1. Make sure you’re crawlable
If ChatGPT’s and Perplexity’s crawlers can’t reach your pages, nothing else matters. Confirm your robots.txt doesn’t block AI user agents you want to allow, that key pages return 200 status codes, and that content isn’t hidden behind JavaScript that fails to render.
2. Answer the question in the first two sentences
AI models lift concise answers. Open each page with a direct, quotable answer to the core question, then expand. Bury the answer three paragraphs down and it won’t get pulled.
3. Use question-based headings
Structure pages around the way people actually ask: “What does X cost?”, “How long does Y take?”, “Is Z worth it?” These match the prompts users type and make your content easy to extract.
4. Add structured data
Implement Schema.org markup — Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Article. This tells machines exactly who you are and what each page means, removing guesswork.
5. Lock down your entity consistency
Your business name, address, phone and service list must be identical across your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, and every directory. Conflicting data makes AI systems unsure which “you” to trust.
6. Publish genuinely useful, specific content
Vague content gets ignored. Concrete numbers, named tools, real steps, local details and honest trade-offs are what AI answers quote. Write the page you’d want the AI to read back to a customer.
7. Earn mentions on sources AI already trusts
Get referenced by reputable industry publications, local press, partner sites and quality directories. These citations are strong trust signals — a few good ones beat hundreds of spammy links.
8. Keep a strong Wikipedia-adjacent footprint
You may not qualify for Wikipedia, but the ecosystem around it matters: consistent profiles on well-known platforms, an accurate Google Knowledge Panel, and clear “about” information all reinforce your entity.
9. Update and re-check regularly
AI answers shift as the web changes. Re-run prompts monthly (“Who does X in Cologne?”), note whether you appear, and refresh the pages that should be surfacing but aren’t.
Where to start if you only have an hour
Do steps 2, 3 and 5 first. A crawlable page that answers the question up top, uses clear headings, and matches your entity data everywhere is already ahead of most of your market.
Want us to run these checks and tell you exactly where you stand in AI answers? Book a GEO audit.
