps when it answers a question your customers really ask and your website does not yet answer well. Improving an existing category, product or service page often achieves more than an extra blog post.

Speed counts through page experience. Google measures loading time, responsiveness and visual stability, among other things, with the Core Web Vitals. Google says good scores help but do not guarantee a higher position; relevant content carries more weight. A slow website does cost you visitors.

Google names three factors for local results: relevance, distance and prominence. Fill in your Google Business Profile completely and correctly, choose the right categories, add photos and opening hours, ask customers for reviews and respond to them. Make sure your name, address and phone number are the same everywhere.

There is no minimum amount of text. Google says it has no preference for a particular number of words. A page should have as much text as it needs to answer the visitor’s question well. Padding a page to reach a word count does not help.

There is no button for it. Make sure Google can crawl and index your pages, give every page a clear job and answer the questions behind a search better than other pages do. Internal links, a fast mobile website and mentions on other websites also help. Check in Google Search Console what is happening.

Local SEO is working on your visibility for searches that include a place or ‘near me’, for example in Google Maps. The main elements are a complete Google Business Profile, reviews, consistent name, address and phone details, and pages that describe what you actually offer locally.

Common causes: the page is new, a noindex instruction excludes it, robots.txt blocks it, a canonical points to another URL, or the page returns an error. The page may also be indexed but rank low. The URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console shows what is going on.

Yes, if you want to know how Google sees your website. Search Console is free and shows which searches you appear for, how many clicks you get, which pages are indexed and which problems Google finds. Traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is also counted in the Performance report.

Technical SEO is the part of SEO that makes sure search engines can fetch, read and index your website. Think of status codes, robots.txt, noindex, canonicals, redirects, sitemaps, language references, speed and how the site displays on mobile. Without those foundations, good content helps less.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. You improve your website so that search engines can find, understand and show its pages, and visitors get the information they are looking for. SEO covers the technical structure, the content and the reputation of your website.

Yes. An existing page with a clear purpose often deserves attention before we write anything new. When it is thoroughly reworked, such a page counts as a content page within your plan. Small changes to just a title or description do not count as a full page.

Not necessarily, because a month is short for a lot of SEO work. Google first has to fetch the changed page again, and Google says that can take from a few days to a few weeks. After that, the page still has to be assessed in the search results. Check in Google Search Console whether the page has been recrawled since your change. If it has and nothing moves, discuss whether the change was big enough to make a difference.

No, an SEO agency cannot guarantee a position within a set period. In its advice on hiring an SEO, Google writes that no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google, and recommends looking elsewhere if someone promises it anyway. An agency can agree what work it will deliver, when, and which data it will review with you afterwards.

No, submitting more often speeds nothing up. Google says that requesting a recrawl of the same URL several times does not get it crawled any faster. You can submit a changed page once through URL Inspection in Google Search Console. For many pages at once, use a sitemap. A request is no guarantee that the page will appear in the search results quickly, or at all.

You see the effect of SEO work in the Performance report in Google Search Console. It shows how often your pages appeared in the search results, how often people clicked, the click-through rate and the average position. Compare a period of a few weeks after the change with an equally long period before it, and look per page and per search query. That shows whether a shift coincides with the work.

No, you do not need paid software to make a good start on keyword research. Questions from your customer contact, the queries in Google Search Console and the suggestions Google shows already give plenty of direction. For a search volume estimate you can use Keyword Planner in Google Ads, which requires a Google Ads account with billing information entered. Paid software can help later on large websites, but it does not replace what you learn from your own customer conversations.

No, not automatically. A keyword with high volume is often broad, and the people searching for it often want something other than what you sell. A specific question with low volume can bring in the customer who is close to buying. Keyword Planner also gives estimates, and for keywords with very low volume it sometimes gives no result at all. Choose by relevance to your offer and use volume to decide what comes first.

Give each page one main question or topic, with the variants and follow-up questions that belong to it. Keywords that mean the same thing, such as ‘bike repair Zwolle’ and ‘get my bike fixed in Zwolle’, belong on the same page. If someone using a query wants something else, for example to compare rather than buy straight away, that question often deserves its own page. That way two pages on your site do not compete with each other.

Yes, keyword research is still worth doing, because you are researching the same needs. Someone who types ‘weatherproof garden chair’ into Google asks an AI assistant the same question, only longer and with more context about their own situation. You use the questions you collect for your pages and to derive questions for AI assistants. Later you can use those to check whether and how your business appears in AI answers.

We do not buy links or reviews. In Rise, work on external authority falls outside the plan. In Scale we give advice within the delivery budget, and in Lead one task defined in advance is possible, without a guarantee of placement. A page that genuinely helps people is our best starting point for mentions elsewhere.

Yes. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode use pages that are indexed in Google, and Google says the same SEO foundations apply to them. Other AI assistants also take information from websites. A website that is technically accessible and answers questions clearly therefore helps in search engines and in AI answers.

We start with your offer and the questions customers ask about it. We look at your existing pages, available search data such as Search Console, and where information is missing. An important category or service page often takes priority over a new article. You see the choices and the reasons behind them in your schedule.

Yes, within the technical working time that comes with your plan. Atlas finds technical points for attention, such as an unintended noindex or a canonical pointing to the wrong URL, and a specialist decides on the solution. Complex repairs or larger development work are discussed in advance and get their own proposal.

Usually access to your online shop or CMS to edit pages, and read access to Google Search Console and your analytics tool. Exactly which access we need is agreed in advance. You keep ownership of your own accounts throughout, also after the work ends.

