The AI Visibility Checklist: 15 Things to Fix Before Your Next Audit
This is the condensed, practical version of everything covered across this blog — 15 concrete items, grouped by category, that collectively determine whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can read, trust, and recommend your website.
Access (fix these first — everything else depends on them)
- robots.txt does not block GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, anthropic-ai, Claude-Web, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, or Perplexity-User
- No page carries an unintentional <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag
- No unintentional X-Robots-Tag HTTP header blocking indexing
- Consider adding an llms.txt file with a short, curated summary of your site
Content structure
- Important pages state a direct answer within the first sentence or two after each heading
- Headings are phrased as real questions where relevant ("How much does X cost?", not "Pricing Information")
- Each core topic is covered thoroughly, including obvious follow-up questions, not just the first layer
- Writing uses short sentences and everyday words over jargon
Trust
- A real About page exists and is linked from the main navigation
- A working Contact page or contact details are visible
- Author names are visible on content, not just an anonymous byline
Structured data
- Organization and WebSite JSON-LD present sitewide
- Article/FAQPage/Product/LocalBusiness schema added on the relevant page types
Freshness and technical basics
- A visible, accurate "last updated" date on time-sensitive pages
- Page loads in under roughly 1.5 seconds and returns a clean HTTP 200 status
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to fix most of this?
The access items (robots.txt, meta robots) are usually a five-minute fix once identified. Structured data and trust-page items are typically a few hours of work. Content restructuring — rewriting pages to answer directly — is the most time-consuming, but also usually the highest-impact item on the list.
Is there a faster way to see which of these 15 items my site is failing?
Yes — this checklist is exactly what RankLLM's free scan checks automatically, reporting back in plain English which items pass, which need work, and which platform each fix helps most.