The AEO checklist
A practical 20-item priority list for getting your brand named, cited and recommended by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI. Work in order — Foundations first (nothing else helps without them), then Content, then Entity signals, then ongoing Tactics. Most teams see visibility move within 30 days of completing Foundations + Content.
This is a strict-order priority list, not a menu. Items 1–5 are foundations — skip any of them and the work after won't compound. Items 6–12 are content moves that depend on the foundations. Items 13–17 are entity signals that take longer to land (external dependencies). Items 18–20 are ongoing tactics — start them once everything else is shipped.
Foundations · items 1–5
Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt
Explicitly allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, anthropic-ai, cohere-ai. If you're using a default robots.txt that blocks them (some hosts ship one), AI engines never see your site.
Why: The most common reason a brand is invisible in AI search is that they're accidentally blocking the crawlers. Check this first.Publish sitemap.xml
Every indexable page in sitemap.xml with current lastmod. Reference the sitemap from robots.txt. Submit to Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster Tools.
Publish /llms.txt
Markdown manifest at yoursite.com/llms.txt summarising the site for AI agents. Full spec here →
Server-render your HTML
AI crawlers don't reliably execute JavaScript. SPA-only sites that need JS to populate content appear blank to AI engines. Move to SSR (Next.js, Nuxt, Rails), static export, or hybrid rendering.
Why: No content, no citation. This is the silent killer for modern JS-heavy sites.Add Organization JSON-LD to every page
Publish via the layout: name, url, logo, description, plus sameAs links to verifiable profiles (LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Crunchbase, X).
Content · items 6–12
Add FAQPage schema to content pages
Wrap every FAQ block (and any Q&A-style page) in FAQPage JSON-LD with Question + acceptedAnswer entities.
Lead every section with the answer
First 1–2 sentences of each H2 section should directly answer the section heading. Setup and context go after the answer, not before.
Why: AI engines extract leading passages. Burying the answer in paragraph 3 means it doesn't get cited.Write quote-worthy 2–3 sentence chunks
Break long paragraphs into 2–3 sentence chunks that work as standalone quotes. AI engines prefer extractable units that can be pasted into an answer without surgery.
Why: Wall-of-text essays rarely get cited even when the content is excellent. Quotability is a function of structure, not just writing quality.Keep dateModified current
Update dateModified in both Article schema AND a visible byline whenever you meaningfully revise a page.
Use semantic HTML
One H1 per page, H2 for major sections, H3 inside, lists for lists, tables for comparisons, <article> wrapping editorial content, <nav> for navigation.
Add Product/Service schema where applicable
If you have product or service pages, wrap each in Product or Service schema with name, description, brand reference, and Offer with price.
Why: Product schema unlocks rich-result eligibility AND helps AI engines extract pricing claims accurately (a common hallucination vector when missing).Publish concrete factual claims
Numbers, dates, named comparisons, specific feature lists. Avoid vague marketing prose ("industry-leading", "best in class") in favour of factual statements an AI can verify and quote.
Why: AI engines de-weight pages that read as promotional. Factual density is a ranking signal.Entity signals · items 13–17
Add Person schema for authors
Every editorial page gets a visible byline AND a Person schema in JSON-LD with sameAs links to the author's LinkedIn, X, GitHub, or other verifiable profiles.
Why: E-E-A-T signal. Perplexity especially favours authored content over anonymous corporate content.Build out Organization sameAs
Link to your LinkedIn company page, Crunchbase, X, Wikipedia (if you have a page), GitHub org, and any other verifiable profiles.
Why: sameAs is how AI engines disambiguate your brand from similarly-named ones. Each verified link strengthens the entity graph entry.Get listed on category aggregators
G2, Capterra, Software Advice for SaaS. Crunchbase, PitchBook for funded companies. Whichever 2–3 aggregators dominate your category — make sure you exist there with current information.
