/bazaar

IA Blueprint — Information Architecture, SEO & GEO

Information Architecture, technical SEO, content SEO, and AI-search GEO are interleaved disciplines. bazaar treats them as one continuous axis: structure → readability → discoverability → citation-readiness.

The best LP is one a human scans in 5 seconds, Google parses in 50ms, and an LLM cites verbatim. Same structure does all three.

Section 1 — Information Architecture

1.1 Content Inventory & Hierarchy

Before wireframing, build a content inventory.

CONTENT_INVENTORY:
  Promise: "<one sentence — locked at Strategy>"
  Pillars:
    - id: P1
      claim: "<top benefit>"
      proof: ["<proof point>", "<proof point>"]
      objection: "<the doubt this raises>"
      counter: "<how we address it>"
    - id: P2
      claim: "..."
  Authority_Anchors:
    - type: numeric | named-customer | award | open-source | press | founder
      value: "<concrete>"
  Decision_Triggers:
    - type: risk-reversal | urgency | clarity | social
      value: "<concrete>"
  CTAs:
    Primary: { verb: "...", outcome: "..." }
    Secondary: { verb: "...", outcome: "..." }

Inventory drives section count: 1 hero + (1 section per pillar) + proof + objection + final CTA + FAQ.

1.2 Visual Hierarchy Patterns

Choose ONE primary pattern per page. Don't mix Z and centered-axis in one LP.

1.3 Scroll Narrative

The page tells a story top-to-bottom. Default arc:

1. Promise (hero) — what + for whom + why now
2. Trust prime (logo strip / numbers) — borrow credibility before asking for it
3. Pillar 1 — top benefit framed as outcome
4. Pillar 2 — second benefit, often "how it works"
5. Proof — specific outcome from named customer
6. Pillar 3 — third benefit, often differentiation
7. Objection — FAQ-style or comparison table
8. Final push — risk-reversal + final CTA
9. FAQ — scannable, 3–5 Q/A
10. Footer — trust signals, legal, contact

Adjust order by Recipe (e-com pulls reviews higher; B2B pulls case study higher; lead-magnet collapses to 4–5 sections).

1.4 Content Chunking & Progressive Disclosure

• One idea per section. If a section needs two H2s, split.
• Scan-readable. Every section answers in 5 seconds: what it claims + what proves it.
• Progressive disclosure: long copy → expandable cards. Form fields > 3 → multi-step. Detail dumps → tabs or accordions.
• Cognitive load budget: keep distinct elements above the fold to 5-9, reduced to 5 on mobile. Craft default from scanning cost on a first-visit page — not a memory limit (_common/PROPORTION_AND_SPACING.md § Cognitive-capacity numbers). What actually blows the budget is competing CTAs and undifferentiated labels, so fix those before cutting the count.

1.5 Heading Hierarchy

Hierarchy serves IA + SEO + GEO + a11y simultaneously.

Anti-patterns: skipping levels (H1 → H3), multiple H1s, H1 hidden visually for "SEO". Each heading must read as a meaningful claim, not a label.

1.6 Navigation Patterns

Anti-pattern: full site nav on LPs. Every link is a leak.

1.7 IA Quality Rubric

Ship target: ≥ 15/20.

Section 2 — Technical SEO

2.1 Core Indexability

• <title>: 50–60 characters. Brand + benefit + keyword. Unique per page.
• Meta description: 140–160 characters. Compelling, includes primary keyword, ends with action verb.
• Canonical URL: explicit <link rel="canonical"> on every page, including the page itself.
• Robots: noindex, follow for staging / A/B variants; index, follow for production.
• XML sitemap: page included; updated <lastmod>.
• robots.txt: doesn't block the LP path; allows crawler access to JS/CSS.
• hreflang: when multi-locale, every locale variant cross-references all others including itself; x-default set.

2.2 Structured Data (Schema.org / JSON-LD)

Choose the schema that matches the LP type. Validate with Rich Results Test before launch.

Always include: Organization, WebSite, WebPage, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage (when FAQs exist), Person (when author authority matters).

2.3 Core Web Vitals (2026 thresholds)

Ship target: all three Good. Bolt owns this gate.

