SEO.md is a plain-text file that lives in your repository root. It tells AI search engines - ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini - exactly how to understand and cite your brand.
It is an open standard, like CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, but purpose-built for AI Engine Optimization (AEO).
Why We Built It
Traditional SEO is optimized for Google's algorithm. You write content, build backlinks, and hope the crawler rewards you with rankings.
But AI search is different. When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best tool for X?", there's no ranking. There's a citation - or there isn't. The difference between being cited and being invisible comes down to how well the AI understands your brand.
Right now, that understanding is implicit. AI engines infer it from your content, your backlinks, your schema markup. Most brands leave this to chance.
SEO.md makes it explicit.
What It Looks Like
# SEO.md
## My Brand
## Site
site:
type: saas
domain: mybrand.com
canonical: https://mybrand.com
## Keywords
keywords:
primary: "ai citation tracking"
secondary:
- "llm seo"
- "aeo tools"
## AEO
aeo:
answer_first_format: true
allowed_bots:
- GPTBot
- ClaudeBot
- PerplexityBot
Two parts. A section you control - founder declares - and a _analysis block that your connected platform writes back with live data.
The Field Ownership Model
This is the core insight behind SEO.md: the separation of strategy from intelligence.
Founder declares (no prefix) - You own these fields. They define your brand identity, keyword strategy, intent queries, and AEO rules. Change them freely. Commit to Git.
Platform writes back (_analysis: prefix) - These are populated by your connected analysis platform with live citation rates, gap scores, and competitor intelligence. Never edit manually.
This model means your SEO strategy lives in your codebase, is version-controlled, and is legible to both humans and machines.
Getting Started
Install the CLI and scaffold your first SEO.md in under two minutes:
# Install globally
npm install -g seomd
# Interactive setup
npx seomd init
# Validate your file against the spec
npx seomd validate
# Check your citation status (requires platform connection)
npx seomd status
The init command asks you five questions - your brand name, domain, site type, primary keyword, and top competitors - and generates a complete SEO.md tailored to your site type.
The Spec Is Open
SEO.md is an open standard, MIT licensed, and governed by its contributors. The specification lives at seomd.dev/spec.
We built this because the CLAUDE.md standard showed us what's possible when context becomes a first-class citizen of a project. AI agents are dramatically more effective when you give them explicit instructions instead of hoping they infer the right behavior.
The same principle applies to AI search engines. Give them the spec. Stop hoping for inference.