geo checklist

The tasks that make a brand citable by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, grouped by priority. Each row says what to do, why it matters and where to learn more.

priority

critical

Task Why it matters Priority Resources
SEO best practices foundation Work through the full SEO checklist first, because AI engines find content through the same crawling and indexing as classic search, with no extra requirements for AI Overviews. critical
Prompt research Map the questions and comparisons buyers type into AI assistants, since one prompt fans out into many sub-queries, then track how often answers mention and cite you. critical
AI crawler access check Check that robots.txt and your CDN or firewall let GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended through, because an engine cannot cite a page its bot cannot fetch. critical
Agent readiness test Run the Is It Agent Ready test and fix what it flags, such as JavaScript-only content and unlabeled controls, since AI agents now browse and compare on users' behalf. critical
Agent-friendly website Use semantic markup, properly labeled forms and buttons, and a stable page structure, because browser agents read the accessibility tree much like assistive technology does. critical
LLM content visibility scan Scan key pages to see how much copy language models can actually extract, then fix text hidden in JavaScript, images or weak structure first. critical
Server side rendering: core content in the initial HTML Serve headings, body copy and internal links in the initial HTML through server side rendering or static generation, because most AI crawlers never run JavaScript. critical
Meta tags: title, description, and H1 Give every page a unique title of about 50 to 60 characters, a clear meta description and one H1, since search and AI systems read these first. critical
Core Web Vitals and page speed Pass Core Web Vitals on real-user data (LCP 2.5s or less, INP 200ms or less, CLS 0.1 or less), because slow, jumpy pages frustrate visitors and weaken rankings. critical
Preferred sources on Google Confirm your site is eligible for Google's preferred sources, then invite loyal readers to select you so your content shows up more often in Top Stories. critical
AI optimized blog outlines Outline each article with question-form headings, a short summary after the H1, an FAQ block and slots for statistics, so every section is easy for AI to quote. critical

priority

high

Task Why it matters Priority Resources
Entity-rich writing Write short, specific sentences that name entities plainly and back claims with sourced statistics and expert quotes, which research found are the strongest ways into AI answers. high
Answer formats: FAQs, lists, steps, and tables Break content into FAQs, bulleted lists, numbered steps and real HTML tables under clear headings, because these self-contained units are what AI answers and featured snippets quote. high
Semantic HTML5 elements Use semantic HTML5 elements (main, header, article, section, time, figure and full table markup) so machines can read a page's meaning from its structure alone. high
Publication and updated dates Show visible published and updated dates on every article and match them with datePublished and dateModified in structured data, so search and AI systems can judge freshness. high
Server response time under 200ms Keep average server response time to crawlers under 200ms (see Crawl stats in Search Console), because slow responses limit how much of your site bots fetch. high
Structured data (schema markup) Add JSON-LD structured data that matches each page's visible content, such as Organization, Article, FAQPage or Product, to give engines an unambiguous summary of your entities. high

priority

medium

Task Why it matters Priority Resources
Image SEO: alt text, filenames, and captions Give images descriptive alt text, readable filenames and captions, and serve them compressed as WebP or AVIF with set dimensions, so engines understand them and pages load fast. medium
Heading hierarchy (H1 to H3) Use one H1 for the topic, H2s for main sections and H3s beneath them without skipping levels, so the headings alone read as a clear outline of the page. medium
Blog template recommendations Build the post template around trust signals, including an author box linked to an author page, a table of contents, breadcrumbs, both dates and visibly cited sources. medium
Trust building: E-E-A-T and trust pages Show who runs the site and who writes its content, through about, contact, author and editorial policy pages, since Google treats trust as the core of E-E-A-T. medium
GEO best practices Combine cited sources, statistics and expert quotes (the methods research found work best) with a technically ready site, then track AI Mentions and Citations monthly. medium
WebMCP Watch Chrome's WebMCP preview, which lets a site offer actions like search or booking as tools AI agents call directly, and prototype once the spec settles. medium
Markdown for agents If your site runs on Cloudflare, enable its markdown for agents feature so AI agents get a clean text version of each page that is cheaper and easier to parse. medium

priority

low

Task Why it matters Priority Resources
llms.txt Publish an llms.txt file only if it is easy to maintain, since Google Search ignores it and only some other AI tools read this curated content map. low
robots.txt for AI crawlers Make sure robots.txt blocks none of the AI crawlers you want citing you, make a deliberate call on Google-Extended (it governs Gemini, not search), and list your sitemap. low
XML sitemap Keep an XML sitemap of every indexable URL with accurate lastmod dates and submit it in Search Console, so new and updated pages reach search and AI systems quickly. low
HTML sitemap Link a plain HTML sitemap from the footer, grouped by section, to give crawlers and AI bots that skip JavaScript one simple path to every key page. low
Google Personal Intelligence: newsletters as an AI surface Run a genuinely useful opt-in newsletter, because Gemini's Personal Intelligence can draw on a user's Gmail, making the inbox another place AI answers can surface your brand. low

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