The 51-Point Checklist for Actually Getting Cited by AI
Most SEO checklists tell you to "optimize for AI." This one tells you exactly what to do, whether you have SEO tools or not. Tested across 50+ B2B companies.
Yuval Halevi•January 2026•22 min read
TL;DR
Authority beats optimization - AI cites brands it trusts, not brands with perfect schema
Consensus is everything - Same fact across 5+ sources becomes "truth" to LLMs
Most items need no SEO tools - Entity audits, PR, community work, content structure
Trust Hubs are field-specific - The sources AI trusts for cybersecurity differ from DevTools
Perplexity in weeks, ChatGPT in months - Different platforms, different timelines
I've read every "AI SEO checklist" published in the last year. Most are just traditional SEO checklists with "AI" sprinkled on top. They tell you to "create quality content" and "build authority" without explaining what that actually means for AI systems.
This checklist is different. Every item comes from testing across our client work. Some items moved citation rates by 30%. Others did nothing. What follows is what worked.
The biggest insight: authority building matters more than content optimization. You can have perfect schema markup and structured content, but if AI doesn't recognize your brand as trustworthy, you won't get cited. Most companies optimize content before building authority. That's backwards.
Assess Your Current State
Before diving into the checklist, let's see where you stand. Answer these 5 questions honestly to get your AI Visibility Readiness Score.
AI Visibility Readiness Score
5 questions to diagnose your starting point
1. How consistent is your brand name across platforms?
Most companies score 3-5. If you scored below 6, focus on Chapters 1 and 2 before worrying about content structure.
The AI Visibility Pyramid
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1
Authority Building
What makes AI trust you enough to cite you
AI systems don't cite companies they don't trust. Trust comes from being mentioned by sources AI already considers authoritative. This is the foundation everything else builds on. For a deeper dive, see our guide on how ChatGPT rates your brand authority.
1Entity Consistency
Audit brand name across all platforms
Check that your company name is exactly the same everywhere: website, LinkedIn, G2, Crunchbase, Wikipedia, press releases, team member bios. 'Acme Inc' vs 'Acme' vs 'ACME Inc.' creates confusion for AI models.
High ImpactLow Effort1-2 days
Standardize company description across all profiles
Your one-liner should be identical (or very similar) everywhere. 'AI-powered threat detection' on your site, 'Security monitoring platform' on LinkedIn, and 'Cybersecurity tool' on G2 creates entity fragmentation.
High ImpactLow Effort2-3 hours
Fix Wikipedia or create Knowledge Panel signals
For established brands: audit your Wikipedia entry for accuracy. For newer companies: ensure Wikidata entries exist, Crunchbase is complete, and your Google Knowledge Panel shows correct info.
High ImpactMedium Effort1-2 weeks
💡 Growth Hack
The Press Release → AI Citation Pipeline
Press releases get indexed fast and cited heavily by AI. When National Debt Relief issues a press release, it shows up in ChatGPT answers within weeks. The key: distribute through PR Newswire, BusinessWire, or similar services that get picked up by major news aggregators.
Structure your press releases with quotable statistics and clear positioning statements. AI loves extracting specific numbers from authoritative-looking sources.
2PR & Media Coverage
Get mentioned in 3-5 industry publications
Target publications AI frequently cites in your space. For cybersecurity: Dark Reading, CSO Online, SecurityWeek. For DevTools: InfoWorld, The New Stack, DevOps.com. One mention in a high-authority publication beats 20 blog guest posts.
High ImpactHigh Effort2-4 months
Secure podcast appearances in your niche
Podcasts create multiple authority signals: the episode page, transcripts (which AI reads), and often follow-up blog posts. Target 5-10 relevant podcasts. The transcripts become training data.
Medium ImpactMedium Effort1-3 months
Publish original research or data study
Original research gets cited by journalists, bloggers, and AI systems. 'The 2026 State of [Your Industry]' creates a citable asset. Include specific statistics that others will quote. Survey your customers or analyze your platform data.
