Guide
The GEO/AEO checklist
Everything that makes a website easy for AI engines to find, understand and cite, in one list.
Access
Let AI engines in.
- 01
robots.txt allows AI crawlers
Allow the crawlers of the engines you want to be cited by, such as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended.
- 02
An up-to-date XML sitemap
List every page you want indexed, and keep last-modified dates accurate.
- 03
An llms.txt file
A short plain-text summary of your site and its key pages, at /llms.txt, for AI assistants.
- 04
Content in the HTML
Make sure important text is in the page's HTML, not only loaded later by scripts or locked in images.
Understanding
Make it unambiguous.
- 01
One consistent definition
Describe what your company and product are in the same words on every page, so engines connect them to one entity.
- 02
Organization and product structured data
Add JSON-LD describing your organization, website and product, including pricing where you publish it.
- 03
Breadcrumbs
Mark up page hierarchy with BreadcrumbList structured data.
- 04
Clear headings
Use one H1 per page and a logical H2/H3 structure that mirrors the questions people ask.
Citability
Give engines something to quote.
- 01
Answer first
Open each section with a direct, one- or two-sentence answer, then add detail.
- 02
FAQ sections with FAQPage markup
Answer the real questions buyers ask, and mark them up so engines can read them as questions and answers.
- 03
Content depth
Cover a topic fully on one canonical page instead of thinly across many.
- 04
Factual comparison pages
Neutral "X vs Y" pages with sources are exactly what engines look for when users ask for comparisons.
- 05
No conflicting versions
Avoid several pages that answer the same question differently; pick one canonical page per question.
Proof
Be cited elsewhere too.
- 01
Third-party mentions
Engines often cite review sites, directories, publications and community discussions. Be present where your category is discussed.
- 02
Up-to-date facts
Keep pricing, features and company facts current everywhere they appear, so engines don't repeat stale information.
Measure
Check it works.
Run a GEO/AEO audit to score your site against a checklist like this one, then track a set of buyer prompts across AI engines to see whether the fixes change what engines say. Thosjod's audit is rule-based and explainable: every lost point links to the page and issue causing it. (GEO/AEO Audit (Free Tool))
Is GEO different from SEO?
It builds on the same foundations, such as crawlable, well-structured content, but the goal is to be cited inside AI-generated answers rather than to rank as a link.
What is llms.txt?
A plain-text file at the root of a website that summarises the site and links to its key pages, written for AI assistants rather than search crawlers.
Which structured data matters most for AI engines?
Organization, WebSite and product markup to define who you are, FAQPage markup for question-and-answer content, and BreadcrumbList for site structure.
Give your website a voice
worth talking to.
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