How I prompt
These are messages I typed to the AI tools I build with, dated and labeled by project, with the typos fixed and nothing else changed. Read each one as a brief: what I asked for, the standard I set and the check I wanted before calling it done.
FTurn every lesson into a systemOne of six principles in my SEO method; its mascot is Glaceon
- 36prompts
- 11projects
- 6pillars of my system
Apr 7, 2026 to Oct 12, 2026. Names, keys and client details are removed, and so are the typos; the words are mine.
If I could show you one
another north star i'd like to say is that SEO is GEO, and any sort of AEO or other abbreviation, at its core, is still seo [...] AI is good at systems, data, and research, but when it comes to finding "moat" opportunities, or insightful roadmaps that move the needle, you cannot lose the manual, creative process.
Setting the direction for this site, the day research started.
What it becameSEO is GEO, on How I think
Where these prompts go
Some of my prompts tell a tool what to do, and some are just the questions people ask, run every day to see which brands the answers name.
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Claude and Codex: build, check, and sharpen the prompts
I use Claude and Codex to build and challenge work on my sites. Each handoff names what to check.
From OpenAI's Codex docs, read Oct 14, 2026.
My part: I decide what holds after checking each finding against the page or its source.
In the library below: Sep 5, 2026, The Quack Report; Oct 8, 2026, an independent fan reference
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Peec AI: set up the AI visibility project
In Peec AI the prompts are people's questions, the kind they type into ChatGPT or see answered in Google's AI Overviews, run every day to see which brands the answers name.
From Peec AI's quickstart guide, read Oct 14, 2026.
My part: I check what it reports against Bing's own AI data before I trust it.
In the library below: Oct 12, 2026, haydenschuster.com
The library, by pillar
4 of these became something you can open today. Look for What it became under the prompt.
Show
Start from the person
Every prompt here starts with a person on the other side of the screen and the question they came with.
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in the areas where people are trying to understand what i even do, we need to think about simplifying it so everyone can understand, whether that's [...] my grandpa [...] don't act like they're dumb for not knowing
Writing the parts of this site that explain what I do.
What it becameWhat I do, in plain English
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who's going to be on this page? on a blog, could be someone from linkedin or in the industry reading, [...] I also want to make sure my failures are known, because that is a big part of who i am, we just need to position me as someone who learns from mistakes, and gets better.
Planning the rebuild of this site.
What it becameThe rule every page here follows: no reader written down, no page
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pretend you're a 12 year old on mobile going to play, and try to play yourself. if it isn't easy, we aren't there yet. the basic mechanics we need to get right.
I couldn't set a lineup on my own phone, so I handed the test to an imagined kid.
What it becameThe lineup game, made simpler for kids on a phone the same day
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you are an nfl draft duck fan. what do we not have that you need to know?
Looking for gaps in the site's NFL Draft coverage.
Tell it as a story, in a voice worth reading
These are about how a page reads: one story in order, a human voice, and no design that looks machine-made.
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could you do a copywriting and voice audit, like you were a veteran who's studied copywriting and brand voice for 60 years in the industry, with the goal of finding ai slop, if this then that statements, and anything else that is obviously not human sounding, with the exception of our ai voice i understand that's a theme. additionally, pick out things that feel or sound unnatural in H1s, h2s, paragraphs, etc. plan mode, don't touch code
Before a pass over the site's copy.
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i'd like you to follow the patterns of this duck team early in the season and start thinking critically about what this season's theme and personality is, and we need to be incorporating overall vibe and feel to our site more. it feels too stat-heavy and less emotional
A few weeks into the season.
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do it, we can have opinions, i want you to decide based on [the author] and the book text, make it geo and llm readable, do all of them, do it in a smart way, make sure you say "this is just our opinion, [...]" or that type of thing
Deepening thin fan-theory pages.
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can you also do a scan to make sure if the author saw our site, he wouldn't be mad [...] but happy the community is running with his great ideas?
Checking the fan-theory pages through the author's eyes.
Be the source worth citing
Here I'm trying to be the page that people and AI answers both reach for, built so a competitor can't copy it in an afternoon.
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and on the about page, really think through what questions people will be curious about, what they search for, how we can dominate my name searches, and how we tell LLMs exactly who i am and what i do and what i'm good at and how i provide value not just with my work, but by how i think and who i am as a person.
Planning the About page on this site.
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another north star i'd like to say is that SEO is GEO, and any sort of AEO or other abbreviation, at its core, is still seo [...] AI is good at systems, data, and research, but when it comes to finding "moat" opportunities, or insightful roadmaps that move the needle, you cannot lose the manual, creative process.
Setting the direction for this site, the day research started.
