Free Checklist
The AI Visibility Checklist.
The checks I run first when an online store wants to be found and cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Work through it in an afternoon; most of it is not technical.
Step 1
Let the AI crawlers in
An assistant cannot cite a page it was never allowed to read.
- Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and confirm it does not block OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search) or PerplexityBot. Blocking them keeps you out of their answers.
- Decide deliberately about training crawlers such as GPTBot and Google-Extended. Blocking Google-Extended does not remove you from Google Search or AI Overviews.
- Check that your firewall or bot protection is not silently challenging these crawlers with a CAPTCHA.
- Make sure product and category pages render their content in the HTML, not only after JavaScript runs.
Step 2
Fix your product structured data
Structured data is how machines read the facts on a page without guessing.
- One Product block per product page. Two apps both adding schema is the most common mistake we find.
- Every product carries brand and an identifier: GTIN, or MPN where there is none.
- The price, currency and availability in your markup match what the page shows, for every variant.
- Review and rating markup only where those reviews are visible on the page.
- Test a few product URLs in Google’s Rich Results Test after every theme or app change.
Step 3
Make your business one clear entity
Assistants recommend businesses they can identify with confidence.
- Add Organization markup with your legal name, logo, contact details and links to your official profiles.
- Use exactly the same business name, address, phone and description on your site, Google Business Profile, social profiles and directories.
- Keep an About page that says plainly who you are, where you operate and how long you have been doing it.
- Remove or correct outdated listings. Conflicting details make assistants less willing to recommend you.
Step 4
Write pages that answer the question
Content that answers clearly is content that gets quoted.
- Open each important page with a direct, two or three sentence answer to the question a shopper is asking.
- Add real FAQs to category and product pages: sizing, materials, compatibility, shipping, returns.
- Publish comparison and “best for” content where buyers genuinely compare options.
- State specifics: dimensions, specs, prices and policies. Vague copy gives an assistant nothing to quote.
Step 5
Keep your product feed honest
AI shopping experiences increasingly read your catalog data directly.
- Your Google Merchant Center feed matches the site: titles, prices, stock and identifiers.
- Feed errors and warnings are reviewed and cleared every week.
- Discontinued products redirect to the closest live alternative instead of returning errors.
Step 6
Measure it
What you do not measure looks like nothing happened.
- In GA4, create a custom channel group for AI assistants (chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com, claude.ai) and rank it above Referral.
- Add UTM tags to every link you control in AI-facing places, such as your profiles and listings.
- Once a month, ask the main assistants the questions your customers ask and record whether you are cited.
- Watch branded search: many people see you in an answer and search your name later.
The 15-minute version
- robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot
- One Product schema per product page
- Price and stock in markup match the page
- Every product has a brand and GTIN or MPN
- Organization markup with logo and profiles
- Same business details everywhere online
- Key pages open with a direct answer
- An AI channel group exists in GA4
Want A Second Pair Of Eyes?
Send me your store and I will tell you which of these are holding it back.