AEO Mistakes: Common AEO Problems and Solutions

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is still a mystery to most.

Not because it’s complicated — but because it’s new. The terminology, the strategies, even the metrics.

And when something is new, we all trip over the same stones.

This post walks you through the most common AEO mistakes — ones you’ve probably made, too.

Let’s dive in.

1. You’re Using Wrong Content Formats

👇 What this means:

It’s by far the most common mistake. Because before AEO, there was no such thing as the right content format.

All helpful content formats were considered valid. Now, there’s only one right format – the one that matches the question type.

Using the correct format for the question is more important than anything else.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

• Using a paragraph when a list is required.

• Using bullet points instead of a table.

• Using unnecessarily complex content formats.

❌ What goes wrong:

Sticking to only one type of content format – or using the wrong one – can make it difficult to respond effectively to different query types.

✅ What to do instead:

• Choose the format according to the question type. For example:

More Examples to Help You Choose the Right Format:

Q&A Format: (kopya mi? Check, alttakiler de)

<ul>
  <li><strong>Question:</strong> What is AEO?<br><strong>Answer:</strong> Answer Engine Optimization is a type of optimization aimed at appearing as a direct answer in search engines.</li>
</ul>

Ordered List:

<ol>
  <li>Do question research</li>
  <li>Create headings based on those questions</li>
  <li>Write short answers immediately</li>
</ol>

Comparison Table:

<table>
<tr><th>SEO</th><th>AEO</th></tr>
<tr><td>Page ranking</td><td>Being selected as an answer</td></tr>
</table>

Timeline Format:

<ul>
  <li><strong>Week 1:</strong> Gather audience questions</li>
  <li><strong>Week 2:</strong> Plan AEO-compliant titles and structures</li>
  <li><strong>Week 3:</strong> Start producing answer-focused content</li>
  <li><strong>Week 4:</strong> Support with structured data and publish</li>
</ul>

✨ Bonus tactic: Sometimes, a multi-format answer block may be needed. The key is to use the right format in the right place.

2. You’re not Using the Q&A Format

👇 What this means:

I understand it’s not easy to move away from the classic blog format filled with keyword-focused background info over dozens of paragraphs.

But that structure – where the user is expected to stay engaged long enough to find the answer – no longer works.

What’s expected from you now is the answer. Everything else exists to support that answer.

❌ What goes wrong:

Your content will probably not appear in answer engines in a “direct answer” format.

✅ What to do instead:

• Start and structure every piece of content with a question.

• Use the 5W1H method right at the top.

• Begin each section with a direct, short, and clear answer. Then elaborate in order of importance.

• Make your responses meaningful and well-connected.

• Use question-based headings (e.g., “How does it work?”, “What is it?”).

• Mark up your content using FAQ schema. For example:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What are your working hours?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Our working hours are from 09:00 to 18:00 on weekdays."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How can I track my order?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "To track your order, use the tracking number provided to you. Enter it in the 'Order Tracking' section of our website to see the current status."
      }
    }
  ]
}

3. You’re Overusing the Q&A Format

👇 What this means:

Focusing only on short answers can hurt the depth and quality of your content. Users tend to leave your site quickly after finding the answer.

That’s why sticking only to the Q&A format is not enough. AEO also requires systematic structure, context, authority, and technical soundness.

❌ What goes wrong:

Your content stays shallow. Due to the lack of depth, context, and authority, it is probably won’t be shown by answer engines.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use Q&A format as just one part of your content strategy.

• Enrich your content with detailed explanations, examples, and sources.

• Build internal linking and categorization to connect your content.

• Strengthen your authority with expert opinions and data-driven insights.

• Provide depth through semantically coherent headings and paragraphs. For example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Building Blocks of Sustainable Living</title>
</head>
<body>

  <h1>Sustainable Living</h1>

<p>An introduction to ecological, economic, and social pillars of sustainability.</p>

<h2>1. Ecological Perspective</h2>
<h3>Understanding Biodiversity and Ecosystems</h3>
<p>Content goes here...</p>

<h2>2. Social Justice</h2>
<h3>Building an Equitable Future</h3>
<p>Content goes here...</p>

<h2>3. Circular Economy</h2>
<h3>From Waste to Value</h3>
<p>Content goes here...</p>

</body>
</html>

4. You’re Using Weak, Incorrect, or Outdated Schema Markups

👇 What this means:

Imagine you have a medical guide from the 1980s. It reflects the medical knowledge and treatments of that era.

