Current SEO facts
SEO advice goes stale faster than almost any other kind. This is the reference the audit works from: what's been retired, what replaced it, and which popular recommendations no longer do anything.
Last verified 21 September 2026
Every item below has a date. When Google changes something, this page changes and so does the skill file, so an audit you run today isn't working from advice written three years ago.
Check the date at the top before relying on any of this. If it's more than a few months old, verify against Google Search Central directly. A reference page that doesn't say when it was last checked isn't a reference.
Structured data that no longer earns you anything
Is HowTo schema still worth adding?
No. Google removed HowTo rich results from search in September 2023. Adding the markup produces no visible result. It does no harm beyond the time spent, but it is not worth implementing and it should not appear in any audit's recommendations today. Plenty still do.
Is FAQ schema still worth adding?
Not for rich results. Google restricted FAQ rich results to government and health sites in August 2023, removing them for everyone else, and has since discontinued them more broadly.
If you have a genuine question-and-answer page, QAPage remains a valid type for describing what the page is. Just don't expect it to change how your listing looks. Adding FAQPage markup across your site in 2026 to chase rich results is time spent for nothing.
This site practises what it preaches: the FAQ page deliberately carries no FAQPage markup.
Other retired types
SpecialAnnouncement, ClaimReview, VehicleListing and EstimatedSalary have all been retired from Google's rich results. Treat any guide still recommending them as out of date generally, not just on that point.
What structured data still does work
Plenty. Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, Article, Event, JobPosting, Recipe, Video, Breadcrumb and Review markup are all active and worth implementing. JSON-LD is Google's stated preferred format — use it rather than microdata.
Core Web Vitals
What replaced FID?
Interaction to Next Paint, or INP. It became an official Core Web Vital in March 2024, replacing First Input Delay, and FID was removed from Google's field-data tools in September 2024. Any tool or guide still reporting FID is running on old information.
The current three, and their thresholds
| Metric | What it measures | Good |
|---|---|---|
| LCP | How long until the main content appears | Under 2.5s |
| INP | How quickly the page responds when you interact with it | Under 200ms |
| CLS | How much the layout jumps while loading | Under 0.1 |
Measured at the 75th percentile of real visits. Lab scores from Lighthouse are an estimate, not the same thing as field data.
AI search: what actually matters
Do I need an llms.txt file?
No. Google Search does not read llms.txt and it is not a route to being
cited in AI answers. The idea spread quickly because it sounds plausible and
resembles robots.txt, but there's no evidence of a major search or AI
system using it as a ranking or citation signal.
It costs almost nothing to publish one if you want to, but don't confuse it with work that moves the needle, and be sceptical of anyone selling it as an AI SEO service.
Are GEO and AEO separate from SEO?
Mostly not. Generative Engine Optimization and Answer Engine Optimization are newer labels for the same work. AI Overviews and AI Mode are grounded in ordinary search results, which means a page has to be indexed and snippet-eligible before it can be quoted in any AI answer at all.
What genuinely helps is content that's easy to quote: a complete answer near the top of the page, clear attribution, consistent naming of your business, and formats like tables and definitions that extract cleanly. That's good SEO with a slightly different emphasis, not a separate discipline needing separate tooling.
Three things you don't need to do for AI search
- Rewriting content with "AI keywords." Language models understand synonyms. There is no separate vocabulary to target.
- Chunking pages to a fixed length. No required passage size exists. Write complete answers and let them be as long as they need to be.
- AI-specific schema types. None exist. Use the normal ones properly.
Content quality
The Quality Rater Guidelines
Last substantially updated in September 2025, with the YMYL category — the topics held to the highest standard — expanded to cover political and social subjects alongside health, finance and safety.
Of the four E-E-A-T factors, Google has said trust is the most important. Experience, expertise and authoritativeness all feed into it rather than standing alongside it as equals.
Is AI-generated content penalised?
Not for being AI-generated. Google's position is that how content is produced matters less than whether it's useful. What does get penalised is using any method, AI included, to mass-produce low-value pages at scale.
The practical test is unchanged: does this page say something specific and useful that someone would want to read, or does it exist to occupy a keyword?
How this page is maintained
Each item gets re-checked against Google Search Central when something changes, and the date at the top moves. The same facts live in the skill file, so the audit can't drift from what's written here.
If you spot something out of date, it's worth telling us — this page is only useful if it's right.