GEO checklist: 20 steps to become a source in AI answers

GEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of getting your brand mentioned and cited in AI answers: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. This checklist has 20 points in six groups. Each point rests on the engine's own documentation or on the method we use in client projects; the sources are listed at the end.

If you first want to pin down how GEO differs from SEO and AEO, see our GEO vs SEO vs AEO comparison. The list works best in a team meeting, ticked off one point at a time.

Crawler access (points 1–4)

If an AI engine can't read your page, nothing else on this list matters. The catch: every engine keeps the crawler it uses for search separate from the one it uses to collect training data. You make the blocking decision crawler by crawler.

1. Check Googlebot access and snippet eligibility. Google says the only condition for appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode is that a page is indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet; there are no additional technical requirements. Make sure your key pages carry no nosnippet or a very short max-snippet, and that bot protection at your CDN or hosting layer doesn't block Googlebot even when robots.txt allows it.

2. Manage OpenAI's crawlers one by one. According to OpenAI, OAI-SearchBot is what surfaces sites in ChatGPT search results, while GPTBot collects content that may be used to train its models. ChatGPT-User acts on actions a user starts in ChatGPT and isn't used for automatic crawling. If you want to stay out of training but appear in search, block GPTBot and allow OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI notes that search-related robots.txt changes can take about 24 hours to apply.

3. Add the Claude and Perplexity crawlers. Anthropic runs three bots: ClaudeBot collects content for model training, Claude-SearchBot crawls to improve search result quality, and Claude-User fetches pages for a user's question. Anthropic says blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce your visibility in its search results, and advises using robots.txt rather than blocking IP addresses. On Perplexity, PerplexityBot surfaces and links sites in Perplexity's search results and, per Perplexity, isn't used to crawl for foundation-model training; Perplexity-User, which acts on a user's request, generally ignores robots.txt.

4. Make the Google-Extended decision separately. Google-Extended isn't a crawler but a control token you use in robots.txt. It covers training future Gemini models and grounding in Gemini Apps and in Grounding with Google Search on Vertex AI. Google states plainly that it does not affect a site's inclusion in Google Search and is not used as a ranking signal. AI Overviews and AI Mode are part of Search, so the control there is your Googlebot rules. Blocking Google-Extended won't remove you from AI Overviews, and leaving it open won't get you in.

Content (points 5–9)

5. Open every page with the answer. The first paragraph should answer the question in the heading in two or three sentences that stand on their own. When an AI answer borrows from a page, it picks the clearest sentence that still makes sense out of context. Long intros, company history and "in this post we'll look at" push that sentence down.

6. Put important content in text. Google recommends keeping important content in text form, with images and video supporting it. If your pricing table, scope of service or process steps live only inside an image, a PDF or a click-to-open widget, make sure they are also in the HTML a crawler reads.

7. Use headings, tables and FAQs. In the post announcing its AI Performance report, Bing advises publishers to use clear headings, tables and FAQ sections. Each H2 should answer one question; comparisons and figures belong in tables. FAQ questions should come from real customers, not padding.

8. Back claims with evidence and an author. The same Bing post recommends supporting claims with examples, data and cited sources. Google's guidance on helpful content strongly encourages accurate authorship information, such as bylines, where readers expect it. Give every post an author, an expert reviewer, a date and a source list.

9. Keep content current and announce changes. Bing advises keeping content fresh and accurate so AI systems reference the current version, and points to IndexNow for notifying participating search engines when content is added, updated or removed. When a price, scope or legal detail changes, update the page and show the updated date.

Structured data (points 10–12)

10. Add Organization markup to your home page. Google says Organization markup helps it understand your organisation's details and tell it apart from others in search results. Include logo and sameAs links to your social and review profiles; Google suggests placing it on the home page or a single page about your organisation. For a short definition, see our Schema.org glossary entry.

