Field Notes · Digital Strategy 2026

GEO, AEO, SEO, CRO and UX · a field guide.

How to be found in 2026 across Google, AI overviews, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok. and convert the visitors you earn. Plain-English playbook for owners and operators. From a 20-year integrator running our own site.

Primer · five letters that decide who finds you.

In 2026 your visibility is split across five different audiences. Google, AI answer engines, generative AI assistants, the visitor who lands on your page, and the visitor who almost converts. Each one needs a different strategy. They overlap, they reinforce each other, and most owners get one or two right and miss the rest.

Letter	Stands for	Audience	Goal
SEO	Search Engine Optimization	Google, Bing	Rank in the 10 blue links
AEO	Answer Engine Optimization	Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, Perplexity	Get cited as a source in the AI answer
GEO	Generative Engine Optimization	ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok	Get used as a source when an AI answers questions
CRO	Conversion Rate Optimization	Visitors on your site	Turn visits into calls, RSVPs, sales
UX	User Experience	Everyone who lands	The site is fast, clear, and respectful

SEO is older. AEO and GEO are the new layer. CRO and UX decide whether the traffic you earned matters. None of these stand alone in 2026. The best work knocks down all five at once.

SEO · Google, the long version.

Google still drives most search traffic in 2026, even after AI overviews. SEO has not died. It changed shape.

What still matters

Page speed. Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS). Slow site, lower rank, worse conversion. Real, measurable, fixable.
Mobile-first design. Google indexes the mobile version of your site. If it is broken on a phone, you do not exist.
Structured data. Schema.org JSON-LD for Article, LocalBusiness, FAQ, Breadcrumb, Product, Review. This is the language search engines speak.
Internal linking. Pages linking to other relevant pages on your site. Tells search the topical hierarchy.
Original, useful content. Long-form, specific, written by humans with first-hand knowledge. Generic AI fluff gets demoted.
Backlinks from real sources. Trade publications, partner sites, press mentions. Quality, not quantity.
E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Google’s framework for "is this site real."

What changed

Keyword stuffing is dead. Topic depth matters.
Thin pages get demoted. A 300-word "service page" is not enough anymore.
AI-generated bulk content gets penalized.
Google rewards sites with clear authorship and real-world evidence (case studies, photos, data).

AEO · be the source the AI quotes.

When someone Googles "best smart home integrator NJ" in 2026, the first thing they see is an AI Overview that summarizes 4 to 8 sources and links to them. Below that, the regular blue links. AEO is the work of becoming one of those cited sources.

What gets you cited

Direct, structured answers. AI engines extract clean answer blocks. Lead with the answer, then explain.
FAQ schema. Question-and-answer markup that AI parsers love. Use real questions your customers ask.
Definitions and lists. "X is Y because Z" sentences. Bulleted lists of features, comparisons, tiers.
Tables. Comparison tables and pricing tables get pulled into AI answers verbatim.
Date stamps. Recent dates ("April 2026") signal freshness. AI engines weight recent content heavily.
Original data. A statistic only your site has is the most-cited kind of content. Even small surveys count.
Clear authorship and bio. An identifiable expert with a real bio and credentials gets quoted more than anonymous content.

What kills your AEO chances

Burying the answer 800 words in.
Walls of text with no structure.
Vague hedging ("it depends...") with no specifics anywhere.
Same content as 50 other sites.
No author, no date, no entity markup.

GEO · train into the model.

GEO is the newest letter. It is the practice of becoming a source that ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok reach for when they answer questions. AI assistants now cite real sources in real-time (via web browsing tools) and remember sources from training. GEO targets both.

How AI assistants pick sources

Reputation signals. Domain authority, mention frequency in their training set, citations in academic and trade press.
Direct, factual writing. Sentences that sound like encyclopedia entries get quoted more.
Brand-entity clarity. Wikipedia, Wikidata, Google Knowledge Graph, LinkedIn company pages, Crunchbase. The AI cross-references these to "know" you exist.
First-party expertise. Original write-ups about your specific industry experience, not rehashes of other sites.
Robots.txt access. Your site has to allow GPTBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot. If you block them, you do not get used.

GEO tactics that work in 2026

Be the most specific source on a tight topic. "Smart home integrator Tenafly NJ" beats "smart home integrator USA."
Publish first-person field notes. "After 20 years of Crestron jobs, here is what we learned about..." is GEO gold.
Build out your entity graph. Wikipedia (if eligible), Wikidata, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn company page, Crunchbase, industry directories (HTA, Crestron, CEDIA).
Get cited by trade press. Commercial Integrator, CE Pro, Connected Design, rAVe. AI assistants weight trade-press citations heavily.
Open your robots.txt to AI crawlers. Audit it. Check it once a quarter.
Use llms.txt. A new file standard (like robots.txt) that tells AI assistants which content to use and how. Add it to the site root.

SEO got you on Google. AEO got you in the AI overview. GEO gets you quoted by ChatGPT. Owners who skip GEO in 2026 will be invisible by 2027.

CRO · turn visits into calls.