We research which pages and topics need attention, improve existing pages, write new content and tackle technical points within the agreed time. Atlas examines the technical foundations, such as indexing instructions, canonicals and internal links. Your portal shows which pages we create or improve and why.

No, you cannot pay Google for a better place in the ordinary search results. In its explanation of how Search works, Google states that it does not accept payment to crawl a site more often or rank it higher. Adverts are a separate product. Anyone who promises that money buys you a fixed organic position is telling you something Google itself contradicts.

SEO is ongoing work, although part of it is done once. You fix a technical error one time and then check that it stays fixed. Meanwhile your offer changes, customers ask new questions and competitors improve their pages. According to its own documentation, Google releases broad core updates several times a year. That is why you keep updating pages, answering new questions and rechecking the technical side after every major change to your website.

No, the length of a text decides nothing by itself. Google’s SEO Starter Guide says that the length of content alone does not matter for ranking. A page does better when it answers the visitor’s question fully and clearly. For one question that is a short paragraph with a table, for another a detailed explanation with examples. Write until the question is answered, then stop.

Yes, the same SEO principles apply to Google’s own AI features. In its documentation on AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google writes that existing SEO best practices remain relevant and that no additional requirements or special optimisations are needed. A page that Google can crawl and index, and that answers a question well, is the starting point. Other AI assistants, such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, have their own rules. That work is called GEO.

That is your choice. GPTBot collects web content that OpenAI can use to train models; OAI-SearchBot fetches pages for the search feature in ChatGPT. You can block GPTBot and allow OAI-SearchBot, so you can still appear in ChatGPT’s search results without contributing to training.

If you want to appear in AI answers, the search crawlers of those services need to be able to fetch your pages. Many providers have separate crawlers for search and for training models, so you can allow search and refuse training. We review your robots.txt and discuss which choice suits your business.

Not necessarily. llms.txt is a proposal for an overview file aimed at language models; Google says it is not needed for Google Search. Other services do not clearly document whether they use it. We start with the content and technology of your pages and treats llms.txt as an optional extra.

A new page does not appear in Google within a fixed time. Google says crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks, and after that Google still has to process the page. Indexing is never guaranteed. You help Google by linking to the new page from existing pages, including it in your sitemap and submitting it once through URL Inspection in Google Search Console.

No, not every page on your website needs to be in Google, and Google does not index everything either. In its help page for the Page indexing report, Google says you should not expect every URL on your site to be indexed. Pages such as your basket, account pages, internal search results and endless filter combinations usually do not belong there. Make sure the pages customers should find you through are indexable.

It is possible, because being in the index does not mean Google shows the page for the search you type in. Google says in its help for URL Inspection that the status ‘URL is on Google’ is no guarantee that the page will appear in the results. Results also differ by location, language and device. The Performance report in Search Console shows which queries the page does appear for, and in which position.

You take a page out of Google with a noindex instruction, not with robots.txt. Put noindex in the meta robots tag or in the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, and leave the page accessible to Googlebot so Google can read the instruction. If you block the page in robots.txt, Google does not see the noindex and the URL can keep appearing. If the page has to disappear quickly, also use the Removals tool in Google Search Console.

No, usually not. What matters is the content that counts: your main text, titles and descriptions, navigation, product details and answers to customer questions. In their December 2024 measurement, Vercel and MERJ advised rendering exactly that critical content on the server, and said JavaScript in the browser is fine for secondary things such as a visitor counter. Start by checking your most important pages and only change what is missing.

Yes, if the answers are already in the HTML and only visually collapsed. If an answer is only fetched or inserted when someone clicks, a crawler without JavaScript will not see it. In an October 2025 post from the Bing team, Microsoft advises against hiding important answers in tabs or accordions, because AI systems may not show hidden content. So put the text in the HTML.

We do not know for certain. The most recent public measurement we could verify is the one by Vercel and MERJ from December 2024. OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity do not say in their crawler documentation whether their crawlers run JavaScript (checked on 11 November 2026). Crawlers can change. As long as the providers do not describe it themselves, content in the server HTML is the safe choice, because every crawler can read it.

That depends on your theme and your apps or plugins, not on the platform alone. A theme can put product information straight into the HTML, while an app for reviews, size charts or FAQs only loads that text with JavaScript. So check for each page type, such as a product page and a category page, whether the text is in the page source. If it is missing, find out which component loads the content.

No. OpenAI names two conditions for being able to appear in ChatGPT’s search results: OAI-SearchBot must be allowed to fetch your site, and your hosting or CDN must let OpenAI’s IP addresses through. llms.txt is not mentioned in that explanation or in OpenAI’s crawler documentation. So start with your robots.txt and with clear pages. You can add an llms.txt afterwards as an extra, without expecting any effect from it.

robots.txt gives crawlers access rules: which paths they may or may not fetch. llms.txt gives no rules. The file is a table of contents with a summary and links, meant to point an AI system in the right direction quickly. robots.txt is set out in an IETF standard (RFC 9309) and is used by the major search engines and AI services. llms.txt is a proposal. Blocking or allowing a crawler is therefore always done with robots.txt.

Not in Google Search: Google says files like this neither help nor harm your visibility, because Google Search ignores them. The risks are in the content. An outdated summary can contradict your pages, and the file is public, so confidential information does not belong in it. Do not put instructions for AI systems in it either: Microsoft names attempts to steer language models as a reason for reduced visibility.

Every time you add, remove or move important pages. An llms.txt with dead links or old descriptions points an AI system the wrong way. So include the file in the same maintenance routine as your XML sitemap. If you would rather not keep the file up to date, leaving it out is better than leaving an outdated version in place. For Google Search it makes no difference either way.