High ImpactHigh Effort4-8 weeks
Respond to HARO/Qwoted/Featured requests
Journalist query platforms give you quotes in authoritative publications. 15-20 pitches per week yields 2-4 placements per month. Focus on relevance over volume. One quote in Forbes beats ten in random blogs.
Medium ImpactMedium EffortOngoing
From My Experience
The companies that show up in ChatGPT didn't "optimize for AI." They accumulated authority signals over years: consistent PR coverage, strong review presence, mentions in industry publications. Now that work is paying dividends they didn't anticipate.
You're playing catch-up, but the gap is closeable. Focus on concentrated authority building in your specific niche rather than broad, generic efforts.
2
Consensus & Trust Hub
How to become "truth" in AI's knowledge graph
AI doesn't "believe" information from a single source. It cross-references. One mention is a rumor. Multiple mentions across independent sources becomes fact. This is the consensus principle we cover in depth in our LLM visibility guide.
One Mention = Rumor | Multiple Mentions = Truth
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3Consensus Building
Identify your 3-5 key claims that need consensus
Pick the specific claims you want AI to cite: pricing, key features, metrics. 'We reduce churn by 25%' needs to appear on your site, in case studies, in reviews, in press coverage.
High ImpactLow Effort1 hour
Use the 70/30 wording rule
70% consistent core claim, 30% natural variation. 'Reduces MTTD by 67%' / 'Cuts mean detection time by over 60%' / '67% faster threat detection.' Same fact, natural phrasing.
High ImpactLow EffortOngoing
Build reviews with specific claim language
Ask customers to mention specific metrics in G2/Capterra reviews. 'Reduced our detection time significantly' is weak. 'Our MTTD dropped from 45 minutes to 15 minutes' reinforces consensus.
High ImpactMedium EffortOngoing
4Trust Hub Discovery
Run 30-50 commercial queries through ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity
Ask 'best [your category] for [use case]' variations. Track which sources get cited in responses. Build a spreadsheet: Source | Times Cited | Query Type. The domains that appear 5+ times are YOUR Trust Hub.
High ImpactLow Effort2-3 hours
Identify the 10-15 domains AI trusts for your niche
Trust Hubs are field-specific. For cybersecurity: Dark Reading, NIST, vendor comparison sites. For DevTools: GitHub, Stack Overflow. For SaaS: G2, industry analysts. Generic lists don't work.
High ImpactLow Effort1-2 hours
Get mentioned on pages AI already cites for your target queries
Find the specific articles AI cites. Reach out to add your product to their comparison. Much faster than creating new ranking content. If G2's comparison page gets cited, get a better G2 profile.
High ImpactMedium Effort2-4 weeks
💡 Growth Hack
"Best X" Page Infiltration
Find the pages AI already cites for "best [your category]" queries. Contact the authors and offer: updated information, exclusive data, or expert quotes. Getting added to a page AI already trusts is 10x faster than ranking a new page.
Use Ahrefs or similar to find who links to these pages. The same outreach gets you backlinks AND AI visibility.
Trust Hub Discovery Tool
Find the sources AI trusts for YOUR industry
Select your industry category:
Select an industry to see trust hubs
Based on citation analysis across 500+ AI responses
Avoid Detection
AI systems are getting better at detecting artificial patterns. Red flags include: identical phrasing across 10+ sources, sudden burst of mentions in 7 days, linked network of referencing sites, and marketing language in technical contexts.
Build naturally. Use unconnected sources. Vary your wording. Let real users create organic mentions alongside your strategic placements.
3
Content Architecture
Structure that makes your content citable
Once AI trusts you (authority) and multiple sources confirm your claims (consensus), content structure determines whether you get quoted. AI extracts information in chunks. Your job: make those chunks quotable. Our 15 content strategies guide dives deeper into extraction-ready formats.
5Answer Blocks
Add 40-50 word Answer Blocks at the start of each H2 section
The first 1-2 sentences after each H2 should directly answer the question implied by the heading. Include your brand name and one specific number. This is what AI extracts and quotes.