You can win SEO, AEO, and GEO and still go broke if visitors do not convert. CRO is the discipline of turning the traffic you earned into actual leads, RSVPs, calls, and sales.

The CRO checklist that actually moves numbers

One clear primary action per page. "Schedule consultation" or "Call us" or "RSVP." Not all three competing.
Above-the-fold value prop. Visitor lands and within 5 seconds knows what you do, who you do it for, and why they care.
Trust signals near every CTA. Certifications, press mentions, testimonials, project counts, years in business. Not hidden in a footer.
Phone number tap-to-call on every page. 70% of luxury-service buyers prefer to call. Make it obvious. Make it work on a phone.
Form friction down. Three fields, not nine. Email and phone, optional message. Every extra field cuts conversion 5 to 10%.
Sticky CTA on long pages. The visitor who scrolled 4,000 words on the AI Field Guide should have a "Schedule" button always visible.
Speed. Each second of load time costs ~7% of conversions. Real money.
Page depth. Service pages should answer the visitor’s real questions. Thin pages do not convert.
Social proof, recent. A 2026 testimonial beats a 2019 testimonial.
Exit intent. One last value-add (downloadable checklist, calendar link) for visitors about to bounce.

CRO killers we see all the time

Auto-playing video with sound.
Pop-up newsletter prompts on first paint.
"Contact us" buried three clicks deep.
Phone number as an image (not tappable).
No mobile testing. Half your traffic is mobile, and half of that bounces because the form does not work.
Forms that ask for company size, budget, timeline before the visitor has decided to talk.

UX · respect the visitor’s time.

UX is the foundation under all of it. A site with bad UX has bad SEO, bad AEO, bad GEO, and bad CRO. Search engines and AI engines now measure user behavior (bounce rate, time on page, scroll depth) and use it as a quality signal.

Ten UX principles for 2026

Mobile-first, always. Design for the phone, then add desktop. Not the other way around.
One thought per screen. Each section answers one question. Visitors scan, they do not read.
Sticky navigation. Visitors should always know where they are and how to get back.
Jump-to-section navs. On long pages, a sticky table of contents (like the one on the AI Field Guide) cuts bounce 30 to 50%.
Smooth scroll, never auto-scroll. Let the visitor drive.
Readable typography. 16-18px body type. 65 to 75 character line length. Real contrast.
Whitespace. The opposite of "cramming." Rooms breathe. So do good pages.
Image performance. WebP and JPG, properly sized, lazy-loaded. Never a 4MB hero image.
Accessible by default. Alt text, focus states, keyboard nav, ARIA labels. WCAG 2.2 AA is the floor in 2026.
Predictable patterns. The phone goes top right. The hamburger goes top right on mobile. Do not be clever about the basics.

UX patterns we use on every Restrepo page

Fixed top nav with phone number always visible.
Hero with one clear value prop and one clear CTA.
Section anchors with smooth scroll on long content.
Cards over dense paragraphs for scannable content.
Phone CTAs and consultation CTAs spaced through the page, not just at the end.
Footer with sitemap, social, certifications, and a final CTA.
Dark-on-dark palette to match the luxury brand. Easy on the eyes at night, when most readers are reading.

Local SEO · NJ, NY, and CT for us.

If you serve a geographic area, local SEO is its own game. For Restrepo we serve NJ, NY, and CT spillover. Local SEO drives more conversion than any other channel for service businesses.

The local SEO stack that works

Google Business Profile. Complete, verified, photos updated quarterly, reviews collected continuously, posts weekly. The single highest-ROI marketing asset for a service business.
City and town pages. A page for every meaningful service area (Alpine NJ, Saddle River NJ, Greenwich CT, Westport CT, Tenafly NJ). Not thin pages, real ones with local detail.
NAP consistency. Name, Address, Phone. identical across every directory. Google cross-references these.
Local schema. LocalBusiness JSON-LD with service area, hours, certifications, and review aggregate.
Local backlinks. Town chamber of commerce, local press, partner businesses in the area.
Local content. Blog posts and case studies that mention the towns by name with real specifics.
Reviews. Volume and recency matter. A 10-review business with reviews from this month beats a 50-review business with reviews from 2022.

Schema and structured data · the language search and AI both speak.

Schema.org JSON-LD is the under-the-hood markup that tells search engines and AI assistants what your page is, who wrote it, and what it claims. In 2026 it is no longer optional.

What every Restrepo page carries

Article. for blog posts, field guides, mistakes pages.
BreadcrumbList. the path from home to current page. Search uses this in result snippets.
LocalBusiness. on the homepage and contact page. Includes service area, hours, payment, certifications.
FAQPage. on FAQ-style pages. AI engines pull these into answer overviews.
ItemList. for "20 mistakes" pages and any list page. Each item is a separate searchable entity.
Service. on each service page (Crestron design, network design, hospitality integration).
Person. on the team page. Each person an entity with a sameAs link to LinkedIn.
Organization. on the homepage and footer of every page. Includes logo, sameAs (social profiles), founder.