No. Google recommends placing Organization markup on your home page or on a single page that describes your business, such as your about page. It does not need to be on every page. What can appear on every page are your visible business details in the footer: the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK) advises online sellers to place their details where customers find them before they buy anything.

In sameAs you list links to profiles that are unambiguously about your business. Schema.org describes sameAs as the URL of a page that clearly indicates the identity of the item. Think of your LinkedIn company page, your Instagram account or an entry in an industry directory. Only include profiles you manage, or that are certainly about your business, and that show the same name and details.

Use both, each in the right field. According to Google, name holds the name customers know, which matches the name of your website. The registered name from the Business Register goes in legalName if it is different. A common abbreviation can go in alternateName. Use the same trading name consistently on your website, your Business Profile and your social media profiles.

Most providers do not document that. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special schema, but that your Business Profile should be up to date and your structured data should match the visible text. No official statements about Organization schema are known from other AI assistants. Consistent details on your site and profiles are therefore the safest starting point.

No. According to OpenAI, GPTBot collects content for training models. Whether your pages can appear in ChatGPT’s search answers depends on OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says the settings are independent: blocking GPTBot changes nothing about how OAI-SearchBot treats your site. If you do block OAI-SearchBot, your pages will no longer appear in ChatGPT’s search answers.

No. Google says Google-Extended has no effect on inclusion in Google Search and is not a ranking signal. The token controls whether Google may use your content to train future Gemini models and for grounding in Gemini Apps. That second part is a trade-off: if you block Google-Extended, Gemini may no longer use your content to support an answer. AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search are not covered by it.

Only if you want something different for that crawler than for the rest. A crawler without its own group in robots.txt follows the rules under User-agent: *. If it does have its own group, it follows only that group and ignores the general rules. Companies sometimes add new crawlers or rename them. So check the official crawler documentation of the AI services that matter to you every now and then.

Not completely. robots.txt is a request that well-behaved crawlers follow; it is not access control. Anthropic says blocking ClaudeBot applies to future material, not to what was fetched earlier. Fetchers that act at a user’s request, such as Perplexity-User, may ignore the rules. And what other sites copy about you falls outside your own robots.txt. If you really want to shield content, put it behind a login.

No, there is no guarantee of that. Google describes structured data as a way to make the meaning of a page clear and to become eligible for rich results, such as price or ratings next to a product. Google also states that correct markup does not guarantee a feature. Structured data makes good content easier to read. It does not replace good content or a page that can be reached and indexed.

Both are fine. Google supports JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa, and says each format works equally well as long as the markup is valid. Google generally recommends JSON-LD because it is the easiest to add and maintain: it sits in the code as a separate block and does not have to be woven through your HTML. You do not need to convert existing Microdata, provided it is correct.

Then you risk a manual action from Google. Google’s guidelines say structured data must be a true representation of the page, and you may not mark up content that visitors cannot see. A violation can cost a page its eligibility for rich results. Even without a manual action, conflicting markup causes trouble: a search engine receives two versions of the same information.

Not for an FAQ result in Google. Google announced on 8 May 2026 that the FAQ rich result has not appeared since 7 May 2026, and removed the documentation on 15 June 2026. FAQPage remains a valid schema.org type, and a good FAQ still helps visitors. Just do not expect the markup to produce an extra feature in Google Search.

Yes, you still need to check it. A Shopify theme can output product data with the structured_data Liquid filter, but apps for reviews, filters or SEO sometimes add a second product block. Open the source of a product page with variants and count the Product or ProductGroup blocks, then check that price and stock match everywhere. If fields such as brand, GTIN or returns policy are missing, add them through the theme or one app, not both.

Not automatically. Google can show ratings with a product, but it does not guarantee a rich result. The reviews and the average rating must be visible on the product page, otherwise the markup does not belong there. Never mark up ratings that visitors cannot read anywhere. For reviews about your own business, marked up as Organization or LocalBusiness, Google shows no stars when you manage those reviews yourself.

No, it is not required, but Google recommends using both. According to Google Search Central, structured data combined with a Merchant Center feed increases the chance that your products appear in more search experiences, and helps Google verify your data. A feed is most useful for a large or fast-changing catalogue. Make sure the feed and the page show the same price and stock.

There is no official confirmation of that. Google states that AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special schema, although structured data should match the visible text. OpenAI documents its own product feed for ChatGPT, which is a different thing from JSON-LD on your page. Product schema makes your data easy to read. Whether an AI assistant mentions your product is decided by that system.

Do a technical SEO check at least after every major change to your website. Think of a new theme, a migration to another system, a new plugin or app that changes the page code, or a different URL structure. That is exactly when errors creep in, such as a forgotten noindex or redirects that point to the wrong page. Also look regularly at the Page indexing report in Google Search Console for new issues.

No, a technical check says nothing about your rankings or about mentions in AI answers. The check shows whether search engines can fetch and index your pages and whether the technical instructions are correct. That is a precondition for being found, not a guarantee. You see your rankings in the Performance report in Google Search Console. They also depend on your content and on what other websites offer.

Start with your most important pages: the homepage, your best-selling categories or services and your contact page. First check that they return a 200 status code, that there is no noindex in the code or the HTTP header and that robots.txt does not block them. Then look at the canonical. Those four points decide whether a page can get into Google at all. Work through the rest of the checklist after that.

No, a good page speed score is not enough to rank high. Google says that good Core Web Vitals do not guarantee a top position and that relevance comes first. A slow page with the best answer can beat a fast page with a weak answer. Speed helps most when many pages match a search about equally well. Improve your speed for your visitors, and keep working on the content as well.