High ImpactLow Effort1-2 hours per page
Place key claims within first 250-300 tokens of each section
AI systems chunk content. Your important claims need to be at the start of chunks, not buried in paragraph three. Front-load value, context later.
Medium ImpactLow Effort30 min per page
Answer Block Structure
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6Structured Data
Add comparison tables with specific values
Prose gets summarized and paraphrased. Tables get quoted directly. Include: pricing tiers, feature comparisons, spec sheets. AI extracts table data more accurately than paragraph claims.
High ImpactLow Effort1-2 hours per page
Create FAQ sections with 5-7 questions per key page
FAQs match exactly how people ask AI questions. 'What is the best SIEM for startups?' on your page = perfect retrieval match when someone asks that query. Write questions in first-person conversational style.
High ImpactLow Effort1 hour per page
Include 'When NOT to choose us' sections
Counter-intuitive but powerful. 'Don't choose Acme if you need...' builds credibility. AI sees balanced content as more trustworthy. And you capture queries from people eliminating options.
Medium ImpactLow Effort30 min per page
💡 Growth Hack
Answer Block A/B Testing
Write 3 different Answer Block variations for your key pages. Track which phrasing gets cited more often in monthly AI audits. Over 3-4 months, you'll discover what language AI prefers for your category.
Example test: "Acme reduces MTTD by 67%" vs "Teams cut threat detection time by two-thirds with Acme" vs "Enterprise security teams using Acme detect threats 67% faster." Same fact, different structures.
7Content Strategy Recommendations
Create "[You] vs [Competitor]" comparison pages for top 5-10 competitors
High-intent query pattern. If you don't write this comparison, someone else will. Be honest. Include a table. Acknowledge where competitors are stronger. Credibility beats sales pitch.
High ImpactMedium Effort2-3 days per page
Build "Best [Category] for [Specific Use Case]" pages
You won't win 'best SIEM' but you can win 'best SIEM for startups under 50 employees.' Niche positioning pages capture specific buyer queries and face less competition.
High ImpactMedium Effort1-2 days per page
Stack proof on single pages: testimonials + case studies + data
AI wants to cite one authoritative source. If it has to piece together proof from five URLs, it might cite a competitor who consolidated everything. Put testimonials, case study snippets, and key metrics on the same page.
Medium ImpactMedium Effort4-6 hours
4
Technical Foundation
The infrastructure that lets AI find and read you
Authority, consensus, and content structure mean nothing if AI can't crawl your site. These technical items are prerequisites.
8AI Crawler Access
Verify robots.txt allows AI crawlers
Check that GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Anthropic-AI are not blocked. Many sites accidentally block these thinking they're spam. Explicitly allow them in your robots.txt.
Cloudflare recently added AI bot blocking settings, often enabled by default. Go to Security → Bots and verify AI crawlers aren't being challenged or blocked. This is a common hidden problem.
High ImpactLow Effort5 minutes
💡 Growth Hack
Cloudflare AI Access Audit
This is the fastest win on this entire list. Log into Cloudflare, check your bot settings. If AI crawlers are blocked, fixing it takes 2 minutes and immediately improves your visibility in Perplexity and other real-time AI search.
We've found this blocking issue in 40%+ of sites we audit.
9llms.txt and LLM Sitemap
Create an llms.txt file at your domain root
Tells AI systems who you are and what content matters. Include: company description, key value props with specific numbers, and curated links to your most important pages.
Medium ImpactLow Effort1-2 hours
# Acme Security
> AI-powered threat detection for enterprise teams
Acme reduces mean time to detect (MTTD) by 67% through
automated log analysis. We serve 500+ enterprise security
teams processing 10B+ events daily.
## Key Resources
- [Product Overview](/product): How Acme works
- [Pricing](/pricing): Plans from $299/mo
- [Case Studies](/customers): Customer results
- [Documentation](/docs): Technical guides
Create an LLM Sitemap page for content-heavy sites
For sites with 50+ pages: create a semantic sitemap page that explains your content structure. Include pillar-cluster relationships, section FAQs, and query-matching descriptions.
