IMVASA

Get cited by AI

A step by step plan to make your pages easy for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other answer engines to find, understand and cite.

Before you start

Read How AI search works for the background. This playbook turns it into actions, in the order that matters.

Step 1: make sure AI engines can read you

Open AI visibility. Under AI crawler access, check that the crawlers of the engines you want to appear in are allowed: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and Bing's crawler for Copilot. If any are blocked, edit your robots.txt with the robots.txt generator.

You can still block crawlers that only collect training data, such as GPTBot, if you prefer. That choice does not remove you from ChatGPT's search answers.

Step 2: add an llms.txt

Create one with the llms.txt generator: a one-paragraph summary of who you are, then links to your most important pages with a short description each. Upload it to /llms.txt.

Step 3: fix what the audit flags in AI / GEO

Run the site audit on your key pages and open the AI / GEO category. The usual fixes:

  • Answer first. Start each section with a direct one or two sentence answer.
  • Make passages stand alone. A reader, or an engine, should understand a section without the rest of the page.
  • Name things clearly. Your company, product, location and prices, in plain text.
  • Add evidence. Specific numbers, dates, sources and named authors.
  • Add structured data that matches the page.

Step 4: find the questions that matter

Open AI Search Mentions and look at Prompts. You see the questions whose AI answers mention you, with the other brands named. Then run the same for one or two competitors. The questions where competitors are mentioned and you are not are your target list.

Step 5: write for those questions

For each target question, make sure one of your pages answers it directly:

  1. Use the question, or close to it, as a heading.
  2. Answer it in the first two sentences, with a specific fact where you can.
  3. Follow with the detail, steps or comparison a person would need.
  4. Keep the page up to date and show the date.

Tip: Honest comparisons get cited. A page that fairly compares your product with alternatives, including where others are better, is exactly what answer engines look for when someone asks "which should I choose?"

Step 6: strengthen pages AI already trusts

Under Cited pages, you see which of your pages AI answers already cite. Keep them accurate, expand them where competitors go deeper, and link from them to related pages you want to grow.

Step 7: be talked about beyond your site

Answer engines learn about brands from the whole web. Reviews on trusted sites, mentions in comparison articles, useful answers on forums, and press coverage all make you more likely to be named. The backlink tools help here too: link intersect shows where competitors are featured and you are not.

Step 8: measure monthly

Track share of voice against the same competitors every month. It moves slowly: expect changes over months, not days. Also watch mentions and cited pages grow.

Cost

A first pass uses about 18 credits: AI visibility, mentions, cited pages and share of voice once each. Competitor mention checks add about 6 each.