No. For us, answering customer questions clearly is part of SEO and GEO, so AEO does not need a subscription of its own. Within the plan or project you choose, we discuss which pages are needed to answer those customer questions.

Yes, when a page benefits from one. We write the questions the way your customers ask them, put the answer in the first sentence and make sure the answers are in the page’s HTML without relying on JavaScript. An FAQ does not replace a good page; it answers the follow-up questions.

With us, you get one combined round of revisions per page, within the brief. If we made a factual error, we correct it without counting it as a revision. New requests that fall outside the brief are discussed first, and you receive a proposal for them in advance.

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. We use the term for answering specific customer questions clearly on your website: questions about how something is used, what it costs, how options differ and who it suits. Answers like these help visitors choose, and search engines and AI assistants can use them too.

We choose the format that fits the question: a short answer, an explanation, a comparison, a step-by-step guide, a buying guide or an improved product, category or service page. Which types of page fall within your plan is shown with each plan.

No. We start from your offer, your sources and your customers’ questions, so your texts are written for your business. The content has to match what your business delivers and can back up. You review the drafts before we publish anything.

We don’t know, and for the rules it makes little difference. Google says it assesses the quality of content, not how it was produced. A helpful text made with AI can therefore perform well; a poor text written by a person can’t. Google does have systems that detect spam, however it was made. So the main question to ask yourself is whether your content helps a reader.

Yes, as long as you check them and they are correct. Google asks you to fact-check all AI output by hand before publishing. Google Merchant Center has extra rules: AI-generated titles and descriptions in your product data must be specified separately and labelled as AI-generated, and AI images need specific metadata. So don’t let AI invent sizes, materials or prices; those come from your own product data.

No, Google advises against it. Google writes that crediting AI as the author is probably not the best way to let readers know AI was involved in creating the content. Name a real person as the author, someone who is responsible for the content. Explain on the page or in your editorial policy how you use AI, where a reader might wonder how a piece was made.

Yes, and it often makes a comparison more credible. In its guidance on reviews, Google recommends discussing comparable options and showing what works best for which use. A buying guide that only covers your own range helps a customer less with a real decision. Keep the facts about other products verifiable and link to the source, such as the manufacturer’s specifications.

Whenever a fact in the comparison changes, and otherwise at a fixed moment, every six months for example. Prices, models and terms change faster than explanations. A comparison with an old model or an expired price damages your credibility and may be picked up by an AI assistant. Show a visible date on the page and only change it when you have really checked the content.

That depends on the decision. An interactive guide with questions works well when the right option depends on the customer’s situation. Always add the explanation and the table as ordinary text too. Results that only appear through JavaScript after someone fills in the questions may not be readable for search engines and AI assistants. The text version also helps visitors who prefer to compare for themselves.

No. Google says you don’t need to write specially for generative AI, because those systems understand synonyms and intent. Start with the pages that answer your most important customer questions. Check whether the answer is at the top, whether the facts are correct and whether the date and the author are visible. A page that helps a customer well doesn’t need rewriting for an AI assistant.

There is no set length. Google says there is no ideal page length and that you should create pages for your audience, not just for generative search features. A short question deserves a short answer; a comparison or step-by-step guide needs more room. Write as much as the reader needs to get their question answered, and cut anything that doesn’t contribute to that.

No, Google advises against it. A separate page for every way someone might phrase a question, mainly to influence rankings or AI answers, falls under Google’s spam policy on scaled content abuse. Google also calls it a poor long-term strategy. One good page that covers the topic fully works better than ten near-identical pages with small differences in the title.

Partly. Google Search Console’s generative AI performance report shows how often links to your pages were displayed in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Bing Webmaster Tools shows in AI Performance how often your pages appear as a source in Copilot and in AI summaries in Bing. For other assistants, you record the answers yourself, with fixed questions and measurement moments.

Yes. E-E-A-T is about whether a piece of content can be trusted, and that doesn’t require famous names. Google writes that content doesn’t need to show all four elements; sometimes experience is enough. An installer who explains what he came across in a hundred renovations shows experience a big brand doesn’t have. Make clear who wrote the text and what their knowledge is based on.

Yes, if a reader might wonder who wrote it. Google recommends adding a byline where readers would expect one, with a link to more information about that person. For an article with advice or explanation, that is almost always the case. For a page with opening hours or a product specification, less so. Only use real names; according to Google, a made-up author makes a page untrustworthy.

Not under that name. E-E-A-T is a concept from Google’s guidelines for quality raters. Google does write that its AI features rely on the same ranking and quality systems as its ordinary search results. For other AI assistants, we have not found a comparable official framework. What E-E-A-T asks for, such as clear authorship, supported facts and your own knowledge, makes content easier for any reader or system to assess.

No, there’s no need. When Google restricted the FAQ feature in 2023, it wrote that structured data that isn’t being used doesn’t cause problems for Search. Since May 2026, Google no longer shows the FAQ rich result at all. FAQPage remains a valid schema.org type that other services can read. Keep it if it matches the visible text; remove it if it contains outdated or different answers.

No, as long as the answers are in the page’s HTML. Google counts information behind tabs and expandable sections as part of a page’s main content. The risk lies in an accordion that only fetches the answers through JavaScript after a click. Then the text isn’t in the HTML a crawler retrieves. Not every crawler runs JavaScript, so always put the answers in the server HTML.

As many as customers really ask about the topic, and no more. On a product or service page, that is often a handful of questions that belong to that page. A general FAQ page can be longer, as long as you group the questions by topic. A question nobody asks, added only to mention a search term, makes the FAQ longer without helping anyone.

