The Free AEO Checklist to Get Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity & Google AI
Quick Answer
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is how you get AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to cite your business as the trusted answer. This checklist covers the exact foundation — crawlability, schema, answer-first content, authority, and attribution — we use to make businesses the recommended answer in AI search.
Work through it top to bottom. It's the same framework we run on client sites — start with the foundation, then compound.
Foundation & Crawlability
- Ship an llms.txt at your root — name your business and list every service with its URL so language models can read your entity directly.
- Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, ChatGPT-User, and Google-Extended. Most sites block them by default and never get cited.
- Server-render your content. AI crawlers rarely run JavaScript, so anything painted client-side (stats, tabs, accordions) is invisible to them.
- Reference sitemap.xml in robots.txt and submit it to Google Search Console AND Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing powers Copilot and ChatGPT search).
Structured Data (Schema)
- Add Organization + LocalBusiness JSON-LD with your exact NAP, areaServed, and sameAs profile links.
- Mark up every FAQ with FAQPage / Question / Answer schema so engines can lift the answer cleanly.
- Add Person / author schema for your expert(s) — name, credentials, and sameAs to LinkedIn, Amazon, etc.
- Connect entities with @id references so engines understand person → organization → service as one graph.
- Never fake an aggregateRating. Self-serving, unverifiable review markup risks a Google manual action.
Answer-First Content
- Open every page with a 2–3 sentence direct answer to its core question — a quotable 'answer box.'
- Write 8–10 self-contained FAQs per page. Each answer must stand alone without needing the question.
- Render FAQ answers in the DOM even when visually collapsed — never hide the text behind a click.
- Publish comparison and 'best X for Y' content — the exact shape of the questions people ask AI.
Authority & E-E-A-T
- Attribute content to a named expert with real credentials — not 'admin' or 'the team.'
- Show real proof: specific metrics, review counts you can substantiate, named case studies with numbers.
- Publish original data or first-hand results AI engines can cite as a primary source.
- Keep NAP (name, address, phone) identical across your site, your schema, and your Google Business Profile.
Measurement & Attribution
- Add an 'AI Search' channel in GA4, ordered above Referral, matching ChatGPT / Perplexity / Gemini / Copilot domains.
- Capture the AI-engine referrer on every visit and lock the first-touch source so it can't be overwritten.
- Tag every lead with its source, so a lead from an AI Overview is distinguishable from direct or organic.
- Verify leads actually reach your CRM in production — a form returning 'success' proves nothing on its own.
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