Optimize for AI search (GEO)

AI assistants answer questions by searching the web, reading a handful of pages and citing some of them. Generative engine optimization (GEO) means making your site easy for them to reach, read and trust. Most of it is good SEO done thoroughly, plus a few AI-specific settings.

This checklist walks through each step in RankKit SEO. Nothing here guarantees a mention, because no one controls what an AI model says, but each step removes a reason to skip your site.

Start with the audit

Go to RankKit SEO → Site Audit and run the audit. The AI search category flags the settings below, each with a one-click fix or a link to the right setting:

• AI search crawlers are blocked
• llms.txt is off
• Markdown versions of pages are off
• No social profiles in your Organization schema

The Indexing category also flags IndexNow is off. See Run a site audit and fix issues.

1. Let AI search crawlers in

An assistant can only cite pages its crawler is allowed to fetch.

1. Go to RankKit SEO → Settings → Robots & AI crawlers.
2. In AI crawlers, keep the search and user bots Allowed: OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (ChatGPT), Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User (Claude), PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User (Perplexity).
3. Decide on training bots separately. Blocking GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and similar training bots keeps your content out of model training, but doesn't remove you from AI search answers.
4. Click Save changes.

RankKit SEO writes these rules into the virtual robots.txt. If your site has a physical robots.txt file, it overrides RankKit SEO's rules. A CDN or security plugin that blocks bots can also stop AI crawlers before they reach WordPress, so check its settings too.

Details: Control and track AI crawlers and Edit robots.txt.

2. Publish llms.txt and Markdown pages

/llms.txt is a Markdown index of your key pages for AI agents and tools, and every page can be served as clean Markdown at its URL plus .md. Agents read your words instead of your theme's menus and scripts.

1. Go to RankKit SEO → Settings → llms.txt. llms.txt and Markdown pages are both on by default.
2. Write an Introduction: one or two sentences on what the site is about.
3. Under Include, pick the content types that matter (Pages and Posts by default).
4. On the Markdown tab, keep Serve Markdown versions on.

Google has said llms.txt doesn't affect Google Search; it's for AI agents and tools. Pretty permalinks must be on for these URLs to work. With RankKit SEO Pro you can also publish /llms-full.txt with the full text of your key pages, and add an AI usage policy. See llms.txt and Markdown pages for AI.

3. Make your structured data complete

Schema tells machines exactly what a page is about: the article, its author and dates, the product and its price, the questions it answers. RankKit SEO outputs it automatically.

• Check that Schema is on in the Dashboard's Modules card (it is by default).
• Pick the right page type for important pages in the Schema section of the editor's RankKit SEO panel, for example Product or About page, and click Generate Schema.
• Add specific items such as Review, Recipe, Event or Course in the same section, under Rich result. See Add and edit schema on a page.

See How RankKit SEO's schema works and Add and edit schema on a page.

4. Tell AI who you are: Organization and sameAs

Assistants recommend brands they can identify. Your Organization (or Person) schema, with its sameAs links to your profiles elsewhere, connects your site to your brand's presence across the web: reviews, social profiles, directories and Wikipedia.

1. Go to RankKit SEO → Settings → Identity.
2. Under Who runs this site, choose Organization or Person, and enter the Name exactly as people write your brand.
3. Add a Logo (square, at least 112 × 112 px).
4. In Social profiles, add one URL per line: LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Wikipedia and any other profile you own. Your Facebook page and X profile from Settings → Social are added automatically.
5. Click Save changes.

For a local business, also fill in Local SEO. See Site identity: organization or person.

5. Get new content indexed quickly with IndexNow

AI search tools rely on search indexes, and Bing's index powers Microsoft Copilot. IndexNow tells Bing, Yandex, Naver and Seznam about new and updated pages within minutes instead of waiting for a crawl.

1. On the RankKit SEO Dashboard, turn on IndexNow in the Modules card. It's off by default.
2. That's it: published and updated posts are submitted automatically. To resubmit older URLs, use the IndexNow card in RankKit SEO → Tools.

Also keep XML sitemaps on and your site verified in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. See IndexNow.

6. Structure content so it can be quoted

Assistants lift short, self-contained passages. Make every important page easy to quote:

• Answer first. Open with a direct one- or two-sentence answer to the main question, then the detail.
• Use clear headings. One H2 or H3 per question or subtopic. The editor's content analysis counts your subheadings.
• Add an FAQ. Use the FAQ (RankKit SEO) block or core Details blocks for the follow-up questions people ask. Both output FAQPage schema. See FAQ, How-to and Table of contents blocks.
• Use How-to steps for processes, and a Table of contents (RankKit SEO) block on long pages.
• Be specific. Numbers, names, prices, dates and your own experience give an assistant something worth citing.
• Cite your sources with outbound links, and link related pages together with internal links.
• Keep it current. Update the facts and dates on pages that matter. Traffic Recovery (Pro) shows which pages are slipping.

The AI writer builds briefs and drafts with this structure, including an optional FAQ section.

7. Measure the results

What to measure	Where	Edition
Which AI bots read your site, and which pages	AI Visibility → AI crawlers: AI crawlers	Free
How often AI bots fetch llms.txt and Markdown pages	llms.txt / Markdown reads on the same tab	Free
Visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and others	Analytics → Traffic & AI referrals: AI referral traffic	Free
Whether an AI assistant mentions and cites you	AI Visibility → AI answers: AI visibility tracking	Pro
WooCommerce revenue from AI assistants	AI Visibility → AI revenue: AI referral revenue	Pro

FAQ

Does optimizing for AI search hurt my Google rankings?

No. Everything on this list (crawlability, structured data, clear content, fast indexing) also helps traditional search.

Should I block AI training bots?

It's a business decision. Blocking training bots keeps your content out of future model training. Keep the search and user bots allowed if you want to appear in AI answers.

How long until AI assistants mention my site?

It varies. Crawlers usually appear within days, but being recommended depends on how well your pages answer the question and how often other sites mention you. Track progress weekly with AI visibility tracking.