Practical AEO/GEO Checklist for B2B Marketers (2026 Edition)

Everything in this checklist has appeared, in some form, across the other posts in this series. This is the condensed, actionable version — organised so a B2B marketing team can work through it directly, without re-reading the theory behind each item.

Content structure

☐ Every H2/H3 is phrased as the question a reader (or a model) would actually ask.
☐ Each section answers that question directly in the first 40–60 words, before expanding.
☐ Steps, options, and comparisons are formatted as lists or tables, not dense prose.
☐ Content sits at roughly an 8th-grade reading level — short sentences, one idea per paragraph.
☐ Author byline, publish date, and modification date are visible on the page, not just in metadata.

Schema and technical access

☐ FAQ schema (JSON-LD FAQPage) matches real, visible Q&A content — not decorative or duplicated.
☐ Article/BlogPosting schema includes both datePublished and a genuine dateModified.
☐ robots.txt explicitly allows relevant AI crawlers (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended) rather than blocking them via a generic bot rule.
☐ Core pages are indexed and crawlable in ordinary Google Search — this remains the precondition most AI answer engines rely on.

Prompt sets and citation tracking

☐ A fixed set of realistic prompts (not brand-name searches) is run monthly across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot.
☐ Mentions are logged with platform, position in the answer, and tone — not just a yes/no.
☐ Citation source pages are checked for what they have in common (structure, freshness, depth) to inform what to fix next.

Measurement

☐ AI referral traffic (chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com) is segmented separately in GA4, not folded into generic referral traffic.
☐ Conversion rate for AI-referred traffic is compared against organic average on a recurring basis.
☐ Share of answer and AI-referred traffic are reviewed together monthly — see our full measurement framework for the detail behind each metric.

Internal and external links

☐ High-value pages link to supporting evidence — internally to data pages like our GEO & AI Search Statistics page, and externally to credible third-party sources where relevant.
☐ New content links back to foundational explainers rather than repeating the same background context each time — see how this series cross-links between structuring content for AI and the zero-click evidence for GEO.

Cadence

Run the structure and schema sections once properly, then treat the rest as a monthly loop: refresh content on a 3-6 month cycle, re-run the prompt set, re-check GA4 segmentation. AEO/GEO isn't a project with a finish line — it's a maintenance habit layered on top of the SEO fundamentals that still gate whether any of this works at all.

If working through this checklist raises more questions than it answers for your specific site, that's what a strategy call is for — book 15 minutes and we'll help prioritise.

Frequently asked questions

1 What's the fastest AEO/GEO win for a B2B site with limited time?

Rewrite the opening 2-3 sentences of your five highest-traffic pages to directly answer the question the page targets, before any other content. This single change consistently correlates with better extraction and citation across every source we track, and takes a fraction of the effort of a full content overhaul.

2 Do I need to block or allow AI crawlers separately from search engine bots?

Check your robots.txt for AI-specific user agents (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, and others) — many sites block these by default via generic bot-blocking rules without realising it, which makes them invisible to the same AI systems they're trying to get cited by.

3 How long does it take to see AEO/GEO results?

Faster than traditional SEO in some respects — citation behaviour can shift within weeks of a structural change, since AI systems re-crawl frequently. But share of answer is unstable by nature (our data shows only 20% of brands stay visible across five consecutive similar AI answers), so track trend over 2-3 months rather than expecting a single stable outcome.

4 Is this checklist a one-time project or ongoing work?

Ongoing. Treat it as a monthly or quarterly cadence — refresh content, re-run prompt tracking, re-check crawler access — the same way you'd treat technical SEO health checks, not a project with a defined end date.