Being cited by AI starts with plumbing. If crawlers are blocked or your content only appears after JavaScript runs, nothing else on this list matters. These are the nine readiness checks we score in every AEO Armory audit.
Access: can AI read the page?
- AI crawler access: robots.txt allows the AI search bots, there is a sitemap, and ideally an llms.txt.
- Readable without JavaScript: the main content is in the HTML, not only rendered in the browser.
- Response speed: pages answer quickly; slow pages get skipped.
Content: is there something worth quoting?
- Answer-ready formatting: clear headings and short, direct answers near the top.
- Questions answered: real customer questions with direct answers, often as an FAQ.
- Facts and sources: specific numbers, dates and named sources rather than general claims.
- Plain-English readability: short sentences AI can lift into an answer.
Want to see your own results?
AEO Armory runs the full audit free: real ChatGPT and Google AI Mode answers, 9 readiness checks and a prioritized fix list.
Run your free AEO audit →Trust: should AI believe it?
- Structured data: Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQPage and other schema that describes who you are.
- Trust and sharing signals: contact details, about information and social profiles that confirm you are real.
Run all nine on your own site in a free AEO Armory audit. The robots.txt tester and llms.txt generator in its dashboard fix the most common access problems in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if my site is ready to be cited by AI?
Check crawler access, JavaScript rendering, speed, answer-ready content, FAQs, facts and sources, readability, schema and trust signals. A free AEO audit scores all nine.
Does blocking GPTBot stop ChatGPT citing me?
GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler. ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot, so check both rules in your robots.txt.
Sully has built search-driven growth for businesses across more than 20 industries and was an early practitioner of AI search visibility, helping clients get cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity before most agencies were paying attention. Sully reviews the strategy behind every SEOArmy article. More about Sully →