Preferably not with different answers. Write one fixed answer per question and show it on the pages where it fits, or link from other pages to the place where the answer lives. Two versions of the same answer drift apart over time, for example on a price or delivery time. Then a customer doesn’t know which one is right, and neither does an AI assistant.

Both work, if you split it. Above the products, put a short introduction of two or three sentences that says what the category contains and how to choose, so a visitor sees the products straight away. Below the products, put the longer explanation, such as differences between types and frequent questions. Both texts belong in the HTML the server returns, not in a block that only loads after a click.

Usually only a small share of them. Google warns that faceted navigation can create many URLs that cost crawlers time without adding anything. Filter combinations people really search for, such as a brand within a category, you can develop into a page of their own with text. For the rest, Google recommends limiting crawling, for example through robots.txt or by placing filters after a hash (#) in the URL.

Give the page a temporary noindex, or redirect to a related category if that offers a good replacement. In its guidance on URL structure for ecommerce sites, Google recommends noindex for empty categories, and a 404 if the category is permanently removed from your navigation and search. Do not leave an empty category live with only a message that nothing was found.

Yes, if the page contains an explanation. A question to an AI assistant often starts with a type of product, such as which walking boot suits mountain hiking, and only then turns to a model. A category page that explains which types exist, how they differ and who they are for answers exactly that first question. A bare product list without text offers little to work with.

Not necessarily. OpenAI documents its own product feed specification, with fields such as title, description, price, availability, GTIN, reviews and returns policy. Whether your shop can use it depends on the sign-up route OpenAI offers. Start with the basics that count for every system: complete product pages, correct structured data and search crawlers that are allowed to read your site. A feed adds to that, but it does not repair an incomplete product page.

Yes, and it is often easier to manage. A small online shop can explain for each product exactly who it is for, what it does and what it does not do. That is the information needed for questions about which product suits a particular situation. A small catalogue also makes it easier to keep specifications, prices and feeds the same everywhere. GEO does not guarantee a mention, for a small shop or any other.

Yes, and it helps customers choose. An honest limitation, such as “not suitable for outdoor use” or “runs small, choose one size up”, answers a question the customer would otherwise put to an AI assistant or your customer service. It also prevents returns. In its guidance on helpful content, Google asks whether your content shows real experience with the product. Honest limitations fit that.

By checking with fixed questions. Record which product questions you ask, in which AI assistant, with which settings and on which date, and note whether your shop is mentioned or linked as a source. Repeat with the same questions. We currently run these checks by hand, on agreed questions, environment and measurement moment. A single spot check tells you little, because answers can differ each time.

You can, but it does little for you. A manufacturer’s text often appears at many shops at once, so your page adds nothing. Use the manufacturer’s specifications as a basis and write what you know yourself: who the product suits, where it stops and which questions customers ask. In its guidance on helpful content, Google asks whether a page contains original information and real experience.

No, but every variant does need its own URL. Google accepts both set-ups: all variants on one page, with a URL per variant using parameters such as ?colour=green, or a separate page per variant. That URL must show the right image, price and availability, and let the customer add exactly that variant to the basket. A canonical prevents variants from counting as duplicate pages.

That depends on whether the product is coming back. If it is, keep the page live with the status sold out in the text and in the structured data, and an expected date if you have one. If it is not, redirect to a successor or to the category when that offers a good replacement. Never leave the structured data saying in stock while the page says something else.

As much as it takes to answer a buyer’s questions. Google asks for no fixed number of words. A simple consumable needs a few sentences and a specification table. An expensive or technical product needs an explanation of its use, how it differs from similar models and its limitations. Look at the questions customers ask by email, chat or through customer service; those belong on the page.

Yes, Shopify handles the technical basics of SEO well. According to the Shopify Help Center, every store automatically gets a sitemap, canonical tags and a robots.txt, and themes generate titles that include your store name. What Shopify does not do for you is the content: clear product pages, collection pages that help people choose, your own titles and descriptions. The choices you make in your theme and apps also affect how easy your store is to find.

No, you do not need an SEO app for the basics. Shopify handles the sitemap, canonicals, robots.txt and titles itself, and you edit titles and descriptions per page in your Shopify admin. An app can be useful for specific tasks, but it can also add its own code. Shopify’s SEO FAQ warns that an app can introduce title tag logic that does not work for every page type. So check the source code of a product page and a collection page after every installation.

If you remove a product from Shopify, its old URL returns a 404 and the page drops out of Google over time. To keep the visitors and links that page had, create a URL redirect to the most similar product or the right collection. According to Shopify, a redirect only works from a URL that no longer exists. If you make the product visible again later, Shopify removes the redirect automatically.

No, Shopify creates the sitemap automatically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml and updates it when you add products, collections, pages or blog posts. You do need to submit the sitemap to Google Search Console yourself. If you use separate domains for international markets, Shopify says each domain has its own sitemap, which you submit separately. While your store is still password-protected, Google cannot read the sitemap.

Yes, a WooCommerce store can be easy to find, but you handle more yourself than with a hosted platform. WooCommerce runs on WordPress, which has created its own XML sitemap since version 5.5 and adds canonicals to individual posts and pages. You decide the permalinks, category structure, filters, plugins, hosting and updates. That gives you freedom, and it also means a wrong setting or a plugin that adds code can hurt your visibility more quickly.

Not strictly, but for an online shop an SEO plugin is usually practical. WordPress creates a sitemap and adds canonicals, but according to the WordPress documentation only on single pages, not on archives such as product categories. An SEO plugin gives you title and description fields for each page and can add canonicals to category pages. Use one at a time, so titles, canonicals and structured data do not end up in your code twice.