The under-cited schema types in 2026

HowTo. step-by-step guides. AI loves these.
VideoObject. for any embedded video. YouTube does this for you, but link from your own pages.
Review and AggregateRating. for service pages with real reviews.
SpeakableSpecification. for content meant to be read aloud by voice assistants.
QAPage. for question-and-answer formats deeper than a flat FAQ.

The 25-point launch checklist · from a 20-year integrator who has watched a lot of websites die.

HTTPS everywhere. No mixed content.
Mobile-first design tested on real phones.
Core Web Vitals green: LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1.
Page speed under 3 seconds on 4G.
One clear CTA per page.
Phone number tap-to-call in the header.
Schema.org JSON-LD on every page.
FAQPage schema on FAQ pages.
BreadcrumbList on inner pages.
OpenGraph and Twitter Card meta on every page.
Canonical URL set explicitly.
Sitemap.xml submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster.
Robots.txt audited. AI crawlers allowed (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended).
llms.txt added to site root.
Google Business Profile complete and fresh.
NAP consistent across at least 20 directories.
Local schema LocalBusiness on contact page.
Real testimonials with names and dates.
Trust signals (certifications, press, awards) above the fold.
Contact form under 5 fields.
Sticky CTA on long pages.
Section anchors and TOC on long pages.
Alt text on every image.
WebP + JPG for every image, lazy-loaded.
Analytics: GA4 + Search Console + IndexNow ping on publish.

Score yourself out of 25. Under 18 is a serious problem. 22+ is a healthy site in 2026.

What to measure · the numbers that decide if it is working.

Top-of-funnel (visibility)

Organic search impressions and clicks (Search Console).
AI Overview citations (track via Search Console’s new AI section in 2026).
Mentions in ChatGPT/Claude/Perplexity answers (manual or via tools like Otterly.ai, Profound, Peec).
Branded vs non-branded search ratio.
Domain authority and referring domains (Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush).

Mid-funnel (engagement)

Pages per session.
Average session duration on key pages.
Scroll depth on long content.
Internal click-through to service pages.
Bounce rate by landing page.

Bottom-funnel (conversion)

Form completions per page.
Phone calls per page (use call tracking).
Calendar bookings per channel.
Cost per acquired lead by source.
Lead-to-close rate by source.

Most owners measure top-of-funnel and skip mid and bottom. The owners who win measure all three and make their site decisions on bottom-funnel data.

How we actually measure it · the stack we run on this site, every week.

Strategy without measurement is decoration. Here is the exact analytics stack we run on restrepoinnovations.com and recommend to every client. Each tool answers a specific question.

Tool	What it answers	Cadence
Google Analytics 4	Who is on the site, where they came from, what they did, what they converted on.	Reviewed weekly
Google Search Console	Which queries earned impressions and clicks. Which pages indexed. Core Web Vitals. AI Overview impressions.	Reviewed weekly
Google Business Profile Insights	Map views, calls from the listing, direction requests, photo views.	Reviewed weekly
Microsoft Clarity	Free heatmaps, scroll depth, dead clicks, rage clicks, session recordings. Catches CRO and UX issues that GA4 cannot.	Reviewed monthly
IndexNow pings	Tells Bing/Yandex/Seznam the second a new page goes live, instead of waiting for a crawl.	Every publish
Mailchimp	Open rate, click rate, unsubscribes, RSVP conversions per campaign.	Per campaign
Brand search monitoring	Manual checks in ChatGPT/Claude/Perplexity for citations of restrepoinnovations.com.	Monthly
Internal usage telemetry	Most-visited pages, content gaps, queries that lead to the site, which sectors get the most engagement.	Weekly digest

What we report on every week

Top 10 queries by impressions and clicks (Search Console). New questions go into the content pipeline.
Top 10 landing pages by sessions (GA4). Pages with traffic but no conversions get CRO work.
Conversion events: form submits, phone clicks, calendar bookings, email signups, RSVP clicks.
Bounce and engagement by landing page. Anything bouncing over 75 percent gets investigated.
Page speed on the slowest 5 pages (Core Web Vitals lab + field data).
Where AI traffic is showing up: referrals from chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, claude.ai.

What we report on every month

Organic share of total traffic and how it is trending.
New referring domains earned (signal that content is being cited).
Branded vs non-branded query mix in Search Console.
Heatmap and session-recording review in Clarity to catch friction.
Which content is getting cited in AI answers (manual sample of 10-20 prompts).
Lead-to-close rate by source (the bottom-funnel number that decides if the rest of this matters).

The decisions this data drives

Which blog post to publish next (driven by the weekly query-mining digest).
Which page to rewrite (low engagement, high impressions = headline or hook problem).
Which CTA to test (low click-through on existing CTAs).
Which photo or hero to swap (heatmap shows nobody is scrolling past it).
Which mistakes-page or guide to add to the authority hub next.

The whole point of the stack is to close the loop. Publish, measure, decide, publish again. We do this for our own site weekly. We do it for partners on a monthly retainer.

Want this run on your business?

If you want a digital strategy audit (SEO, AEO, GEO, CRO, UX, schema, local) on your existing site. or you are launching a new one. we can scope it. We do this for our own sites and a handful of partner businesses every year.

Schedule an Audit Call 201.405.2022