1. Start with a GEO audit to find your baseline
Before making any changes, you need to know your current AI visibility score. A GEO audit identifies which of the 8 criteria are your biggest weaknesses and tells you exactly where to focus first.
GeoLens offers a free GEO audit that scores your site across all 8 criteria in under 60 seconds and produces a prioritised action plan with severity labels (Critical / High / Medium). This is always the right starting point — it prevents wasted effort on low-impact changes.
2. Implement schema markup — especially FAQ and Organization
Structured data is one of the highest-impact GEO improvements available, and it's almost entirely technical rather than content-related. Schema markup makes your content machine-readable for AI engines in a way that plain prose cannot.
The schema types that matter most for GEO:
- FAQPage schema — AI engines frequently cite FAQ content because it is concise, authoritative and directly answerable. Every page should have a FAQ section with FAQPage schema.
- Organization schema — Establishes your brand as a known entity with a clear identity, website, contact details and social profiles.
- Article / BlogPosting schema — Marks up your content as authored, dated and published by a verified organisation.
- Person schema — For author pages and professional profiles, establishing individual expertise.
Implement schema as JSON-LD in the <head> of your pages. Google's Rich Results Test and Schema.org Validator can verify correct implementation.
3. Strengthen E-E-A-T signals across your site
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is the most important GEO signal — weighted at 20% in the GeoLens scoring model. AI engines use E-E-A-T proxies to decide which sources to trust enough to cite.
Practical E-E-A-T improvements:
- Add detailed author bio pages with credentials, publications and external profiles
- Cite sources and external references within your content
- Get cited on authoritative third-party sites (industry publications, news, directories)
- Display trust signals prominently: awards, certifications, client logos, verified reviews
- Ensure your About page clearly states who you are, your expertise and your track record
4. Add an llms.txt file to guide AI crawlers
The llms.txt file is an emerging standard that tells AI systems what your website does, who you are, and which content is most relevant to cite. Think of it as robots.txt — but for AI systems rather than traditional search crawlers.
Place a plain text file at https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt containing:
- A clear description of your business and what you offer
- Your key pages with URLs
- The topics and expertise areas you cover
- Explicit permission for AI systems to cite your content
GeoLens includes llms.txt analysis in every audit — many sites score poorly on this criterion simply because the file doesn't exist or returns a 404 error.
5. Structure content for direct AI citation
AI engines prefer content that directly answers questions — they're not looking for long introductions or buried conclusions. The most citeable content has a clear structure:
- Direct answer first — State the answer in the opening paragraph, before any context or background
- Question-based headings — Use H2 and H3 headings phrased as questions your audience actually asks
- Specific, verifiable facts — Include statistics, named technologies, specific timeframes and concrete outcomes
- Summary paragraphs — Add a brief, citable summary at the top of long pages
- FAQ sections — Add a FAQ at the bottom of every page covering the most common questions in your topic area
6. Allow all AI crawlers in your robots.txt
Many sites inadvertently block AI crawlers with overly restrictive robots.txt rules. Check your robots.txt to ensure the following crawlers are allowed:
- GPTBot — ChatGPT / OpenAI
- ClaudeBot — Claude / Anthropic
- PerplexityBot — Perplexity AI
- GoogleOther — Google AI (Gemini and AI Overviews)
- Bingbot — Bing Copilot
- Google-Extended — Google AI training data
GeoLens audits your crawler access status as part of every audit, showing you which crawlers are allowed, blocked or restricted.
7. Build your brand authority online
AI engines cite brands they recognise. Building brand authority means creating a consistent, verifiable online presence that AI training data can associate with your area of expertise:
- Create and maintain profiles on authoritative platforms relevant to your industry
- Get featured in industry publications, news sites and podcasts
- Build a Wikipedia article if your organisation meets notability criteria
- Maintain consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data across all directories
- Diversify your review sources beyond just Google Reviews
8. Monitor your GEO score as AI models update
AI models are updated frequently — and each update can change which websites get cited and which don't. GEO is not a one-time fix. Monitoring your AI visibility score monthly allows you to catch changes before they impact your traffic and adapt your strategy as the landscape evolves.
- Run a GEO audit to identify your baseline and priorities
- Implement FAQPage, Organization and Article schema markup
- Strengthen E-E-A-T with author pages, external citations and trust signals
- Add an llms.txt file at your domain root
- Structure content with direct answers first and question-based headings
- Allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and GoogleOther in robots.txt
- Build brand authority through third-party mentions and directory listings
- Monitor your GEO score monthly as AI models update