Lofty’s SEO tools are designed to help your website get discovered across traditional search engines (like Google and Bing) and AI-powered search experiences (like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and voice search). Together, the SEO Setup, AEO, and Indexing pages give you a complete foundation for visibility, accuracy, and long-term growth. This article explains what each page does and how they work together.

SEO Setup: Build a Strong Search Foundation

The SEO Setup page is your starting point. It walks you through the essential steps needed to prepare your website for search engines—no technical SEO expertise required.

What SEO Setup Does

The SEO Setup experience is organized into a guided, four-phase workflow with a 0–100 score that shows how complete your SEO foundation is. Every time you open the page, Lofty scans your site and updates your score automatically, flagging issues as:

• Critical
• Warnings
• Informational notes

Completing all four phases results in a score of 100, indicating your SEO basics are fully configured.

Why This Matters

Search engines rely on consistent signals—like site structure, metadata, and technical files—to understand and rank your site. The SEO Setup page helps ensure:

• Your core SEO settings are complete
• Common issues are surfaced early
• You know exactly what to fix first

Important: Your SEO Setup score is different from tools like Google PageSpeed. PageSpeed measures performance, while SEO Setup tracks configuration completeness.

AEO: Optimize for AI-Powered Search

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) focuses on how your business appears in AI-driven answers, not just traditional search results.

As more buyers and sellers rely on AI to ask questions like “What’s the best neighborhood to live in?”, AEO helps position your site as the source AI tools reference.

What the AEO Page Shows

The AEO page helps you understand and improve how AI platforms interpret your site, including:

• How often your brand appears in AI-generated answers
• Which AI platforms reference your content
• Examples of how AI describes your business
• Content gaps limiting AI visibility

This aligns with Lofty’s broader SEO Agent approach, which tracks visibility across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Claude.

Why AEO Matters

AI tools don’t just rank websites—they answer questions. Strong AEO ensures your content:

• Uses clear, question-and-answer language
• Leverages structured data like FAQs
• Matches how real buyers and sellers ask questions

As AI becomes a primary discovery channel, AEO complements traditional SEO rather than replacing it. 

Indexing: Control What Search Engines See

The Indexing page gives you direct control over which pages search engines can index—without needing to contact support.

What You Can Manage

From the Indexing tab, you can control:

• MLS listing page indexing
  • Index only listings in your Featured Areas
  • Or index all listings
• Sold listing indexing
  • Default is no-index (SEO best practice)
• Custom no-index rules
  • Use wildcard URL patterns to prevent specific pages or sections from being indexed

Custom rules have the highest priority and override all other indexing settings.

Default Best Practices

If you don’t change anything, Lofty applies SEO-safe defaults:

• Only Featured Area listings are indexed
• Sold listings are no-indexed
• Critical pages remain discoverable

This protects your site from common SEO issues like thin content or outdated listings appearing in search results.

How SEO Setup, AEO, and Indexing Work Together

Each page plays a distinct role—but they’re most powerful when used together:

• SEO Setup ensures your technical and structural basics are complete
• AEO helps AI engines understand and reference your content accurately
• Indexing controls which pages search engines are allowed to surface

Together, they help your site:

• Get discovered faster
• Appear in the right search and AI contexts
• Avoid common SEO pitfalls that reduce visibility

Recommended Setup Order

For best results, Lofty recommends:

1. Complete SEO Setup to establish your foundation
2. Review Indexing settings to confirm search visibility rules
3. Use AEO insights to refine content for AI-driven discovery

Summary

Lofty’s SEO tools are designed for modern search—where search engines and AI platforms both matter. By using SEO Setup, AEO, and Indexing together, you give your website the clarity, structure, and control it needs to stay visible now and in the future.