Checklist
The Hirira AEO Checklist: 12 Technical Fixes That Get You Cited Faster
This is the same 12-point technical checklist we run through on every Hirira Snapshot audit, in the order we tackle it. Items 1 through 4 are pure technical setup, usually a few hours of work. Items 5 through 9 are content and structure work. Items 10 through 12 are ongoing, not one-time. Most businesses we've audited are missing at least 8 of these 12.
Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt
If GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot, and the other major AI crawlers aren't explicitly allowed, some AI systems will treat the site as opted out entirely. This is a five-minute fix that's still missing on a surprising number of business websites.
Add an llms.txt file
An emerging, informal standard: a plain-text file at the site root summarizing the business in a format built to be quoted directly by an AI crawler, key facts, services, and a definition of what the business does, written the way you'd want it repeated back.
Add LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService schema
Structured data that removes ambiguity: this is a business, here's its name, its services, its service area, its price range. Without it, an AI model has to infer these facts from unstructured text, and inference introduces errors and omissions.
Add FAQPage schema matching visible content
Every question and answer visible on the page should have a matching FAQPage JSON-LD entry. This is one of the highest-leverage, lowest-effort fixes on this list.
Answer the question in the first two sentences
AI models score passages on how directly they answer a specific query. Move the direct answer to the top of the page. Save the supporting explanation, the why and how, for after.
Expand FAQ coverage to narrow, specific questions
AI models frequently break one broad question into several smaller sub-questions and retrieve each separately. A page with 20 narrow, specific Q&A entries outperforms one with 5 broad ones.
Add a glossary for industry-specific terms
If customers might ask an AI to define a term specific to your industry, a clear, well-marked-up definition (using DefinedTerm schema) gives the model a source to quote directly, and a reason to name your business as that source.
Fix meta descriptions and Open Graph tags
These are some of the first signals a retrieval system reads to decide whether a page is worth opening. Generic or missing descriptions cost visibility before the page content is even evaluated.
Build or update a Google Business Profile
This feeds several AI answer surfaces beyond Google's own products. Accurate hours, categories, and services matter more here than most businesses assume.
Get named on third-party sites
Reviews, local directories, and roundup articles are outside corroboration, and outside corroboration usually matters more to an AI model's citation decision than anything a business says about itself.
Submit the sitemap to Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
Confirms the site is actually being crawled and indexed, which is a precondition for almost every live-retrieval AI answer engine.
Re-test monthly
Citation behavior shifts as models update and competitors publish new content. Ask the same real customer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini every month, and treat any regression as a signal, not a surprise.
Items 1 through 4 are what a Hirira Snapshot establishes as a technical baseline. Items 5 through 12 are what an ongoing retainer maintains, since none of this holds steady on its own.
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