Medium ImpactMedium Effort4-8 hours
Schema Markup Priority
*Citation impact based on testing across 100+ pages*
Schema Type
Citation Improvement
Priority
Use On
FAQPage
+52%
Critical
Any page with Q&A content
HowTo
+47%
Critical
Tutorial and guide pages
Organization
+38%
High
Homepage, About page
Person (with sameAs)
+31%
High
Author pages, team bios
Article
+22%
Medium
Blog posts, guides
Product
+19%
Medium
Product pages
12Site Health Foundations
These items address general SEO health but directly impact AI visibility. For international B2B SaaS, these matter more than local SEO signals.
Implement hreflang for multi-language sites
If you have English, French, and German pages without proper hreflang, AI might cite the wrong language version or mix currencies in responses. Hreflang prevents this cross-contamination.
High ImpactMedium Effort2-4 hours
Test JavaScript rendering for AI crawlers
Many SaaS marketing sites use React, Vue, or heavy JavaScript. AI crawlers often skip JavaScript execution. Test your key pages with a 'Disable JavaScript' browser extension. If content disappears, AI bots likely can't read it.
High ImpactLow Effort30 minutes
Implement Server-Side Rendering (SSR) or Dynamic Rendering
If JavaScript test fails, implement SSR (Next.js, Nuxt) or dynamic rendering that serves pre-rendered HTML to bots. This ensures AI crawlers see your content, not a blank page.
High ImpactHigh Effort1-2 weeks
Audit Help Center / Documentation for orphan pages
Your documentation is the primary source of 'truth' for technical AI queries. But Help Centers are often poorly linked with broken redirects. Find pages with no internal links. Add breadcrumbs and 'Related Articles' modules.
High ImpactMedium Effort4-8 hours
Block app/login paths in robots.txt
SaaS apps often accidentally let bots crawl login pages (/app, /login, /dashboard), wasting crawl budget on locked content. Explicitly block app subdomains and login paths.
Medium ImpactLow Effort15 minutes
# Block app and login paths
User-agent: *
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /login/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /account/
# Or block entire app subdomain
User-agent: *
Disallow: / # on app.yoursaas.com robots.txt
Create clean XML sitemap with only indexable pages
Remove noindexed pages, redirects, and login URLs from your sitemap. Include only pages you want AI to read: marketing pages, documentation, blog posts. A clean sitemap improves signal-to-noise ratio for crawlers.
Medium ImpactLow Effort1-2 hours
Use geo-distributed CDN for international content
CDNs improve crawl speed and reliability for global AI systems. Cloudflare, Fastly, or AWS CloudFront ensure your content loads quickly for crawlers regardless of their geographic location.
Low ImpactMedium Effort2-4 hours
Fix 404s in documentation and Help Center
Broken links in documentation create dead ends for AI crawlers. Use Screaming Frog or Ahrefs Site Audit to find 404s. Either restore content, redirect properly, or remove broken links.
Medium ImpactMedium Effort2-4 hours
SaaS Site Health Priority
For international B2B SaaS, prioritize in this order: (1) JavaScript rendering test, (2) robots.txt cleanup, (3) documentation audit, (4) hreflang implementation. Local SEO signals like Google Maps and NAP consistency are irrelevant for your market.
AI systems weight "organic" community mentions differently than marketing content. Reddit threads, Stack Overflow answers, and community discussions feed into AI's understanding of your product. Our Reddit marketing guide covers community strategy in depth.
13Reddit Strategy
Identify 10-15 subreddits where your customers discuss problems you solve
Map communities by specificity: r/sysadmin, r/devops, r/cybersecurity. Include niche ones, not just obvious choices. Read each community's rules completely before participating.
High ImpactLow Effort2-3 hours
Build account credibility: 2-3 months of helpful comments before any self-promotion
Reddit detects and punishes promotional accounts. Spend months being genuinely helpful first. Answer questions. Share expertise. Zero self-promotion. Build karma. Then, occasionally, mention your product when truly relevant.