Today, medicine has advanced greatly – new diseases have been discovered, and diagnosis and treatment methods have evolved.

If you refer to that outdated guide today for a health issue, you could seriously harm yourself.

Outdated or incorrect Schema.org markups are just like that.

You might be using them in an incomplete, incorrect, or even spammy way.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

Using a Product schema on a product page but leaving out fields like name, description, or offers.

…or an outdated Schema example:

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebPage",
  "name": "AEO Explained",
  "description": "This page explains what AEO is."
}

🟥 Problems:

• The “WebPage” type is no longer meaningful for AEO; use specific types like FAQPage, HowTo, QAPage, or Article.

• The structure is not answer-focused.

• name and description tags are insufficient for semantic understanding.

• The use of http instead of https is outdated.

…or a missing Schema example:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "What is AEO?",
  "author": "John Doe",
  "datePublished": "2022-03-10"
}

🟥 Problems:

• Only basic fields like headline, author, and date are included; the content is not semantically enriched.

• The Article type is used, but more detailed properties like mainEntity, publisher, image, about, description, and keywords are missing.

• No structure that directly answers questions is present (e.g., FAQPage, HowTo, QAPage).

• It doesn’t provide enough contextual clues for answer engines—highlighted information isn’t clear.

❌ What goes wrong:

Key content elements (such as product info, author, FAQs, etc.) become invisible to answer engines.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use up-to-date schema markups. Refer to the official documentation: Schema.org Documentation, Schema Types, Schema Hierarchy

• Avoid unnecessary or misleading schema markup. Use schema structures that exactly match the page content.

• Validate your markup using tools like Google Rich Results Test or Schema Markup Validator

5. You Think Structured Data Alone Is Enough

👇 What this means:

When someone says, “I did AEO!”, and I ask, “What exactly did you do?”, I often get the same response:

“I implemented Schema.org markups!”

But markups alone aren’t sufficient to make data structured in a meaningful way.

Moreover, AEO is not just about structured data.

Now, semantic coherence, context, consistency, and authority in content are key. Without these, schema markup becomes meaningless.

❌ What goes wrong:

Your schema markups will be ignored or produce no meaningful AEO impact.

✅ What to do instead:

• Support your schema with naturally embedded information in the content.

• Ensure consistency between schema markup and on-page content.

• Focus on semantic coherence with clear headings, subheadings, and high-quality answers.

🔑 Key takeaway: Schema provides technical support; the real determining factors are content and authority.

6. Your Page Hierarchy Isn’t Clear

👇 What this means:

Even a minor formatting issue can directly affect your AEO performance.

For example, misusing heading structure (like placing an <h3> directly under <h1>) or creating a semantically broken content flow.

⚠️ Real-life mistake:

A blog post uses <h3> directly after <h1>, and subheadings are scattered in a way that breaks content integrity.

❌ What goes wrong:

Bots struggle to understand which content answers which question.

✅ What to do instead:

• Organize content in a logical flow; avoid abrupt transitions.

• Follow a hierarchical heading structure: <h1> > <h2> > <h3>.

• Ensure each heading is followed by clear, contextual content.

• Avoid unnecessary headings; align them with logical content blocks.

7. Overreliance on JavaScript Is Hurting You

👇 What this means:

JavaScript can be a nightmare for answer engines.

If your content is only loaded via JavaScript, you must be even more cautious.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

The content appears only after a JS call is executed in the browser, and isn’t visible in the raw HTML.

❌ What goes wrong:

Bots can’t access or interpret your content. The answer engine sees the page as “empty.”

✅ What to do instead:

• Use Chrome Developer Tools to assess JS behavior: under the “Main” tab, analyze how long JS files take to download, parse, and execute.

• Provide a static version of your main content with llms.txt to help with JS accessibility issues.

• Use Server-Side Rendering (SSR) or prerendering solutions like Next.js, Gatsby, or Hydrogen (Shopify).

• Ensure critical content is embedded directly in the HTML.

8. You Have a Poor URL and Navigation Structure

👇 What this means:

This is crucial especially if your content is served as a Single Page Application (SPA).

In such cases, page transitions happen in the browser and the URL doesn’t change.

As a result, your URLs may be meaningless, breadcrumbs may be missing, or your menu may be non-crawlable.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

URLs like example.com/page?id=123 and all content being served under the same URL in an SPA.

❌ What goes wrong:

Answer engines can’t determine content context. Your pages lose priority.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use descriptive, readable URL structures (e.g., /services/visa-consulting).