Yes, but then the URLs of all your products change. The WooCommerce documentation warns that previously shared links and search engine indexes pointing to the old URLs will return a 404 unless you set up redirects. If you change the permalink structure of a live store, first list every old URL and set up a 301 redirect from each one to its new address. Preferably choose the structure before launch.

A new WooCommerce store is often missing from Google because the setting ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ is still switched on. WordPress then adds a noindex to every page and turns off the built-in sitemap. You find the setting under Settings, Reading. Also check your robots.txt and the HTTP headers for noindex, especially if the store went live from a test environment. Then submit the sitemap to Google Search Console.

No. Google asks that the name in your Business Profile matches your real business name, as it appears on your premises, website and stationery. Additions such as a slogan, a description of your services, a town name or a phone number are not allowed. If your business really is called “Zwolle Bike Repairs”, that name is fine. A profile with a padded name risks being edited or suspended by Google.

Usually not. Google asks businesses that serve customers on location and do not receive visitors to hide their address and set a service area. According to Google, that service area should generally lie within about two hours’ drive of your base. If you do receive customers at your address, for example in a showroom, simply show the address.

No. Google’s policy prohibits incentives in exchange for a review, and also asking selectively for positive reviews only. You can ask customers for a review, for example with the link or QR code from your Business Profile. Ask every customer in the same way and let them decide what to write. Reviews from employees or people with a stake in the business are not allowed either.

Usually within about ten minutes, sometimes later. According to Google Business Profile Help, Google first checks replies against its content policy; that usually takes up to ten minutes and can take up to thirty days. Your reply appears publicly under your business name. The customer is notified and can still edit their review afterwards.

Only if you use cookies or similar techniques that are not necessary, such as most marketing cookies and some analytics cookies, because those need prior consent. Functional cookies and analytics cookies with little privacy impact are allowed without consent, as long as you explain them. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) and the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) explain the rules.

Neither is always better. Shopify is a hosted subscription: hosting, security and updates are taken care of, and you extend it with apps. WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress on your own hosting: more freedom, but you are responsible for maintenance. Choose based on management, budget, integrations and plans for growth.

The smallest businesses are exempt for services such as an online shop: according to the Dutch government (Rijksoverheid), that applies if you employ fewer than ten people and have a turnover or balance sheet total of no more than two million euros. Sources phrase the threshold differently, so have your situation checked by a legal adviser.

Make a list of all existing URLs beforehand, link each old URL with a 301 redirect to the best matching new page, update internal links, canonicals and the sitemap, and check in Google Search Console after launch whether pages are being picked up. Keep content that already performs well wherever possible.

Transfer products, customers and orders with an import function or a migration app, and set up Shopify’s URL structure. Shopify uses fixed paths such as /products/ and /collections/, so almost every URL changes. That is why you need a complete list of 301 redirects, which you can import into Shopify.

First check the setting ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ under Settings and then Reading. It is often switched on during the build and accidentally left on after launch. Then check robots.txt and noindex tags, and submit your sitemap through Google Search Console.

That depends on the size, the features and how quickly content and feedback are available. We put the schedule with the agreed milestones in the website proposal, so you know in advance when to expect what and when your input is needed.

There is a risk if web addresses change without proper redirects. We take stock of which pages and content move across to the new website and agree how we handle the transition and the 301 redirects. That migration work is set out in the quote.

You review the design and content at agreed moments. Before launch, we test the agreed features. At handover, you receive the agreed access and an explanation. By then, management, licences and maintenance for your new website have already been arranged with us.

We choose the platform based on what your website needs to do, who manages it and which integrations are needed. For online shops, we work with Shopify and WooCommerce as standard. The choice and the reasons for it are in the proposal.

It can. The quote states which content we write, which content you provide yourself and how we check facts with you. We take relevant search queries and business information into account in the structure of the pages, so the copy and the page structure are planned together.

Possibly. Since 28 June 2025, accessibility requirements have applied in the Netherlands to online shops, among others, with an exemption for the smallest businesses. In a website project, we discuss which requirements apply to you and includes the agreements in the quote. If you are in doubt, get legal advice.

Yes, the accessibility law looks at who offers the online shop to consumers, not at the platform. The obligation in Article 6:230fb of the Dutch Civil Code lies with the service provider: the business that provides the e-commerce service. If you do not fall under the exemption for small businesses, your own shop must comply, including the theme, apps or plugins and the steps to payment. An accessible platform helps, but it does not make your shop accessible automatically.

That is not certain. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) wrote in June 2025 that it would check compliance from 28 June 2025, focus at first mainly on serious accessibility problems with a large impact on people with disabilities, and take into account the efforts a business makes. Consumers can report problems through ConsuWijzer, the ACM’s consumer portal. So do not wait: start with the biggest barriers in ordering, logging in and paying, and record what you do.

Yes, if the accessibility law applies to you. The law requires you to explain, following Annex V of the European directive, how your service meets the accessibility requirements, in your general terms and conditions or an equivalent document. The Dutch government’s business portal calls this an accessibility statement that visitors must be able to find easily. Describe honestly what already works and what does not yet, and keep the statement up to date.

Then the accessibility requirements for your e-commerce services apply as soon as you no longer meet the exemption in Article 6:230fc of the Dutch Civil Code. That exemption requires fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of no more than 2 million euros. If you are growing towards that threshold, build accessibility into a new theme, a new checkout or a redesign now. If in doubt, ask a lawyer to take a look.

Probably, yes. Our standard approach focuses on Shopify and WooCommerce. Before we start, we look at your system, the access we need and the work you want done. For another platform or a more complex website, we discuss the options and which custom arrangements are needed.