Why: AI engines disproportionately cite these sources. Not being listed = not being cited.Earn mentions on AI-trusted sources
Run an audit to see which domains AI engines cite for your category queries. Pitch those publications, get reviewed by them, contribute guest content.
Why: Earned mentions on trusted sources compound into AI citations within 2–4 weeks. The reverse-engineered backlink strategy.Establish presence on Reddit + Wikipedia
Wikipedia (if eligible — needs notability). Reddit — relevant subreddits where your category is discussed.
Why: Both are disproportionately weighted by AI engines as "trusted" community sources. Wikipedia citation alone often moves brand visibility 10–15%.Tactics · items 18–20
Monitor monthly
Re-audit your AI visibility every 30 days. Track the trend, not the snapshot — AI answers vary day-to-day so individual results are noisy.
Why: AI engines change weekly. Without monitoring you only find out about a drop when traffic dies.Watch competitor share-of-voice
Track which competitors are getting named instead of you and on which queries. Their gains are your strategic priorities.
Why: The fastest way to identify content gaps is to look at queries where competitors win and you don't.Defend against hallucinations
AI engines occasionally fabricate claims about your brand (wrong pricing, invented features, made-up partnerships). Catch them in monitoring and fix the underlying information vacuum that caused them.
Why: A hallucinated negative claim about your brand can spread across multiple AI engines simultaneously. Catching them early matters.How long until you see results
Honest timeline based on what we see across audits:
- Week 1–2: Foundations (items 1–5) shipped. No visible improvement yet — these are prerequisites.
- Week 2–4: Content (items 6–12) shipped. Citation rate starts moving — AI engines re-crawl and find the new schema + extractable passages.
- Week 4–8: Visibility (named in answers) starts moving 2–3 weeks behind citation rate. Entity signals (13–17) start landing.
- Week 8+: Compound effects — the more the engines cite you, the more the entity graph reinforces, the more they cite. Ongoing tactics (18–20) keep this curve climbing.
Audit your starting point
The fastest way to know which items will give you the biggest gains is to measure where you are first. monitoraeo's free preview runs 8 buyer-facing questions for your brand and shows you visibility + citation rate + competitor share-of-voice. Paid audits add the full 40-question audit plus a prioritised action plan generated from this checklist applied to your actual gaps.
Related concepts
- What is AEO? — the discipline this checklist serves.
- What is GEO? — Generative Engine Optimisation; the technical foundations checklist items 1–5 fall under.
- What is llms.txt? — full spec for item 3.
- Glossary — every AI search term defined.
Frequently asked about the AEO checklist
How long does it take to work through the whole checklist?
Foundations 1–5: 1–2 days engineering. Content 6–12: 1–2 weeks editorial. Entity 13–17: 2–4 weeks (external dependencies). Tactics 18–20: ongoing. Total: 4–6 weeks from zero to fully implemented.
Which item moves the needle fastest?
Item 6 — FAQPage schema. We routinely see citation rate move within 7–10 days of shipping it, especially on informational queries. Items 1–5 are prerequisites but FAQPage is the highest-leverage individual addition.
Do I need to do all 20 items?
Items 1–5 are non-negotiable foundations. Items 6–17 are high-leverage — most brands should do all of them within the first 4 weeks. Items 18–20 are ongoing disciplines you maintain forever.
How do I know if the checklist worked?
Audit your AI visibility before starting and again 30 days after completing Foundations + Content. Watch: visibility % (named in answers), citation rate (% citing your domain), competitor share-of-voice. Citation rate moves first, visibility 2–3 weeks behind.
Is AEO different from SEO?
Overlapping foundations (fast pages, semantic HTML, schema) but different optimisation surface. SEO wants you to RANK in a list of links. AEO wants you NAMED IN THE ANSWER and CITED AS A SOURCE. Several AEO-specific moves (llms.txt, AI-favoured schema, entity signals) don't help classical SEO directly.