• Provide a unique URL for each important piece of content.

• Establish hierarchy with breadcrumb markup and HTML navigation tags.

• If using SPA, reflect URL changes using the History API or enable server-side routing.

9. You’re Too Focused on “People Also Ask” Questions

👇 What this means:

This is another SEO habit that can hurt your AEO efforts. Over-relying on “People Also Ask” (PAA) questions may limit your strategy.

They are useful for understanding user intent, but focusing only on them can be harmful.

❌ What goes wrong:

Your content stays on the surface. Without a systematic structure and depth, answer engines won’t consider it a core source.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use core optimization and content optimization to build deeper, meaning-oriented structures.

• Use PAA questions as supporting content—not the main structure.

• Create comprehensive topic maps prioritizing core subjects.

• Explain the background, causes, and effects of the topic.

• Generate original content using your own user data or industry insights.

• Analyze and include other intent-driven queries beyond PAA.

10. You’re Turning Keywords into Questions

👇 What this means:

This can sometimes work (e.g., “What is SEO?”), but not all keywords should be rephrased into questions.

You also need to consider user intent and contextual relevance.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

A keyword like “Google keyword research” may not naturally become “What is Google keyword research?” in ChatGPT. Instead, the user might ask: “How can I find keywords that match my target audience?”

❌ What goes wrong:

Your content fails to match real, natural-language queries—hurting visibility in answer engines.

✅ What to do instead:

• Instead of mechanically converting traditional SEO keywords into questions and queries, analyze real user language patterns.

• Create content that aligns with user intent, context, and a systematic flow.

• Observe naturally occurring queries in answer engines.

• For keywords that don’t translate into questions, use solution-focused or guide-style titles.

11. You’re Ignoring Entity Relationships and Proper Entity Structure

👇 What this means:

A common mistake made by those overly focused on keywords is overlooking entity relationships, which answer engines highly rely on.

Failing to clearly define the main entity, not establishing relationships between concepts, and not using contextual signals are the most frequent errors.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

A psychology blog post discusses “trauma”, but it’s unclear whether it refers to childhood trauma, collective trauma, or physical trauma.

The word “healing” is also used, but it’s not specified whether it means healing through psychotherapy or physical healing.

Moreover, there is no structural or contextual relationship established between concepts like “trauma,” “emotion regulation,” “brain,” or “therapy.”

The article assumes everyone already understands these concepts.

❌ What goes wrong:

If entity relationships are unclear, answer engines cannot understand how your content fits into broader knowledge contexts.

✅ What to do instead:

• Read our article on entities🔗 to learn how to build a well-structured entity structure.

12. You Think Adding Content Is Enough

👇 What this means:

The structure and gap your content fills is constantly changing. If you don’t adapt to this change, mistakes are inevitable.

Content is a key element of AEO and core AEO. However, there are other factors that influence AEO success, like technical AEO, structured data, system-level meaning, and AX.

❌ What goes wrong:

Technical shortcomings can harm both user experience and visibility.

✅ What to do instead:

• Treat and learn AEO as a whole.

• Build readable content structures aligned with UX and AX design principles and best practices.

• Focus on structured data and technical AEO criteria.

13. You Believe Long-Form Content Performs Better

👇 What this means:

Not sure if anyone told you this before, but:

Length = Authority is a myth that often causes your answers to get lost in the content.

Sometimes, length can help with authority, but in general, concise, clear, and direct content leads to better results.

In AEO, clarity matters more than length.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

👉 Incorrect: The answer is given at the very end.

👇 Correct:

<h2>What is AEO?</h2>
<p>AEO is the practice of structuring content to be selected by AI for snippets, voice search, and direct answers.</p>

❌ What goes wrong:

Long content doesn’t always provide an advantage; content that fails to give users a fast and clear answer falls behind.

✅ What to do instead:

• Create short paragraphs that directly answer the user’s query.

• Highlight key information (e.g., in the first 100 words).

• When necessary, split long content into sections or links.

• Use short, AEO-focused formats (e.g., FAQs, snippet-friendly blocks).

• Use the Inverted Pyramid Structure:
  • Write the direct answer in the first 60 words. Then provide details and examples. And add background information at the end.

14. You’re Using Multiple Languages Incorrectly

👇 What this means:

Multilingual pages aren’t inherently bad for AEO.

But if your page content is inconsistent in language or contains hreflang errors, there are serious consequences.

