Brand, web, SEO, and AEO, in plain English.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

The practice of structuring content, schema, and metadata so AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude can quote your site as a source. It rewards clear question-and-answer copy, well-formed structured data, and consistent names for the things you offer. Every Site System ships with an AEO foundation: schema markup, FAQ blocks, and an llms.txt.

BreadcrumbList Schema

Structured data that describes where a page sits in a site, such as Home, then Work, then a case study. Google can show it as a breadcrumb trail in results, and it gives AI crawlers a clear map of how your pages relate. It is part of the schema we set up on every Site System.

Canonical URL

The one address you want search engines to treat as the original when the same content is reachable at more than one URL, for example with and without tracking parameters. A rel=canonical tag points ranking signals at that address. We set a canonical on every page and check each one before launch.

Core Web Vitals

Google's three measures of real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (how fast the main content appears), Interaction to Next Paint (how quickly the page responds), and Cumulative Layout Shift (how much the layout jumps). Good scores are LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds, and CLS under 0.1. We test all three before a site goes live.

E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness: the qualities Google's reviewers look for in content. Named authors with real credentials, cited sources, and clear business information all build it. The same signals help decide whose answer an AI engine quotes.

FAQPage Schema

A Schema.org type that marks up a list of questions and answers. Google now shows FAQ rich results mainly for government and health sites, but the markup still hands AI engines clean, quotable answers. It is why every FAQ we write answers one real question directly.

JSON-LD

JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, the format Google recommends for structured data. It sits in a script tag apart from the visible page, so it can describe your business, services, and FAQs without touching the design.

llms.txt

A proposed convention: a plain-text file at the root of a site that gives AI tools a short summary of the site and links to its most useful pages. Adoption by AI companies is still early, so we treat it as a low-cost extra alongside schema and clear copy.

Open Graph

The metadata that controls how a link looks when someone shares it on LinkedIn, Slack, iMessage, or X: the title, the description, and the preview image. Every page we build gets its own, so a shared link looks intentional.

robots.txt

A file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which paths they may request. It is also where you decide which AI crawlers, like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot, can read your content. It controls crawling only, so a page that must stay out of search results also needs a noindex tag.

Schema.org

The shared vocabulary for structured data, founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex. It defines types like Organization, Service, and FAQPage, and choosing the right type is the first decision in any schema work.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The work of earning visibility in search results through technical health, useful content, internal links, and links from other sites. SEO and AEO now share most of the same foundation, so every Site System is built for both.

Sitemap (sitemap.xml)

An XML file that lists the pages you want search engines to find. Google reads each page's lastmod date to see what changed and ignores the older priority and changefreq fields. Ours are generated from the site itself, so a new case study is listed as soon as it is published.

Speakable Schema

A Schema.org property that flags the parts of an article best suited to being read aloud by voice assistants. Google still treats it as a beta for news publishers, so we recommend it only for newsrooms.

Structured Data

Machine-readable markup, usually JSON-LD using the Schema.org vocabulary, that tells search engines and AI assistants what a page is about: who you are, what you offer, and which questions you answer. It is the backbone of the AEO foundation in every Site System.

Brand Guidelines

A documented reference, often called a brand book, for how a brand shows up everywhere. Good guidelines speed up production and keep work consistent as a team grows. In the Brand System, the guidelines also power the Brand Assistant, so your team can ask for on-brand work and get it.

Brand Identity

The visual and verbal system that expresses what a company stands for: logo, color, typography, imagery, voice, and the rules for combining them. We build it as part of the Brand System, with every file delivered in accounts you own.

Design System

A library of reusable components, design tokens, and usage rules. It turns one-off design decisions into a shared language that designers and developers build from, and it is what the Guardrails lock in so your team can add pages safely. Ours is on our Design System page.

Design Tokens

Named values for visual decisions like color, spacing, and type size. Design and code read from the same tokens, so a brand color changes in one place and updates everywhere.

Prototype

An interactive model of a page or flow, built in Figma or in code, used to test how something works before it is built for real. It can be a few clickable screens or a detailed study of a single interaction.

Stylescape

A single board that combines typography, color, imagery, and texture into one visual direction, used to agree on a look before design begins. Our free Stylescape Generator builds one from any website in a click.

UI (User Interface)

The visual layer a person interacts with: layout, components, type, color, and motion. Good UI makes the next step obvious and keeps the brand consistent from page to page.

UX (User Experience)

The whole experience someone has with a product, from finding it to getting what they came for. It covers research, information architecture, interaction design, content, and accessibility.

Wireframe

A simplified layout of a page that settles structure, hierarchy, and content before visual design starts. Agreeing on wireframes early is the cheapest way to avoid rework later.

Accessibility (a11y)

Designing and building so people with disabilities can use what you make, measured against standards like WCAG 2.2 AA. Accessible sites are clearer for everyone and easier for search engines and AI to read.

API (Application Programming Interface)

A defined way for two pieces of software to exchange data. Most modern websites connect several, such as a CMS, a payment provider, a scheduling tool, and analytics.

Headless CMS

A content management system that stores content and delivers it through an API, leaving the design to the website. One content source can feed a website, an app, and AI tools at the same time.

Sanity

A headless content platform with an editing studio shaped around your content. Every Site System is built on Sanity in an account in your name, so your team edits pages, case studies, and assets in a studio made for them.

Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Rendering each page on the server at the moment it is requested, so visitors and crawlers receive finished HTML with the latest data. It suits pages that change constantly, like dashboards or live inventory.

Static Site Generator (SSG)

Building every page as finished HTML ahead of time, when the site is published. The result is fast, secure, and easy for search engines and AI crawlers to read. This site is built that way.

Webflow

A visual website builder with a built-in CMS that marketers can update without code. We built on Webflow for years; today we build 5Four® Systems on Sanity, Vercel, and GitHub, and we migrate Webflow and WordPress sites onto that stack.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Raising the share of visitors who take the action that matters, like booking a call or starting a trial, through testing, clearer copy, and better page structure. The Growth System gives your team landing page archetypes built to test and improve.

Creative Subscription

A flat monthly engagement for ongoing design and development, with predictable turnaround and no per-project contracts. 5Four® Run is our version: a monthly plan that keeps your systems current, with human hours for anything new.

Discovery

The first phase of a project, where we review your brand, site, and analytics, talk with the people involved, and agree on what success looks like. Good discovery keeps a project from circling back later.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

The smallest release that delivers real value and teaches you something useful. The aim is validated learning with the least work, so extra features wait until the evidence says they are worth building.

Statement of Work (SOW)

A document that sets out a project's deliverables, timeline, assumptions, and price. For custom work, ours arrives within three business days of your strategy call.

Common questions.