2.4 Open Graph / Twitter Cards

• og:title, og:description, og:image (1200×630), og:url, og:type.
• twitter:card = summary_large_image; twitter:title, twitter:description, twitter:image.
• Per-locale variants when hreflang is in scope.

2.5 AI Crawler / Bot Policy (2026)

Robots policy must distinguish Training bots from Search/Retrieval bots. Blocking one does not block the other; conflating them costs AI-search visibility.

Anti-pattern: blanket Disallow: / for User-agent: * then forgetting AI search bots. Estimated 73% of sites unintentionally block Search-class bots this way.

Verify crawl access in production via server log inspection (presence of expected User-Agent hits within 7 days of launch). llms.txt is NOT honored by major AI crawlers as of 2026; do not rely on it.

2.6 Image & Video SEO

Images:

• AVIF/WebP with JPEG fallback; lossy at quality 75–85
• Explicit width and height attributes (prevents CLS)
• loading="lazy" below fold; fetchpriority="high" on LCP image (never both)
• srcset for responsive variants; sizes attribute set
• Descriptive alt text matching surrounding context (NOT keyword-stuffed); decorative images use alt=""
• ImageObject JSON-LD for hero / product images with caption, creditText, creator
• Filename: kebab-case descriptive (product-name-feature-view.avif), not IMG_4823.jpg

Videos:

• VideoObject JSON-LD with name, description, thumbnailUrl, uploadDate, duration, contentUrl
• Transcript visible or via transcript field (also feeds GEO)
• poster set; preload="metadata" default
• Chapter markers via WebVTT for long-form (also surfaces in AI Overviews)

2.7 Resource Hints & Indexability

• <link rel="preconnect"> for known third-party origins (fonts, analytics, CDN)
• <link rel="dns-prefetch"> for opportunistic origins
• <link rel="preload"> for LCP-critical font/image
• IndexNow ping (Bing/Yandex; Cloudflare default in 2026) for instant indexing — supplements sitemap.xml, not replaces

2.8 Technical SEO Audit Checklist

Run at Optimize gate:

[ ] <title> unique, 50–60 chars (70 chars OK if question-form for AI Overview eligibility)
[ ] <meta description> 140–160 chars
[ ] Canonical tag present and correct
[ ] Robots directive correct (index/noindex per env)
[ ] AI bot policy explicit (Training vs Search differentiated per §2.5)
[ ] hreflang tags (if multi-locale); x-default set
[ ] XML sitemap entry present; IndexNow ping configured
[ ] JSON-LD primary schema valid (Rich Results Test)
[ ] Schema-content consistency (price/availability/rating match visible content)
[ ] Open Graph + Twitter Card complete; per-locale variants if multi-locale
[ ] All images optimized per §2.6 (AVIF/WebP, dimensions, alt, ImageObject for hero/product)
[ ] All videos schema'd per §2.6 (VideoObject, transcript)
[ ] H1 unique on page; H tree well-formed (no skipped levels)
[ ] Internal links use semantic anchors (not "click here")
[ ] No broken links (200 OK on all internal links); redirect chain ≤ 2 hops
[ ] HTTPS, valid cert, HSTS / CSP / X-Content-Type-Options / Referrer-Policy headers set
[ ] viewport meta present; tap targets ≥ 48×48 CSS px
[ ] Resource hints in place per §2.7
[ ] Mobile-friendly (Lighthouse Mobile: Perf ≥ 90, Acc ≥ 95, BP ≥ 95, SEO ≥ 95)
[ ] Core Web Vitals: LCP ≤ 2.5s, INP ≤ 200ms, CLS ≤ 0.1, TTFB ≤ 800ms (p75), FCP ≤ 1.8s

Section 3 — Content SEO

3.1 Search Intent Alignment

Classify the target query:

Mismatched intent = high bounce + zero CVR. Field + Growth align this at Discover / Strategy.

3.2 Keyword Strategy

• One primary keyword per page; align with H1 + title + first paragraph.
• 3–5 secondary keywords / semantic variants woven naturally through H2s and body.
• Avoid stuffing: density check via Growth; if natural reading drops, rewrite.
• Long-tail focus: target specific phrases (best invoicing tool for freelancers) over head terms (invoice).
• Featured snippet eligibility: structured Q&A, definition paragraphs, lists, comparison tables.