❌ What goes wrong:

Answer engines cannot determine which content in which language is valid. This may lead to incorrect or incomplete answers.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use separate URLs for each language (e.g., /en/, /tr/).

• Use only one language per page.

• Add correct hreflang tags to each page.

• Ensure content in each language is natural, localized, and intent-aligned (not just translated).

• Prefer localization over automatic translation.

15. You Have Clickable But Meaningless Content (UX over AEO)

👇 What this means:

Let’s be honest—answer engines hate clutter.

Pages that are visual-heavy and lack meaningful text (like button-only layouts) are quite harmful.

❌ What goes wrong:

Bots can’t see or interpret your text content. They classify the page as “promotional” rather than “informational.”

✅ What to do instead:

• Add descriptive text to buttons and visuals.

• Support each interactive element with context.

• Avoid empty pages or those containing only CTAs.

16. You’re Hiding Core Content with Lazy Loading

👇 What this means:

One of the most common mistakes: Are you loading your content using lazy loading?

Then your key content doesn’t load unless a user scrolls.

❌ What goes wrong:

Since bots typically don’t scroll, your content is ignored.

✅ What to do instead:

• Show essential content on the initial load.

• Use lazy loading only for images and secondary elements.

• Ensure JavaScript-loaded content is crawlable.

17. You’re Using Iframes or Shadow DOM

👇 What this means:

You have a highly functional website—but is it filled with iframes?

That puts your future at risk.

If your content is embedded via iframe/frame or shadow DOM, you are at a disadvantage for AEO.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

A university’s FAQ section is hosted on a separate system and embedded via iframe on the homepage.

While users can see the content, bots cannot access the text inside the iframe.

❌ What goes wrong:

Bots don’t view these areas like standard DOM. Some can’t crawl iframe content at all, while others struggle to relate it to the main content.

This is especially harmful when the iframe contains potential answer content.

✅ What to do instead:

• Answerable data should be placed in the <body> of the page.

• Create a separate, optimized, and indexable page for iframe content. Its URL should be crawlable, clear, and supported with schema.

• If the answer content is inside an iframe, provide a short summary or transcript on the main page. This gives content signals and improves UX.

• You can add structured data for iframe-related content—but only outside the iframe. For example, an FAQPage or QAPage JSON-LD schema can represent the iframe summary on the main page.

18. You’re Using Heavy Technical Jargon

👇 What this means:

A very common and critical issue for technically dense websites.

You may be using technical terms in ways that confuse them with their general meanings.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

Interpreting “buffer overflow” as “a slight spillover”.

❌ What goes wrong:

Bots confuse specific technical terms in documentation with similar words in everyday language. This leads to incorrect responses—especially common in engineering, medical, or legal content.

✅ What to do instead:

• Create glossary/concept pages for technical terms.

• Add a short non-technical summary to each technical post.

• Use tooltips or <abbr> tags to define terms.

19. You Use Visual and Multimedia Content Without Text Alternatives

👇 What this means:

You believe that texts embedded in images or videos are sufficient.

However, bots may not be able to directly read the text within visuals.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

An “ancestral trauma pattern chart” is presented only as a PNG-format infographic.

The page does not include any description, titles, or textual equivalent of this chart.

Answer engines cannot interpret the data contained in the visual.

❌ What goes wrong:

When a user asks “What are ancestral trauma cycles?”, your page is excluded from the response generation process. The answer engine’s ability to “directly generate an answer to the question” is reduced.

✅ What to do instead:

• When you don’t provide supporting content such as alt attribute, aria-label, or figcaption, and when videos lack captions or transcripts, the content is perceived as a “black box.”

• Present the text in images also as HTML equivalents. For example, repeat visual titles using <h2> or <p> tags so that answer engines can establish context.

• Use OCR-compatible visuals + descriptive figcaptions. Figcaptions that explain the content of visuals contribute to semantic construction.

• Write alt texts not just as visual descriptions, but as conceptual summaries. For example: alt="Infographic explaining the intergenerational transmission of ancestral trauma. Visualizes the connections between grandmother, mother, and granddaughter."

• Use JSON-LD to structure descriptions of video or image content: especially use VideoObject and ImageObject schemas to make the meaning of the content explicit.

• Apply server-side rendering + fallback text systems for image descriptions, ensuring accessibility not only for browsers but also for bots.

👇 …and what this means:

You provide podcasts, videos, or audio narrations without textual equivalents.

Even though answer engines have advanced natural language understanding capabilities, they cannot generate answers from content they cannot access.

