The 2026 GEO Checklist: 20 Things You Can Verify Today

Where do you start with GEO? Which items matter most, and in what order? This 20-item checklist is a practical guide — brief, actionable elements you can start on today. It's not an exhaustive inventory, but that 80 percent that delivers 80 percent of the results.

Technical Foundations (Items 1–5)

These are the quick wins. Most can be done in a day. First: verify you have a robots.txt at your site root and that it allows AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) access. Second: create or refresh your sitemap.xml, ensuring all main pages are included. Third: implement schema.org JSON-LD — at minimum Article schema for blog posts and FAQPage schema for FAQs. Fourth: place an llms.txt at your domain root (optional but recommended). Fifth: ensure your site loads fast — PageSpeed score of 70+ (mobile).

Content (Items 6–12)

Six: pick 10–20 key queries in your industry and verify your site has thematic content for them. Seven: write (or refresh) your main articles so the opening paragraph provides direct answers to your questions — not just introduction, but answer. Eight: structure well — use H2/H3 sections, lists, and keep paragraphs tight. Nine: add FAQ sections to your top-level pages (ask: "Why this?" and "How does it work?"). Ten: date every article, and refresh still-relevant pieces with updated last-edited dates. Eleven: ensure every image has alt text describing its content. Twelve: audit integrations (Stripe, booking, CRM) on your site — ensure they don't block AI crawlers from retrieving information.

Authority (Items 13–17)

Thirteen: audit your backlink profile — do you have relevant, on-topic links pointing to your pages? Fourteen: check your LinkedIn profile and industry directories (professional registries, credential databases) — are there external places where clients cite or list you? Fifteen: author perspective — do you have an author photo, short bio, and connection to pages written? Sixteen: authority signals — do you have professional, agency, or media mentions? Seventeen: Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR) from a third party (Moz, Ahrefs) — what's your general level? Lower DA sites struggle to appear in AI; if DA < 20, items 13–16 will need more effort.

Measurement (Items 18–20)

Eighteen: set up baseline measurement — choose 50–100 relevant queries and manually verify whether your pages appear in AI answers today. Record the results. Nineteen: set targets — aim for a 15–20% citation rate within 3 months (varies by industry). Twenty: run monthly reports (or automated checks) — repeat measurement each month and track progress.

That's the 20 items. You don't need to finish them in a day, but technical foundations (1–5) can be done immediately. Content (6–12) can start a week or two later; authority (13–17) is a longer perspective. Measurement (18–20) should always be in place — establish your baseline from the start.