The price of a website depends on the number of pages and templates, the features, the content, integrations and any migration. That is why we work with quotes: after a conversation, you receive a proposal with the work, the price and the schedule.

Not always. We assess that based on your current website and your goals. Sometimes improvements to the existing website are enough. If a new structure, look or technical setup is needed, we discuss a website project with its own quote.

No. Our quote describes which SEO and GEO foundations we take care of during the build; those are part of the website project. You can agree ongoing work on your search visibility separately afterwards with a plan, but the website project does not depend on it.

You move from WooCommerce to Shopify in parts. According to the Shopify Help Center, Shopify’s free Store Migration app imports products and customers from WooCommerce CSV exports. Historical orders do not go through CSV but through a third-party app, and you cannot bring customer passwords across. Reviews, blogs and discount codes need a separate approach. Because the web addresses change, you set up redirects from old to new pages and test them after launch.

That depends on your shop. WooCommerce itself is free, but you pay for hosting, any paid extensions and WordPress maintenance, or you do that maintenance yourself. With Shopify you pay a subscription, apps separately and transaction fees if you use an external payment provider. For both platforms, list the costs of a full year, including the hours spent on management, before you compare.

Neither platform automatically gives you better rankings in Google. On both you can edit titles, descriptions, web addresses and alt text. Shopify handles a sitemap, canonical tags and a robots.txt by default, among other things; with WooCommerce you choose the URL structure yourself and arrange more through WordPress settings and plugins. Your rankings depend mainly on your content, your technical basics and your competition.

Yes, but switching platforms is a migration, with work and risk. You can usually export and import products and customers, but orders, reviews and passwords take extra steps. Your web addresses almost always change, so you need a complete redirect map. Choose a platform that also suits where your shop will be in a few years, not only the first launch.

Yes. Before the build starts, we agree how management, licences and maintenance of your website are arranged. At handover, you receive the agreed access to your own website and an explanation of how to use it. That way you know in advance who manages what.

Building an online shop takes more work than a website without sales, because product pages, a basket, payments, shipping and often links to stock or accounting systems are added. The price depends on the number of products and variants, the chosen platform, the payment methods and whether you move products and customers from an old shop. You only get a fair figure from a quote based on those details. Average prices without your brief say little.

Often, yes, because writing and editing take hours in a website project. Do agree when the copy has to be ready, who checks it for spelling and findability, and what happens if it arrives late. Copy that comes in late is a common reason for a launch to slip. Record in the quote which part of the content you supply and which part the builder supplies.

Website quotes vary because every builder makes different assumptions about what the project includes. One works with a ready-made theme and your copy, another with a custom design, new content and a migration with redirects. So compare line by line: which page types, features, feedback rounds, migration steps and running costs are included, and what falls outside.

That differs per builder, so ask. A good quote states which SEO basics are handled during the build, such as page titles, a logical structure, a sitemap and redirects from old to new addresses. Ongoing work on visibility after launch is usually a separate agreement. When we build your website, the SEO and GEO basics are part of the project; ongoing SEO and GEO is something you choose separately afterwards.

No, but fluctuations are normal. Google writes that rankings can fluctuate while it recrawls and reindexes the new addresses, and that for a medium-sized website this can take a few weeks or longer. Large websites need more time. Lasting losses often come from missing redirects, removed content or a forgotten noindex. A good redirect map and checks after launch reduce that risk, although nobody can guarantee the outcome.

Yes, if no new page answers the same question. Let such a page return a 404 or 410, as Google advises for content you are not bringing across. Do not redirect it to the home page: Google lists redirecting to an unrelated page as something to avoid. If the old page has visitors or links from other sites, first check whether you can fit its content into a new page.

Start on the redirect map as soon as the structure of the new website is settled, well before the build is finished. You then see in time which old pages have no new home and can still adjust the structure. A redirect map made on launch day often misses images, PDFs and less visited pages that do have links from other websites.

Put the missing redirects live as soon as possible, starting with the pages that had the most visitors and links. Use your old sitemap, your analytics data and the not-found report in Google Search Console to trace them. Then test a sample with the URL Inspection tool. How quickly Google picks up the new addresses differs per website.

Ask who does the work, what you concretely get each month, how results are measured and what the contract says about the term, cancellation and ownership of content and accounts. Be careful with guaranteed rankings: Google says that no one can guarantee a first position.

No, and an agency that makes that promise deserves suspicion. Google writes in Do you need an SEO? that no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google, and treats ranking guarantees as a warning sign. The same goes for AI assistants: they decide for themselves which sources they mention. An honest agency promises the work it delivers and explains which results it can observe.

Give an SEO agency only the access it needs for the agreed work. For research, read access to Google Search Console is enough, according to Google; write access is not needed. If the agency has to make changes, create a separate user for it in your CMS instead of sharing your own login. That way you can withdraw access when the collaboration ends.

Comparing two or three agencies is usually enough to see differences in approach, deliverables and price. Ask them the same questions, give them the same information about your business and ask for a written proposal. In the meeting, also notice how the agency asks about your customers and your offer. An agency that only talks about its own methods will know little about your market later on.

Not automatically. The size of an agency says little about the quality of the work on your website. What matters more is who actually works on your account, how much time that person has and whether you can speak to them directly. Ask every agency about the people behind your programme and about what is delivered each month, and compare on those points.

Not by definition. GEO and SEO share much of the same work: clear content, a sound technical foundation and answers to customers’ questions. What GEO can add is research into the questions people ask AI assistants and checks of AI answers. Every repeated measurement takes time. So ask which part of the fee goes to that measurement work.