Automatic captions or in-platform transcripts are usually fragmented, inconsistent, and inadequate for AEO purposes.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

A therapist explains in detail what to consider before a session in a video titled “Post-Trauma Healing Process.”

However, the video page lacks a transcript or textual equivalents of the questions and answers covered in the video.

❌ What goes wrong:

When a user searches for an answer to a question discussed in the audio content, answer engines cannot analyze that content.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use manually written, structured transcripts instead of automatic ones. These transcripts should not just be a textual dump of the audio/video but should be properly embedded in HTML and segmented into critical Q&A blocks.

• For audio content, prefer a “conceptual summary” over a plain transcript. Rather than just writing what was heard, summarizing the meaning is more effective for AEO.

• Do not provide transcripts as PDFs, images, or iframes. Use plain HTML text that bots can crawl.

• Enrich the content semantically using structured data schemas like Transcript, VideoObject, PodcastEpisode.

• Prepare short summary sections. At the beginning of the video or audio file, include a short paragraph clearly answering: “What will you learn in this content?”

20. You’re Creating Accessibility Issues

👇 What this means:

If you’re not technically skilled, this might seem frustrating. But in reality, it’s quite easy to learn.

You may be using meaningless HTML tags (e.g., placing all text within a <div>), missing or incorrect ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) labels, or interactive elements that can’t be focused (e.g., clickable but not actual buttons)—without even realizing it.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

In a recipe page, the list of ingredients is displayed using only <span> tags and spaces.

Screen readers cannot interpret this as a list; similarly, answer engines cannot recognize it as content structure.

Also, the “Instructions” section is visually emphasized but implemented with a styled <div> instead of an <h2> tag.

❌ What goes wrong:

Even if the content appears correctly on the page, answer engines can’t distinguish what is a heading, what is a description, or what is a Q&A block. This prevents the page from being recognized as answerable content.

It also causes deviations in “user intent” and “contextual intent” signals.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use semantic HTML. Content that carries real meaning should be presented using proper HTML tags: <ul>, <ol>, <li>, <section>, <header>, <article>, <aside>, etc.

• ARIA labels should be used only when necessary and correctly: aria-label, role, aria-describedby, etc., can convey the meaning of custom components (such as card structures resembling tables) to bots and screen readers.

• All interactive elements must be accessible: If there’s a button, it should be defined with the <button> tag and be keyboard-accessible (consider tabindex, aria-pressed, and similar attributes).

• Compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 is essential. For Technical AEO alignment, accessibility is not just social responsibility—it’s critical for answerability.

👩‍💻 Pro tip: The way bots understand content largely parallels accessibility standards developed for visually impaired users. Viewing accessibility issues through this lens can help you develop more effective strategies.

21. You Group Synonyms / Idiomatic Expressions Incorrectly

👇 What this means:

Idioms that are very easy for you to understand may still be difficult for language models and answer engines—even those approaching general intelligence levels.

These may be expressions commonly used in your environment but not widely adopted by the general public and/or answer engines.

Especially in some languages, answer engines tend to misgroup synonyms or idiomatic expressions.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

“Water getting inside the house” and “the roof is leaking” are different phrases, but the bot may not differentiate them.

❌ What goes wrong:

The answer engine might give different responses to the same question (because it interprets equivalent expressions differently), or it may repeat the same answer under different headings.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use variations for key terms: like “headache,” “pain in the head,” “migraine symptom.”

• Before using an idiom, check whether the target answer engine understands it. If it doesn’t—and you must use that idiom—briefly explain it.

• Use synonym-supported structured data.

• Include variations in page titles and meta descriptions.

22. You Use Incorrect or Non-Standard HTML/CSS

👇 What this means:

For optimal results, your HTML/CSS structure may need meticulous attention.

Issues like invalid HTML tags, unclosed elements, or presenting visual content via CSS in a way that’s not reflected in the HTML can make it difficult for answer engine bots to semantically understand the page.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

In a health blog, the heading “How to Identify Vitamin D Deficiency?” is styled using a <div> instead of an <h2> tag. Subheadings are in <span> tags.

Although it looks visually fine via CSS, bots won’t interpret it semantically as a “heading.”

❌ What goes wrong:

Bots can’t properly segment the content, miss key concepts, or fail to understand what is emphasized. This significantly reduces the chance of your content being turned into an answer.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use HTML5 semantic tags like <main>, <section>, <article>, <header>, <aside>, <footer> to signal content structure directly to bots.

