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A printable checklist: crawler access, answer-first writing, structured data, third-party evidence and the monthly test.

  • The crawler and robots.txt checks
  • Markup and entity checklist
  • A monthly test you can run in an hour

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How it works

How AI assistants choose what to cite.

When a buyer asks an assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude to recommend a partner or explain a topic, the assistant draws on what it learned in training and, where search is switched on, on pages it retrieves from the web. Pages that state the answer clearly, are easy to crawl, and are backed by other sources are easier to use and cite.

So GEO and SEO share most of their work. The difference is the standard: a page has to answer a question in a form a model can lift, not just rank for a keyword.

The work

Seven things we do.

Step 1

Let the crawlers in

Allow the search and user agents of the main assistants in robots.txt, and check that key pages are not blocked or hidden behind scripts.

Step 2

Answer first

Put a short, direct answer under each question heading, then the detail. Define terms in one sentence.

Step 3

Structured data

Mark up the organisation, services, articles and FAQs, so the page says plainly what it is.

Step 4

A consistent entity

Use the same name, description and facts everywhere: site, directories, partner pages and profiles.

Step 5

Third-party evidence

Earn mentions on sites assistants trust: directories, partners, publications and review sites.

Step 6

Original data

Publish results and numbers only you have, with the method stated. Specific facts are what get quoted.

Step 7

Fresh and attributed

Show dates, authors and sources, and update key pages on a schedule.

Crawler access

Which AI crawlers to allow.

They vary by purpose, so decide per agent. This is a starting list.

AssistantAgents in robots.txtWhat they do
OpenAI (ChatGPT)OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, GPTBotSearch results, user-triggered visits, and training
Anthropic (Claude)Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, ClaudeBotSearch results, user-triggered visits, and training
PerplexityPerplexityBot, Perplexity-UserSearch index, and user-triggered visits
Google (Gemini)Google-ExtendedA control for use of content in Google's AI models
Measurement

How to tell whether it is working.

Keep a fixed list of 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask. Run them in each assistant every month and log whether your firm is mentioned, cited, or absent, and which competitors appear instead. Add referral traffic from the assistants in analytics. Expect movement to be slow and uneven, because answers differ from one run to the next.

What gets cited

Formats that assistants can lift.

From a useful page to a source worth citing.At a glance
YOUR SERVICE PAGEWhat does an SAP migration involve?

A direct answer, supported by experience and evidence.

Clear author · consistent facts · crawlable page
A BUYER ASKS AN ASSISTANT“Who can help us migrate SAP?”
Relevant sources [1] Your service page
An illustrative citation pathway, not a promised AI placement. Assistants independently select and summarise their sources.

Assistants build answers from passages. A passage gets used when it is self-contained, specific and easy to attribute. These formats do well because they package an answer cleanly.

  • A definition in one sentence. Start a page or section with a plain statement of what something is.
  • A direct answer under a question heading. Put the answer first, then the detail.
  • A comparison table. Options, criteria and a verdict, with the rows labelled.
  • A numbered process. Steps in order, each with a short explanation.
  • A short FAQ. Real questions buyers ask, with answers of two or three sentences.
  • Original data. Your own results and numbers, with how you measured them. Specific facts are quoted; vague claims are not.
Structured data

Say plainly what each page is.

Structured data is code that labels your content for machines. For a services company, the useful types are Organization (who you are, with your logo, address and social profiles), Service (what you offer), Article (guides, with author and dates), FAQPage (questions and answers on the page) and BreadcrumbList (where the page sits). Use the sameAs property to link your official profiles, so systems can connect your site to your LinkedIn page and other listings.

Structured data does not guarantee a citation. It removes ambiguity, which makes your pages easier to use. Validate it with Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema.org validator, and make sure the markup matches the visible text on the page.

Crawler access

A starting robots.txt.

Allow the crawlers that serve buyers, and decide separately about those that collect training data. This example allows search and user-triggered agents. Check each vendor's current documentation, because agent names and behaviour change.

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-User
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

Two points are often misunderstood. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on the same index as Google Search, so ordinary SEO and Googlebot access are what matter, and no special markup is required. And Google-Extended is a control for use of your content in Google's AI models; Google states it does not affect inclusion or ranking in Search. Also confirm that your CDN or firewall is not blocking these crawlers by mistake.

Third-party evidence

Be mentioned where assistants look.

Assistants weigh what other sources say about you. For a technology services firm, the useful places are directories and review sites (Clutch, G2 and similar), partner and marketplace listings for the platforms you work with, industry publications, conference and podcast pages, and a complete, consistent LinkedIn profile.

Keep the facts identical everywhere: company name, founding year, services, locations, leadership names and a one-line description. Contradictions across sources lower confidence in all of them. Ask clients and partners to describe you in their own words in public places, because independent mentions carry more weight than your own claims.

Measurement

A monthly test you can run in an hour.

Create a list of 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask, in the form they would type: "best SAP migration partner for a mid-size manufacturer", "how do we measure lead quality in B2B?". Run them in each assistant monthly and log the result.

QuestionAssistantMentioned?Cited?Who appears insteadAction
Best SAP migration partner for manufacturersChatGPTNoNoTwo named competitorsWrite an industry page with proof
What is lead-to-SAL ratio?ClaudeYesYesTwo other agenciesKeep the page fresh

Answers differ from one run to the next, so look at trends across the full list, not single results. Add referral traffic from the assistants in GA4, and ask new leads how they found you.

Expectations

What GEO can and cannot do.

It cannot be guaranteed

Nobody controls what an assistant says. Treat claims of guaranteed placement as a warning sign.

It rewards good SEO

Most of the work, such as clear pages, structure, proof and links, helps ordinary search too.

It moves slowly

Retrieval is quick, but a change in how models describe you can take months and is uneven.

It carries risk if abused

Hidden text, keyword stuffing and fake reviews can harm you in both search and AI systems.

A 90-day plan

Where to start if you have done nothing yet.

Days 1 to 30

Baseline and access

Write your list of 20 to 30 buyer questions and run it in each assistant. Check robots.txt and your firewall for blocked crawlers. Audit your top ten pages for a clear definition and a direct answer. Fix the technical blockers first.

Days 31 to 60

Rewrite and mark up

Rewrite service pages and top articles answer-first. Add FAQs with real questions. Add Organization, Service, Article and FAQ markup. Align your company description across your site, LinkedIn and directories.

Days 61 to 90

Evidence and review

Complete directory and partner profiles. Publish one piece of original data, such as an anonymised result or a survey. Re-run the question list and compare with the baseline. Choose the next ten questions to win.

What to publish

Four page types assistants cite for services firms.

Definition pages

Plain explanations of terms your buyers ask about, such as lead-to-SAL ratio or SAP S/4HANA migration, each starting with a one-sentence definition.

Comparison and decision pages

Options laid out against criteria, for example build versus buy or two platforms, with a clear verdict for each type of buyer.

Process and cost pages

How a project runs, how long it takes and what drives the price. Buyers ask assistants these questions constantly.

Evidence pages

Case studies with numbers, method notes and dates. These are what assistants quote when asked who has done something before.

Free checklist

Take the checklist to your team.

A printable checklist: crawler access, answer-first writing, structured data, third-party evidence and the monthly test.

  • The crawler and robots.txt checks
  • Markup and entity checklist
  • A monthly test you can run in an hour

We use your details only to send you this checklist and to reply if you ask us to. Unsubscribe any time.

Your checklist is ready.

Save it, print it, or send it to your team.

Download the PDF