A monthly fee suits SEO because the work is ongoing: you publish new pages, improve existing ones, fix technical problems and follow the results. Google writes in its SEO Starter Guide that some changes take effect within hours and others only after months. A one-off project is also possible, such as an audit with a plan your own team carries out. Choose the model that fits who does the work afterwards.

Before you agree, check the minimum term, the notice period, whether the contract renews automatically and what happens to content and accounts if you stop. Also ask whether you can switch plans part-way and when that takes effect. If any of this is missing from the proposal, ask for it in writing. We show you the term, billing and cancellation terms with the plan and before you agree. Those terms are part of your order.

Yes, a small budget works if you choose the work carefully. Start with the pages closest to revenue or enquiries, and first fix technical problems that block visibility. You can do a lot of the basic work yourself, such as keeping your Google Business Profile up to date or collecting customer questions. A one-off audit or a smaller plan gives direction without committing straight away to a large programme.

That depends on your website and your goals, but expect work that comes back every week or month. A good new page takes time to gather facts, write, choose photos and check. On top of that come keeping your Google Business Profile up to date, replying to reviews and looking at Search Console. Set aside fixed time for it; SEO you fit in between other things often gets left undone.

Partly, yes. You can collect the questions customers ask you, answer them clearly on your website and make sure your business details are the same everywhere. You can also put a few questions to AI assistants yourself and note what you see. Harder are repeated, comparable measurements and technical checks of whether crawlers can read your pages. That is where a specialist helps.

Doing it yourself becomes risky with work that affects your whole website: a migration to a new domain or platform, changes to robots.txt, noindex instructions or canonicals, and changes to URL structures. One mistake can take pages out of Google. Shopify, for example, warns that using a custom robots.txt incorrectly can cost you all your traffic. Have changes like these checked by someone with technical SEO knowledge.

Yes, and starting on your own even helps. You will know better which questions customers ask and which pages work, and a specialist can build on your work. Do keep track of what you changed and when, and make sure Google Search Console and your analytics account are in your company’s name. An agency can then see quickly where you stand.

We do not offer GEO as a separate product: the work on visibility in AI answers is part of the same plans as SEO, including a monthly manual check of a fixed set of questions in the AI assistants included in your plan. The prices are on the plans page. With other providers, GEO may be a separate service or tool; in that case, ask exactly what is measured and done.

The cost of SEO depends on how much work happens each month: the number of pages, technical work, measurements and support. Agencies work with hourly rates, projects or monthly plans, so compare what you get each month as well as the price. Our prices are listed per plan on the plans page, excluding VAT.

The price of an online shop depends on the platform, the number of products and templates, integrations for stock, payments and shipping, the content and any migration. On top of that come ongoing costs for a subscription or hosting, apps or plugins and maintenance. We work on the basis of a quote.

Yes, you can handle the basics yourself: write clear pages about what your customers want to know, set up Google Search Console and keep your Google Business Profile up to date. Outsourcing pays off mainly with technical problems, many pages or when you simply never have the time. A mix of both also works.

Yes. We discuss which knowledge and capacity you already have and where we can contribute. Research, content and technical execution each get an agreed owner, on our side or yours, so our work fits the people and processes already in your organisation.

For Enterprise you receive a proposal from us based on the work and capacity involved. That is why Enterprise has no standard price on the plans page. The Enterprise proposal shows which choices determine the price, so you can see what you are paying for.

Yes, as a custom arrangement. Content in a language other than Dutch and technical matters such as language references (hreflang) are included in the Enterprise proposal. Atlas checks the language references between the pages it fetches, so missing or broken references between language versions show up as findings.

In an Enterprise project we agree in advance which websites, topics and questions we follow, over which period and for whom. We keep mentions in AI answers separate from completed work, technical findings and search data, because each of them tells you something different. With every report we explain what was researched and which period the data covers. We do not guarantee a mention.

Outseen does, through Enterprise. We decide per website, market and language what work is needed and put it in one proposal. Content in a language other than Dutch and technical matters such as language references (hreflang) are part of that proposal. Atlas checks the language references between the pages it fetches. We do not guarantee rankings in Google or mentions in AI answers.

We tailor Enterprise reporting to your organisation: which websites, topics and measurements, over which period and for whom. We keep completed work, technical findings, search data and mentions in AI answers separate, because each of them tells you something different.

That is set for each project. The Enterprise proposal states who writes, reviews and publishes on our side and on your side, and how we work with your team. For development, migrations and integrations, the proposal describes the work involved, so everyone knows their role before the project starts.

The scope and complexity of the work decide whether you need Enterprise. Several websites, markets, languages or teams more often call for agreements of their own than a standard plan can hold. In that situation, we discuss Enterprise with you and the work is agreed in a custom proposal.

Whether you work on Atlas depends on the role. We develop Atlas, our own research engine for SEO and GEO, with a development team of our own. Each vacancy states which team the role belongs to.

We use the personal details you send with an application, such as your CV link and motivation, only for the application you sent them for. We delete them no later than four weeks after the application procedure for that role has ended.

‘Closed for applications’ means the vacancy is still online, but we no longer accept new applications for that role. The application form on that vacancy is switched off. Take a look at the other vacancies on our careers page.

You apply using the form on the vacancy page. Fill in your details, a link to your CV or LinkedIn profile and a short motivation. You will not receive an automatic confirmation email; we get in touch with you directly.

Whether you can work remotely or hybrid depends on the role. Each vacancy states whether the work is in the office, hybrid or remote, along with the type of contract, the hours and, where we list it, the salary.