GEO Checklist: Get Cited in AI Answers

Our free spreadsheet has 40 checks in 6 sections, each with why it matters, where to check and how to fix it, plus a prompt tracker for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google. New to the term? Read what GEO is first. Want a quick score for one page? Try the free GEO score checker.

1. Make Sure AI Search Bots Can Reach You

Each AI company runs separate bots for search answers and for model training. Blocking a training bot is a choice about your data. Blocking a search bot keeps you out of that engine's answers.

OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers" (OpenAI, crawlers). Perplexity says PerplexityBot "is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models" (Perplexity, bots). Check your CDN too: a firewall bot rule can block these bots even when robots.txt allows them. Details per bot: AI crawlers and robots.txt.

2. Be One Clear Entity

AI answers piece your business together from your site, your profiles and other sites. Use one name, one plain sentence about what you do, for whom and where, and the same facts on every profile. Add Organization (or LocalBusiness) schema with sameAs links to your official profiles. Local businesses: keep name, address and phone identical across your citations.

3. Write Pages AI Can Quote

An AI answer quotes passages, not whole pages. Write each key page so its passages stand alone:

• Answer the page's main question in the first 2 to 3 sentences.
• Use the questions buyers ask as headings, with a short answer right below each. No "as mentioned above".
• Add real numbers, quotes from people with experience, and links to your sources. In the 2023 GEO research paper, these raised visibility in AI answers by up to 40% in tests.
• Publish prices or price ranges, comparisons and who each option suits.
• Show a visible updated date, and refresh key pages at least every 90 days.

Worked example (fictional). brightsmile-dental.com had a "Teeth whitening" page that opened with "Welcome to our practice." The rewrite opens: "In-office teeth whitening at BrightSmile costs $450 and takes about 90 minutes. Most patients see results 3 to 8 shades lighter." That sentence can be quoted as the answer to "how much does teeth whitening cost in Tacoma".

4. Get Mentioned on Other Sites

Engines are more confident naming a business that independent sites also name. Ask each engine "best [your service] in [your city or niche]", note the sites it cites, and get listed there with the same description. Ask happy customers for reviews on the platforms those answers quote. If a cited page has your old price or wrong services, email the site with the exact sentence to replace.

5. Measure: Ask the Engines Yourself

List the 20 to 30 questions buyers ask before they pick you. Once a month, ask each engine in a fresh chat and log whether it named you, which URL it cited, and which competitors it named. Answers vary between runs, so watch the trend. In Google, the Generative AI performance report shows how often your links appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

What to Skip

• llms.txt as a fix. Google says there are "no additional requirements" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode (Google). An llms.txt file is optional: see llms.txt explained.
• Schema-only sprints. Markup helps engines understand a page. On its own it rarely changes whether you are cited.
• Brand-name and keyword stuffing. It reads as spam to people and machines.
• Planted reviews or forum posts. They break platform rules and get removed.

Engine by engine: ChatGPT SEO, Perplexity SEO. How it fits with SEO: GEO vs SEO and AEO vs SEO.

Sign me in with connect_seomatic. Use ai_citations (scan_results) to show which of my tracked questions name my business and which name a competitor, and ai_citations (brand_facts) to list the facts my site publishes about my business. Then check robots.txt for OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot, and list the 5 pages that most need an answer-first rewrite. Stage the page changes for my approval.