• Maintain proper heading hierarchy: only one <h1> for the main topic, then proceed logically with <h2>, <h3>, etc.

• Use CSS strictly for styling, not meaning. Styling something bold and large isn’t enough—it must also be semantically correct in HTML.

• Regularly test your pages with the W3C Validator. Tools like Lighthouse or Nu HTML Checker can also detect structural and semantic issues.

• Avoid misusing <div> and <span> in ways that distort meaning. These should only be used for layout, not for content hierarchy.

• Ensure schema markups are contextually placed. Even if JSON-LD provides structure, it should align with the actual HTML layout.

📝 A quick note: in addition to broken DOM structure, excessively deep DOM trees (too many nested elements) can also cause the same issue.

23. You’re Misconfiguring Multi-Level Navigation

👇 What this means:

E-commerce sites especially cannot afford to make this mistake.

If your content is multi-layered, it requires extra care from an AEO perspective.

⚠️ Real-life mistake:

Instead of representing the category as “Small home appliances > Vacuum cleaners > Cordless models,” it’s simplified to just “vacuum cleaners.”

❌ What goes wrong:

Answer engines may fail to accurately interpret the content hierarchy on deeply structured websites. This can lead to incorrect context matching.

✅ What to do instead:

• Implement breadcrumb structures with structured data.

• Build logical URL hierarchies: example.com/home-appliances/vacuum/cordless.

• Create “hub” pages for main categories that summarize the topic, link to subcategories, highlight popular product groups, and provide relevant guides.

24. You’re Misusing Data-Driven Content (Tables, Charts, JSON)

👇 What this means:

If you’re using data but doing it wrong, even your most basic information may be misunderstood by answer engines.

Bots can’t interpret tables or charts like humans. If the format is broken, the content becomes meaningless.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

A product comparison table fails to properly show key differences.

❌ What goes wrong:

Even if the page content is accurate, the bot may return incorrect answers.

✅ What to do instead:

• Use proper <table> tags with descriptive <th> headers.

• Provide textual explanations alongside charts (e.g., “this chart shows that X is greater than Y”).

• Test the parseability of your JSON-LD data (e.g., via Google Rich Results Test).

• Present calculation examples using static tables (e.g., “Example calculation for $500”).

25. You’re Hiding Content Behind Forms

👇 What this means:

Dynamic forms that react to input can create great user experiences.

However, answer engines can’t access form-triggered content (like calculators).

⚠️ Real-life mistake:

Interactive elements like “Calculate price with VAT included” often fail.

❌ What goes wrong:

Answer engines can’t process your content or must rely on static data only.

✅ What to do instead:

• Output results not only into the DOM but also via SSR or in JSON format.

• Alternatively, provide a static summary of the form’s output inside a <noscript> tag.

26. You’re Not Leveraging Experiential Knowledge Enough

👇 What this means:

In an era where answer engines can already generate non-experiential high-quality content, your personal experiences have become more valuable.

But you’re not using them.

Hmm… Why is that?

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

A travel guide only lists hotel options without saying things like “I stayed at X Hotel—the breakfast was poor, but the location was excellent.”

❌ What goes wrong:

Your content remains shallow and unremarkable; it lacks perceived authority.

✅ What to do instead:

• Maintain a unique content structure: include experiential insights, examples, and a personal tone.

• Add commentary based on your actual experiences.

• Share details that give users a sense of “this really happened.”

• Include expert opinions and real-life problem/solution stories.

• Embed personal statements that add authenticity and trust.

27. Your Pages Load Slowly

👇 What this means:

Web Vitals and slow loading times are still a big issue.

Your page speed scores (LCP, FID, CLS) might be poor.

⚠️ Real-life mistakes:

Main images are unoptimized, causing page load time to exceed 5 seconds.

❌ What goes wrong:

Bots access your page content late or cut the analysis short. The page may be skipped before full processing.

✅ What to do instead:

• Compress images and use appropriate formats (WebP is recommended).

• Remove unnecessary scripts and plugins.

• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network).

• Regularly monitor Core Web Vitals using Google PageSpeed Insights.

Final Thoughts: Start by Fixing Common Mistakes

AEO might seem like a bundle of complex terms and vague strategies—or sometimes just chaotic noise.

But the more you simplify it, the more value it delivers.

That’s why when people ask me “Where should I start?”, I always say:

Start by fixing common mistakes.

Then, support your journey with continuous learning, trusted resources, and the ability to adapt to change.