Getting recommended by AI comes down to twelve concrete steps, in four groups: open the doors, clear up your identity, answer the buying question, earn corroboration. Work the groups in this order — each one depends on the one before it, so fixing content while a crawler is blocked changes nothing. This is the same sequence GEO runs on, laid out as something you can tick off today.
None of the other nine steps matter while an AI crawler can't reach your site. Each engine sends its own bot, and access is checked before anything else — a page can be perfectly written and still be invisible.
Proof: OpenAI documents that appearing in ChatGPT search requires OAI-SearchBot not being blocked at the robots or host level — OpenAI — ChatGPT Search.
Do this first: if you only do one group today, do this one. Every later fix is wasted while the door is closed.
AI engines recommend entities, not pages — so they have to be certain who you are before they'll name you. A great blog post attached to an ambiguous identity still loses to a mediocre one attached to a clear one.
Rule of thumb: if a stranger skimming only your homepage and About page couldn't state in one sentence who you are, an AI reading the same pages can't either.
AI quotes pages that answer a question directly — it doesn't assemble an answer from pages that merely mention the topic. This is the step most sites skip, because it means writing the answer down instead of implying it.
Proof: Google's guidance on optimizing for generative AI features highlights original information, clear structure and firsthand experience as what these systems look for — Google — optimizing for generative AI features.
Do this: read your own first 100 words out loud. If they don't say what you sell and for whom, an AI skimming the same text won't either.
AI engines cross-check your own claims against what independent sources say about you. This is the slowest group to build and the easiest to fake badly — which is exactly why genuine corroboration carries the most weight.
Proof: Google states there is no special markup that unlocks AI visibility and structured data is a supporting signal, not a citation lever — Google — optimizing for generative AI features.
Good news: you don't need to fake this group — you need to stop hiding evidence you already have, and give genuine mentions time to accumulate.
Twelve steps sounds like a lot until you see they're four small groups, not twelve unrelated tasks. Work top to bottom — access, identity, content, corroboration — and re-check the list whenever you ship a redesign, change CDN settings, or rename the company, since any of those can silently undo Group 1 or 2.
Shortcut: the free Reflexa check runs all four groups against your live site in about three minutes, with the raw evidence behind every finding and a fix next to every failed step.
The free check covers all four groups — 3 minutes, evidence included.