3.3 E-E-A-T Signals + Author Entity

For high-trust categories (YMYL: health, finance, legal, news) and AI-search:

Author Entity is the structured implementation of E-E-A-T (also feeds GEO §4 citability):

{
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Author Name",
  "jobTitle": "Title / role",
  "worksFor": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Brand" },
  "url": "https://brand.example/team/author",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/author-handle",
    "https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000",
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q...",
    "https://github.com/author-handle"
  ]
}

Wire Person into WebPage.author or Article.author. Visible byline + credentials line on the page itself. sameAs should reach at least one platform LLMs grade as authoritative (Wikidata, ORCID, Wikipedia, Crunchbase, major academic press).

3.4 Topical Authority

If the LP sits within a topical cluster:

• Internal link to 3–5 pillar / supporting pages.
• Mention the broader topic in the introduction.
• Schema-graph the relationship via BreadcrumbList and WebPage.isPartOf.

Section 4 — GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

LLM-driven search (Perplexity, ChatGPT search, Gemini, Claude search, AI Overviews) reads pages differently from traditional crawlers. They prefer pages that are:

• Citable — facts attributable to a source
• Structured — clear question-answer pairs
• Concise — TL;DR, key takeaways, summary tables
• Authoritative — author bylines, original data, named expertise

Scoring: GEO scores as an SEO sub-rubric on the /20 scale only (ship threshold ≥ 15/20) — the legacy ≥ 90 notation is deprecated. Growth owns the score, interleaving with IA, Branding (citable facts, author authority, freshness), and Prose (TL;DR and citable units authored under Growth's structural brief).

4.1 GEO Structural Patterns

4.1.1 Per-Platform Tactics (2026)

Different AI search engines weight different signals. Tune for the platforms your audience actually uses.

4.2 GEO Content Patterns

• Write answers first, context after. Inverted pyramid.
• Include named entities (people, products, places, dates) — LLMs index entities.
• Quote yourself in citable units — 1-sentence summaries that can stand alone.
• Provide original data when possible — LLMs prefer primary sources over aggregators.
• Avoid clickbait — LLMs deprioritize sources with weak factual grounding.

4.3 GEO Technical Patterns

• Author and Organization schema with sameAs links to authoritative profiles (LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Wikidata, ORCID, Crunchbase, GitHub).
• dateModified and dateCreated exposed in schema and visible UI.
• mainEntityOfPage set on the primary content; @graph + @id cross-references for entity disambiguation.
• citation field in schema for original research.
• speakable schema for voice-AI answer eligibility.
• HowTo schema for procedural content (high citation pickup in step-by-step queries).
• QAPage (distinct from FAQPage) when the page itself answers one primary question.
• AI-crawler access verified via server log within 7 days of launch (PerplexityBot / OAI-SearchBot / Claude-User hits present).

4.3.1 GEO KPIs (measurement, not just structure)

Pulse + Growth + Beacon coordinate measurement:

4.4 GEO Quality Rubric

Ship target: ≥ 15/20.

Section 5 — Coordination With Other Disciplines

These rules keep IA + SEO + GEO aligned with Brand, Design, and Marketing:

1. Heading text is brand voice. SEO requires keywords; brand requires voice. Solution: lead with brand voice, weave keyword naturally. Never sacrifice voice for keyword density.
2. Schema must reference the brand system. Organization.name, Person.name, Product.name use the brand's canonical spelling.
3. Trust signals serve all four — IA (above fold), SEO (E-E-A-T), GEO (authority), Brand (positioning). Place them once, well.
4. Performance is an IA decision. Hero video weight, font weight, third-party scripts — all are IA trade-offs because they delay LCP and reduce scan-readiness.
5. FAQ does triple duty. Objection handling (IA), FAQPage schema (SEO), AI Overview eligibility (GEO). Write FAQ once, deploy across all three.
6. Internationalization is an IA + SEO + Brand decision. Polyglot extraction must preserve heading hierarchy, schema validity, and brand voice across locales.

Section 6 — IA / SEO / GEO Gate (Optimize stage)

Composite gate enforced by bazaar at Optimize stage exit:

Fail → repair pass. Twice fail → escalate to user.