# The AI Search Handbook — free books by Luke McLaughlin

> A free library of four complete PDF books by Luke McLaughlin on AI search (generative engine optimisation), AI engineering, technical SEO and technical marketing. No payment or sign-up is required.

## Books
- [The AI Search Handbook](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/books/ai-search-handbook/): A complete, self-contained guide to generative engine optimisation: how AI search retrieves, chunks, evaluates and cites information, and how to become a source an AI answer names. Free PDF: https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/downloads/the-ai-search-handbook-luke-mclaughlin.pdf
- [AI Engineering Essentials](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/books/ai-engineering-essentials/): Sixteen chapters from NumPy and data preparation through classical machine learning, neural networks and PyTorch to NLP, embeddings, transformers, RAG and MLOps — every project with runnable code and its exact output. Free PDF: https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/downloads/ai-engineering-essentials-luke-mclaughlin.pdf
- [Technical SEO for Digital Marketing](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/books/technical-seo-for-digital-marketing/): A hands-on course in fourteen chapters. Each project is a small Python audit tool that crawls, parses and checks a site the way a search engine does — ending with GEO, AEO and an end-to-end technical audit. Free PDF: https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/downloads/technical-seo-for-digital-marketing-luke-mclaughlin.pdf
- [From Marketing to Technical Marketing](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/books/from-marketing-to-technical-marketing/): An illustrated learning path for marketers who want to understand the instructions and build something useful: 52 chapters across ten parts, with a companion pack of runnable exercises and solutions. Free PDF: https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/downloads/from-marketing-to-technical-marketing-luke-mclaughlin.pdf

## Articles
- [How to track ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI referrals in GA4](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/track-chatgpt-perplexity-ai-referrals-in-ga4/): Use GA4's AI Assistant channel, extend it to assistants it misses, and understand which AI-driven visits GA4 cannot attribute.
- [GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot or ChatGPT-User? How to read AI crawler traffic in your logs](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/ai-crawler-traffic-server-logs/): AI companies run separate bots for training, search indexing and live user requests. Learn which is which, what each visit means for AI search visibility, and how to verify them.
- [Can AI crawlers see your JavaScript? Rendering for AI search](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/can-ai-crawlers-render-javascript/): Most AI crawlers read the HTML your server sends and do not run JavaScript. Here is how to check what they see and how to make client-rendered pages citable.
- [llms.txt explained: what it does, what it doesn't, and whether to add one](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/llms-txt-what-it-does/): llms.txt is a short Markdown file that points AI tools to your most useful pages. Here is the format, who reads it today, and when it is worth the half hour it takes.
- [Structured data for AI search: which schema still earns its place](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/structured-data-for-ai-search/): Schema markup will not get you into an AI answer on its own, but it removes ambiguity about who you are and what a page contains. Here are the types worth maintaining and how to ship them so every crawler can read them.
- [What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/what-is-generative-engine-optimisation/): GEO is the practice of making content easy for AI search systems to retrieve, understand and cite. Learn how it extends SEO and what actually changes.
- [How AI search retrieves and cites sources](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/how-ai-search-retrieves-and-cites-sources/): A clear six-stage model of query fan-out, retrieval, chunking, reranking, synthesis and citation—and how to create passages AI systems can use.
- [AI crawler robots.txt guide: which bots to allow and how](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/ai-crawler-robots-txt-guide/): Understand search, user-triggered and training crawlers; configure robots.txt for AI visibility; and test the CDN, firewall and rendered response.
- [How to write content AI search can retrieve and cite](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/how-to-write-content-ai-search-can-cite/): Use answer-first sections, explicit entities, evidence, tables and passage-level structure to make useful content easier for AI search to retrieve and quote.
- [How to measure AI search visibility and citations](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/blog/how-to-measure-ai-search-visibility-and-citations/): Build a repeatable GEO measurement system using prompt sets, citation rate, cited URLs, GSC, GA4, Bing AI Performance and conversion evidence.

## Author
- [Luke McLaughlin — author profile and CV](https://www.aisearchhandbook.com/author/)
- [lukekevinmclaughlin.com](https://www.lukekevinmclaughlin.com/)