In short
- Carries over
- Everything that obstructs reading: speed, empty documents, missing structure, broken links.
- Does not carry over
- Keyword density, title length, the number of links to your site. There is no position to fight for.
- Worse than before
- Contradictory facts about yourself on different pages. Previously unnoticed, now a reason not to cite you.
Which old mistakes still weigh and which no longer do?
Five classics, with the verdict attached. The fourth row is the most interesting: what changes there is not whether it counts but what counts.
| Old SEO mistake | Counts in AI answers | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Slow website | yes | a fetcher does not wait forever; what does not arrive does not count |
| No heading structure | yes | without headings there is no passage to cut, only one long block of text |
| Missing description | barely | the assistant reads the page itself, not the line underneath |
| Few links to your page | differently | the link itself counts less, the MENTION without a link does count here |
| Contradictory details | more heavily than before | two sets of opening hours on one website make both unusable as fact |
Why is contradiction more expensive now than before?
Because a search engine ranked a page while an assistant has to pick a fact. With two different opening hours on your site, a search engine simply chose the page that fitted best; an assistant has to state one and has no way of knowing which. The safest answer is then to name a different company.
That is the shift many companies underestimate: ambiguity used to cost a position, now it costs the mention. Anyone whose own details differ across four places gives an assistant a reason to pick someone who does not have that problem.
In what order do I clean this up?
First what blocks reading, then what muddies the facts, and only then what improves the text. That order is not arbitrary: the first category makes the other two invisible, and the third is the only one you can keep pouring hours into.
Can an old penalty from the SEO era still hit me now?
A manual action at a search engine affects that engine's index, and the assistants leaning on such an index then see you less as well. So it is not a separate penalty but the same consequence by another route — a reason to resolve such things rather than treat them as a separate topic.
Frequently asked questions
I have not touched my site in years. Where do I start?
At access and facts, in that order. Check whether the AI crawlers are allowed in, then make your name, address, services and opening hours identical everywhere they appear. That second one takes an afternoon and is the cheapest intervention with the widest effect.
Should I delete old pages?
Only if they claim something that is no longer true. An old page that is still accurate does no harm; an old page with a service you no longer provide or a price from three years ago is a source of wrong answers about you. So the criterion is not age but accuracy.
Read on
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