A Checklist for AI Readyness

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This checklist focuses on the technical implementation of a website to maximize its usefulness to AI search engines, AI assistants, and LLM-powered retrieval systems. Unlike traditional SEO, the emphasis is on making information easily discoverable, understandable, and quotable. In other words AI readyness.

1. Crawlability

□ Allow AI crawlers access

  • Verify robots.txt does not unintentionally block AI crawlers.
  • Review crawler-specific directives.
  • Test accessibility from outside your network.

Verify

  • □ robots.txt returns HTTP 200
  • □ No accidental Disallow rules
  • □ Important content is crawlable

□ Publish an llms.txt file

An llms.txt file should provide a curated table of contents of the site’s most valuable information.

Verify:

  • □ Exists at /llms.txt
  • □ Valid Markdown
  • □ Contains concise summaries
  • □ Links to canonical URLs
  • □ Updated regularly
  • □ Human curated

□ (Optional) Publish llms-full.txt

If appropriate:

  • □ Long-form documentation
  • □ API references
  • □ Product manuals
  • □ Knowledge base articles

2. Information Architecture

□ Create topic clusters

Avoid isolated pages.

Instead create:

Product
 ├── Features
 ├── Documentation
 ├── FAQ
 ├── Tutorials
 ├── Examples
 └── API

Verify:

  • □ Every important page links to related pages
  • □ Hub pages exist
  • □ Deep pages are discoverable

□ Maintain shallow click depth

Important information should ideally be within:

  • 3 clicks from homepage

Verify:

  • □ No orphan pages
  • □ Breadcrumbs enabled
  • □ HTML navigation available

3. Structured Content

□ Use semantic HTML

Prefer

<h1>
<h2>
<h3>

<article>

<section>

<nav>

<aside>

<table>

Avoid excessive div nesting.

□ Use descriptive headings

Good

## WordPress REST API Authentication

## Pricing Plans

## Installation

Poor

## More

## Information

## Details

□ One topic per page

Each page should answer one major question.

Avoid:

  • mixed subjects
  • multiple unrelated products
  • scattered documentation

4. Markdown Availability

LLMs consistently perform well with Markdown.

Verify:

  • □ Markdown version exists
  • □ rel=”alternate” links provided
  • □ Clean heading hierarchy
  • □ Lists preserved
  • □ Tables preserved
  • □ Code blocks preserved

5. Metadata

□ Unique page titles

Avoid duplicates.

□ Useful meta descriptions

Not for rankings—

For summarization.

□ Canonical URLs

Every page should specify:

<link rel="canonical">

□ Open Graph

Provide

  • title
  • description
  • image

Many AI systems ingest Open Graph metadata.

6. Content Quality

□ Answer questions directly

Start pages with:

  • definition
  • explanation
  • answer

Avoid long introductions.

□ Include definitions

Every important concept should have a concise definition.

Example:

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring and curating web content so AI systems can accurately discover, understand, and cite it.

□ Use factual language

Avoid unnecessary marketing language.

Prefer

  • specifications
  • examples
  • documentation
  • facts

□ Include examples

Good pages contain:

  • examples
  • screenshots
  • code
  • tables
  • comparisons

7. Authority Signals

□ Show authorship

Include:

  • author
  • organization
  • publication date
  • update date

□ Cite sources

Whenever possible:

  • standards
  • specifications
  • research
  • documentation

□ Maintain current information

Review pages regularly.

Outdated technical content reduces trust.

8. Internal Linking

Verify:

  • □ Contextual links
  • □ Related articles
  • □ Documentation references
  • □ Product links
  • □ FAQ links

Avoid orphan pages.

9. Performance

□ Fast page load

Target

  • Core Web Vitals
  • HTTP/2 or HTTP/3
  • Compression
  • CDN

□ Minimize JavaScript dependency

Critical content should exist in HTML.

Avoid requiring JavaScript to render primary content.

10. Machine Readability

□ Clean HTML

Avoid

  • malformed markup
  • duplicate IDs
  • deeply nested DOM

□ Consistent URL structure

Example

/docs/
/docs/install/
/docs/api/
/docs/tutorials/

□ Stable URLs

Avoid changing URLs unnecessarily.

Maintain redirects.

11. Images

Verify:

  • □ Descriptive alt text
  • □ Captions
  • □ Relevant filenames

Example

wordpress-llms-plugin-settings.png

instead of

IMG_23884.png

12. Documentation

Technical documentation should include:

  • □ Introduction
  • □ Requirements
  • □ Installation
  • □ Configuration
  • □ Examples
  • □ Troubleshooting
  • □ FAQ

13. APIs

If applicable:

  • □ Endpoint documentation
  • □ Authentication
  • □ Examples
  • □ Error codes
  • □ Rate limits

14. Freshness

Review:

  • documentation
  • pricing
  • screenshots
  • examples
  • API references

Outdated examples are frequently surfaced by LLMs.

15. AI-Friendly Formatting

Prefer:

  • Short paragraphs
  • Bullet lists
  • Numbered steps
  • Comparison tables
  • Clear headings
  • FAQ sections

Avoid:

  • Walls of text
  • Multiple concepts per paragraph

16. Schema Markup

Implement structured data where appropriate:

  • □ Organization
  • □ Article
  • □ FAQPage
  • □ Product
  • □ SoftwareApplication
  • □ BreadcrumbList
  • □ HowTo
  • □ WebPage

Validate with schema testing tools.

17. Security

Verify:

  • □ HTTPS everywhere
  • □ No mixed content
  • □ Valid certificates
  • □ Secure redirects

18. Monitoring

Track:

  • AI crawler visits
  • Referral traffic from AI platforms
  • llms.txt requests
  • Markdown requests
  • Crawl errors
  • 404s
  • Server logs

Monitor user agents from platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI services to understand how they access your content.

19. WordPress-Specific GEO

For WordPress sites:

  • □ Generate a curated llms.txt file
  • □ Create Markdown versions of important content
  • □ Expose Markdown using rel="alternate" where available
  • □ Keep XML sitemaps current
  • □ Use descriptive permalinks
  • □ Eliminate thin archive pages where appropriate
  • □ Maintain accurate categories and tags
  • □ Optimize media metadata (alt text, captions, filenames)
  • □ Ensure custom post types intended for AI discovery are publicly accessible

20. GEO Audit Scorecard

CategoryStatus
AI crawlability☐
robots.txt configured☐
llms.txt published☐
Markdown available☐
Semantic HTML☐
Structured headings☐
Internal linking☐
Canonical URLs☐
Schema markup☐
Performance optimized☐
Machine-readable content☐
Documentation complete☐
Images optimized☐
Security (HTTPS)☐
AI crawler monitoring☐
WordPress GEO configuration☐

Goal

The goal of technical GEO is not simply to make pages crawlable, but to make them easy for AI systems to parse, understand, retrieve, and accurately cite. A technically optimized site combines strong information architecture, machine-readable formatting, curated discovery resources such as llms.txt, and high-quality, well-maintained content to improve its visibility in AI-powered search and answer generation.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for WordPress: Essential Hacks to Improve AI Citation

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