GEO Checklist — Technical AI Search Readiness
A technical checklist for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): the signals AI crawlers and answer engines use to understand and cite your brand.
Last updated: May 18, 2026
What is GEO?
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of making your website technically and structurally ready for AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and similar tools — to discover, understand, and cite your brand. GEO complements traditional SEO and content strategy.
Scoring model
BrandCitation's technical GEO audit scores readiness from 0–100 based on the checks below. This is the same model we run for every paid audit client.
| Check | Weight | Action |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt present | 5 pts | Create /robots.txt so crawlers know what to access. |
| AI bots allowed | 15 pts | Do not block GPTBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, or similar agents with Disallow: /. |
| sitemap.xml present | 10 pts | Submit a sitemap so search and AI crawlers discover all key pages. |
| /llms.txt present | 25 pts | Add a machine-readable summary of your site for AI crawlers — highest-impact GEO signal. |
| Page title | 10 pts | Every page needs a unique, descriptive <title> tag. |
| Meta description | 10 pts | Write unique descriptions for each important URL. |
| Canonical URL | 5 pts | Set rel=canonical to prevent duplicate content confusion. |
| Open Graph tags | 10 pts | Include og:title, og:description, og:image for social and AI previews. |
| Schema.org JSON-LD | 10 pts | Add Organization, WebSite, FAQPage, or Article structured data. |
AI crawlers to allow
Unless you have a specific legal reason to block AI training crawlers, allow these user-agents in robots.txt:
GPTBotChatGPT-UserGoogle-Extendedanthropic-aiClaude-WebClaudeBotPerplexityBotYouBotcohere-ai
Read our guide: Which AI bots to allow in robots.txt
/llms.txt template
The highest-weight check (25 points). Create /llms.txt at your domain root:
# Your Brand Name > One-line description of what your company does. ## Product - [Page Title](https://yoursite.com/page): Short description ## Docs - [Documentation](https://yoursite.com/docs): API and guides
Full walkthrough: How to write an llms.txt file
Audit your site
Order a $149 AI visibility audit to get a full technical GEO checklist for your domain plus prompt-level visibility scores, or run a free scan to start.