11. Match structured data to visible text. Google requires structured data to match the text visible on the page, and says there is no special schema.org type you need to add for AI features. Article, FAQPage or Organization markup should never carry a fact, rating or author name that isn't on the page.

12. Put llms.txt in its place. llms.txt is a proposed file that lets a site give AI agents information about its content; llmstxt.org describes it as a proposal, so it is not a standard. Google says you don't need new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in its AI features. Add one if you like, but not before points 1–11 are done.

Brand and entity definition (points 13–15)

13. Define your brand in one sentence and use it everywhere. "X is a company that provides A to the Z sector in Y" should read the same on your home page, About page, social profiles and directory listings. The most common error we see in AI answers is a brand described with the wrong service or an old location, and the cause is usually inconsistent descriptions.

14. Keep business profiles up to date. For its AI features, Google recommends keeping Merchant Center and Business Profile information current; Bing advises local businesses to keep address, opening hours and contact details current in Bing Places for Business.

15. Build topic clusters with internal links. Google lists making content findable through internal links among its basics. Each service should have a hub page linked to the posts, comparisons and glossary entries that support it. That helps crawlers find pages and helps models connect your brand with a topic.

Third-party sources (points 16–17)

16. Map the sources cited for your category questions. AI answers don't rely only on your site. In Ahrefs' March 2026 analysis, 37.9% of URLs cited in AI Overviews also appeared in the top 10 results for the same query; the rest came from elsewhere. From the citation column in your measurement log, pull out the directories, comparison lists and trade publications that keep showing up for category questions.

17. Get described correctly in those sources. For each source on the map, ask: are you there, and is the description right? Register in the directories where you're missing, get outdated details corrected, and pitch trade publications content built on real data. You fix a wrong description at its source, not in the answer.

Measurement (points 18–20)

18. Measure monthly with a fixed question set. Run a set of 20–40 brand, category, comparison and problem questions every month on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode, and log the mention, position, cited source and whether the description is accurate. The method is set out in how to measure AI visibility. We run this measurement with Ossvy, the software we built; the method works with any tool, or a spreadsheet.

19. Add Search Console and GA4. Google says pages appearing in AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in overall search traffic in Search Console, under the "Web" search type in the Performance report; there is no separate filter. In GA4, group sessions whose source is chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com or claude.ai into one segment. That segment only shows clicks.

20. Turn on the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing announced the AI Performance report as a public preview in February 2026. It shows total citations, the average number of your pages cited per day, citations per page and a sample of grounding queries across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and select partner integrations. The announcement doesn't mention click data, so read it alongside GA4.

Will this list get results?

No single point guarantees a mention; each engine chooses its sources by its own rules, and those rules change often. The point of the list is to get everything you control right and to measure the effect. One example from our own work: in the Modaltrans case study, a new Webflow site, an AEO-focused content strategy and technical SEO took the AI visibility score from 0 at the start of the project to 24+ today. The score in that case is the AI visibility score measured in tools such as Semrush.

If you'd like to see where you stand before working through the list, our AI visibility analysis sets a baseline across four platforms. For the full method with templates, download our AI visibility guide, and for ongoing work see our GEO agency page.

Sources

• Google Search Central, AI features and your website: developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features (accessed October 2026)
• Google Search Central, Google's common crawlers (Google-Extended): developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/google-common-crawlers (accessed October 2026)
• Google Search Central, Organization structured data: developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization (accessed October 2026)
• Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content: developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content (accessed October 2026)
• OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers: developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots (accessed October 2026)
• Anthropic, Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler?: support.claude.com (accessed October 2026)
• Perplexity, Perplexity crawlers: docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots (accessed October 2026)
• Bing Webmaster Blog, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview (10 February 2026): blogs.bing.com (accessed October 2026)
• llmstxt.org, The /llms.txt file: llmstxt.org (accessed October 2026)
• Ahrefs, 38% of AI Overview citations pull from the top 10 (2 March 2026): ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-citations-top-10 (accessed October 2026)