What it becameSEO is GEO, on How I think
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make sure LLMs can scrape all this, if you put something behind a wall, it needs to be llm friendly. that goes for the entire site, be careful from a geo perspective. again, plan mode.
Planning pages with content behind a click.
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what are we missing from our site that would be awesome? [...] are we showing the colors for the home games that the fans wear? this is the stuff that will make us successful from the ESPNs of the world and increase our moat, we need to think about what diehard duck fans care about
Looking for what the site was missing on home game days.
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if we keep it, how can we improve it? someone can just copy this right away, so how do we make a little moat? in fact, think through the moat of our whole site,
Deciding whether to keep a feature anyone could copy.
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the site launched yesterday i'm not expecting to show up in these that's not the whole point, the whole point is to look at what we have and see if we WILL EVENTUALLY get cited based on the work we've done, and what we need to do to improve now that we have proof of what these searches look like
An audit was fixating on zero citations the day after launch.
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check that we don't have these already, if we don't, create the pages, think through GEO and how people buy and user intent and storytelling, think through natural bridges, internal link strategy, and topic cluster building, think through the homepage, menu, orphan pages, duplicate risk, other risks, readability, tables, and create them. go
Adding buyer-intent comparison pages to a water quality site.
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I'd like you to think about how to win the LLM recommendation layer, anything else we can take advantage of?
Planning for AI answers that name which sites to trust.
Never ship a wrong fact
I treat one wrong fact as a sign of more, and I make checks countable so "verified" means something.
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only use industry research from the last like 3 months max, this industry moves so fast
Researching for this site.
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if you find pre-existing defects, and triple verify and confirm they are wrong on our site, and do not just blindly change
Before a round of fixes to pages already live.
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fix anything that could harm someone
Triaging an outside audit of a fittings reference site.
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3 searches, 3 separate links. that's a requirement
On an electrical reference site, where a wrong fact can hurt someone.
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You found an error after checking just 6 pages. that means there are more errors.
An error had turned up in a six-page sample.
Measure, then double down
I read the numbers before I trust a story, mine included, and then I put more into what's actually working.
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i'm using peec.ai for ai visibility reports, ahrefs brand radar for citation and share of voice, GSC to pull csvs and analyze large quantities of data quickly with AI, ga4 for revenue and key events, bing for ai visibility 1st party data to verify Peec and Ahrefs [...] this is a system, everything works together to bring the level up across the board. it compounds.
Listing the tools I measure with.
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when it comes to anything on the site from the past, i want you to pull the best elements out yes, but on a granular level, like data level, use current, most accurate data to see what is ACTUALLY working, not what i say is working, and focus on that. also focus on what isn't working.
Pulling ideas from the old version of this site.
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also research margins and best practices, and answer if our site is doing a good enough job. i don't like our width choice on desktop, for example, but if it's backed by data, fine. just prove it
Reviewing the reading width on desktop.
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wider is way better, in fact, i'd like even wider
After I'd asked for the reading width to be proven with data.
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keep in mind it was a bye week as well
Reading a week-over-week drop in impressions.
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the last 7 days have been awesome. i need to know why. Find the products that are being successful, and the urls
After a strong week on one of my sites.
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data doesn't add up, getting gsc clicks but nothing in ga4
It turned out to be a broken analytics tag on a new site.
Turn every rule into a mechanism
When something breaks twice I stop asking for fixes and build the check. Every finding, from a person or an AI, gets proven before it changes anything.
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never trust agents and plugins naturally, everything needs to be checked with a fresh pair of eyes. [...] any handover documents or markdowns should lead with giving a message not to blindly run but to use as critical thinking direction and stress-tests to the current plan or mission [...] never trust each others findings blindly
This became the "read critically" note every handoff on this site now opens with.
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write a handoff to [the other AI], where it isn't demands, but a thought document, to let it explore, come up with new or better ideas, break the current plan you proposed, or find a unique angle or gap you haven't thought about.
Handing work from one AI tool to another.
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make the full plan, break the plan, make sure it's solid and we aren't repeating past mistakes, and then execute, push live, then audit the live site.
Starting a round of work.
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now, look at [the other AI]'s review, look at yours, and make our final plan. what are we not thinking about? what could break? what is already breaking? what are we wasting our time on?
The night before the season opener.
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come up with a gate to test once [the AI] finishes these
A batch of electrical-code corrections was in progress, and I wanted the test settled before any of it shipped.
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i just need to know when my scripts aren't 100% current, cause the gate can give green but that isn't true and i still need to backfill, for example
A data script reported green while its data was behind.
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break the plan, and what survives you do
Handing over a plan before any of it was built.
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what did you break? not think about? can you improve design? did you fabricate anything?
Reviewing a change after it was finished.