AI Visibility Checklist: 12 Fixes So AI Assistants Can Cite You

This checklist turns what AI assistants need into twelve concrete fixes. Work through it in order: there is no point polishing answers that assistants cannot read.

Access: Let Assistants Read You

1. 01Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt.Check that you are not blocking the agents assistants use to find and read pages, such as OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot (OpenAI), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), ClaudeBot (Anthropic) and the Google-Extended token, which controls whether Google’s Gemini may use your content. Blocking them may have been a deliberate choice; make sure it still is.
2. 02Put your content in the HTML.If your text only appears after JavaScript runs, some crawlers will see an empty page. View the page source: the important text should be there.
3. 03Keep your sitemap complete and current.List every page you want to be found, and remove the ones that no longer exist.

Identity: Say Clearly Who You Are

4. 04Write a real About page.In plain words: what you do, for which customers, in which regions, since when, with what credentials. Assistants use it to understand and describe your business.
5. 05Add Organization structured data.A schema.org Organization block with your name, logo, address, contact and profiles removes ambiguity about who you are.
6. 06Use one name, everywhere.The same company name, address and description on your site, in directories and on your profiles help assistants connect the dots.

Answers: Give Assistants Something to Quote

7. 07One page per buyer question that matters.List the questions buyers ask before choosing a supplier like you, and make sure each important one has a page that answers it.
8. 08Answer first, then explain.Open with a short, direct answer under a heading that matches the question. Details, context and sales arguments come after.
9. 09Show proof.Prices or ranges, lead times, minimum orders, certifications, capacities, case studies with figures. Concrete facts are what assistants repeat.
10. 10Structure with questions.FAQ sections and question-shaped headings make answers easy to find and extract. Keep each answer self-contained.

Authority and Freshness

11. 11Be present where assistants look.Industry directories, comparison articles, review sites, trade press and partner pages are frequent sources. Check that you are listed and described accurately.
12. 12Date and update your content.Show when key pages were last updated, refresh prices and certifications, and remove outdated years from titles.

Bonus: llms.txt

An llms.txt file at the root of your site summarises who you are and points to your key pages in plain text. It is an emerging convention, not a standard that every assistant reads, so treat it as a low-cost extra, never as a substitute for the twelve points above.

Measure Before and After

Fixes only count if they change the answers. Note which questions you are missing today, make the changes, then check the same questions over the following weeks, on several engines and with repeated answers. Expect weeks rather than days: assistants need to recrawl your pages, and answers vary from run to run.

To understand why these points matter, read how AI assistants choose which businesses to recommend.