Another GEO Checklist for Marketers: 5 Steps to Prepare Your Content for AI Search

Yep, here I am, another “expert” hopping on the magical bus that is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Like you, I didn’t want to believe it either, but GEO is here and it’s time to go beyond theory and try to put it into practice (see our earlier article about three GEO things to do first.)

But keep your head on a swivel and be diligent – GEO is still an emerging space, and there’s no shortage of experiments and educated guesses out there. So while the landscape is still taking shape, we found a few foundational tactics that are beginning to prove their value. In this article, we’ll focus on five things you (or your SEO/GEO agency) can do now to make your website content more discoverable, relevant, and [hopefully] AI-ready.

Optimize Accessibility for AI Crawlers

Can AI bots find your content? Yes? No? Maybe? If you aren’t sure, let’s first make sure it’s crawlable by AI bots, because even the most advanced AI models can’t use what they can’t read.

• Review your robots.txt file to confirm you’re not blocking common AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Bing’s GPT-4 bot, or PerplexityBot. You can often find your robots.txt file by typing in your website address followed by /robots.txt.
• Keep your XML sitemap current. Ask your web team if you aren’t sure where your XML sitemap is located, and if they don’t know, hire a new team.
• Regularly fix broken links or redirects that could prevent crawlers from reaching key sections. Use regular SEO audit tools or Google Search Console to find them.
• Experiment with emerging llm.txt files – a new way to guild how AI models crawl and cite your site.

A simple quarterly crawl audit (via tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs) can help keep your site open and healthy for both search and AI systems.

Speak the Language of AI

If you’re reading about GEO at all, you’ve undoubtedly bumped into “schema” more than a few times. What is Schema? Schema markup provides the context that AI models crave – or so we’re told. Tools like YoastSEO and RankMath can help you automatically add schema to pages where appropriate, however you may need to cough up a few bucks for the premium version to really fine-tune it to your pages.

That said, we do recommend you add or update structured data on your most important pages:

• Organization and Person schema to clarify who’s behind your brand.
• Article and FAQ schema for blogs and resource pages.
• Breadcrumb and HowTo scheme where relevant.

When you’re done, use Google’s Rich Results to test it’s been done right. This kind of structured data helps your content appear trustworthy and clearly defined, a key signal for AI citation.

Structure Content for Summarization

Many GEO strategies are not all that different from your SEO ones. It’s why we truly believe that GEO is additive to your SEO strategy – so don’t listen to your CEO telling you to “stop spending on SEO, because it’s all about AI now.” Focus on concise, factual, and credible content, remembering to write for people, but structure for machines.

• Review high-traffic or high-value pages for completeness: do they fully answer the user’s core question?
• Include short summaries or “TL;DR” sections for easier extraction.
• Reference credible sources directly in-text (with outbound links).
• Apply E-E-A-T principles: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness.

A GEO purist will tell you that if AI models were to summarize your page, could they find everything they need? That’s your bar. As a human, you know that isn’t always what will resonate most with your site visitors. So we need to find a balance using creative page layouts (FAQs at bottom) or AI specific directory pages.

Track Citation in Generative Search

AI doesn’t ask permission. Your content may already be appearing inside AI answers, with or without attribution. So unless you’re paying an agency to drop your name all over subreddit, staying on top of your brand’s presence in AI search gets more difficult (and equally important). Here are a few ways to keep an eye out for your brand.

• Periodically search your topics in ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, and Perplexity. See how your brand or insights appear (or don’t).
• Track brand mentions or citations within generative answers.
• Identify opportunities where competitors are cited instead of you, then update or expand your content to fill those topical and factual gaps.

If you aren’t being mentioned, study the results that are. If AI engines aren’t using your expertise, you should know, and try to shape the narrative.

Build an AI-Assisted Content and QA Workflow

Huh? Yeah, I know this one sounds a bit more complicated that you’d like, but AI tools can really speed up content ideation and creation. However, it’s human review (you know, those employees you hire) that keeps your content believable and on-brand. So scale up, but be smart about.

• Build simple internal workflows that pair AI-generated drafts with expert review before publishing.
• Create a prompt library or content template system so your team’s outputs stay consistent and GEO-optimized.
• Regularly audit meta titles, image alt text, and on-page structure for clarity.

Remember, the goal isn’t automation to check a box among your peers, it’s using modern tools to make your team more efficient, and your content more visible.

Keep Evolving – GEO Has No Clear Solution, Yet

Recently, a blogger asked five LLMs for the best hamburger joint. Not surprisingly, they didn’t agree. The lesson? Feed the same prompt into five different LLMs and you’ll get five different answers. And until LLM start providing their own reporting, there’s no clear path to GEO optimization. What works today may not tomorrow, but as an early adopter – one that plans and intelligently implements – you might just be at an advantage.

So start small, measure often, and refine as you go – don’t forget to breathe, you’re ahead of the game.