Let the AI search crawlers in
AI engines can only cite pages they're allowed to fetch. Many sites accidentally block them. In your robots.txt, explicitly allow the search/retrieval crawlers that produce citations — OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot and Google-Extended — even if you block the separate training crawlers.
This is the single most common reason a site gets zero AI citations: the content is great, but the bot never gets in.
Make your content machine-readable
Put your core content in server-rendered HTML, not injected by JavaScript after load — many AI crawlers don't run JS. Add JSON-LD structured data so engines can read your facts and entities without guessing, and use a clean H1–H3 heading outline that signals what each section covers.
Structured, well-labeled content is far easier for a model to lift into an answer than a wall of unstructured text.
Write quotable, answer-first content
LLMs prefer content that answers a question in the first sentence, then expands. Lead each section with a crisp, factual statement — a definition, a number, a direct answer — before the supporting detail. Use question-shaped headings that match how people actually ask.
Concrete facts, clear definitions and Q&A formatting are what get pulled into AI answers. Vague, meandering copy rarely gets cited.
Build trust signals AI can see
Engines weight sources they can attribute and trust. Establish your site as a clear entity: a consistent name, an about page, linked social profiles, and mentions on pages the AI already reads (Reddit, industry blogs, tool listicles). Off-site mentions move AI visibility more than any single on-page tweak.
You can check where your site stands today — structured data, crawlability, quotable content and more — with a free GEO score from WebAnalizer.