High ImpactHigh Effort2-3 months
Find Reddit threads that rank on Google page 1, add helpful comments
Use Ahrefs or Google to find Reddit threads ranking for your keywords. If threads aren't locked, add genuinely helpful comments. AI reads full threads including comments. No link needed, just value.
High ImpactMedium EffortOngoing
Reddit Will Destroy You If You Game It
Link drops and obvious marketing get downvoted to oblivion. Coordinated voting gets accounts banned. Domain blacklisting affects all future mentions. Build naturally. Be genuinely helpful. The short-term gains aren't worth the long-term risks.
14Developer Platforms (for DevTools)
Optimize GitHub README for AI retrieval
For developer tools: your README content gets heavily weighted in AI responses. Include clear problem statement, specific use cases, and comparison to alternatives. Think of it as a landing page AI reads.
High ImpactLow Effort2-4 hours
Answer Stack Overflow questions in your domain
Stack Overflow answers become AI training data. Find questions where your tool is a legitimate solution. Provide helpful, complete answers. Mention your tool naturally when relevant, not forced.
Medium ImpactMedium EffortOngoing
Contribute to relevant Discord/Slack communities
Developer communities on Discord often surface in AI training data through web-accessible archives. Join relevant servers, contribute genuinely, and let product mentions happen organically.
Medium ImpactMedium EffortOngoing
💡 Growth Hack
YouTube Description Keywords
YouTube video descriptions feed AI knowledge graphs. When you create video content, include detailed text descriptions with key product claims, use cases, and positioning. Even if the video doesn't rank, the description text becomes retrievable.
This also works for podcast episode descriptions on hosting platforms.
15Review Platforms
Maintain 50+ reviews on G2 and GetApp with 4.5+ rating
Review platforms are heavily cited by AI for 'best X' queries. Volume and rating both matter. Systematically ask satisfied customers for reviews. Respond to negative reviews professionally.
High ImpactHigh Effort6-12 months
Ensure review profiles match your entity information exactly
Company name, description, and category on G2 should match your website exactly. Inconsistency fragments your entity. Claim and fully complete all review platform profiles.
Medium ImpactLow Effort2-3 hours
6
Measurement
Track citation rates and iteration
You can't improve what you don't measure. AI visibility requires new metrics beyond traditional SEO. See our AI SEO tools guide for tooling recommendations.
16Citation Tracking
Run monthly 50-query audits across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity
Track: Are you mentioned? How often? In what context? Which competitors appear instead? Document changes over time to see if your work is moving the needle.
High ImpactLow EffortMonthly
Monitor hallucinations: Is AI saying incorrect things about you?
AI sometimes invents pricing, features, or positioning. Systematic hallucination monitoring catches these early. Document incorrect claims and trace them to source issues.
High ImpactLow EffortMonthly
*Based on typical results across 50+ B2B companies*
Platform
First Results
Why
Perplexity
2-4 weeks
Real-time web search, SEO-driven
Google AI Overviews
4-8 weeks
Tied to search index, faster updates
Claude
60-120 days
Periodic training updates
ChatGPT
60-180 days
Periodic training, larger model
Pipeline impact
4-6 months
Visibility → consideration → demo
What Should You Fix First?
With 51 items on this checklist, prioritization matters. Select your biggest current gap to get a focused action plan.
Priority Calculator
Select your biggest gap to get a customized action plan
Prioritized by impact-to-effort ratio
The Bottom Line
Start with authority, not optimization. Entity consistency and PR coverage matter more than schema markup. Build consensus across 5+ sources. Structure content for extraction.
The window is closing. Companies building presence now shape what AI says about their category for years. The ones who wait will find themselves invisible in conversations that matter.
Pick 5 items from this list. Implement them this month. Measure citation rates before and after. The data will tell you what to prioritize next.
Helping SaaS companies and developer tools get cited in AI answers since before it was called "GEO." 10+ years in B2B SEO, 50+ cybersecurity and SaaS tools clients.
