The GEO checklist (B2B)

This checklist is for B2B marketing leaders, content strategists, SEO teams, and product marketers who want their content cited in AI answers. The goal is simple: make your site the easiest, safest source for large language models (LLMs) to understand, quote, and recommend when buyers ask questions like “best tools for X,” “X vs Y,” or “how do I get SOC 2 fast.”

If you’re new to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), start with a clear overview in our explainer on what GEO is and how it helps your content be found by AI. This checklist turns the concept into practical steps you can implement this quarter.

How to use this checklist

  • Work top to bottom. Fix crawl access, then structure, then content, then authority and distribution.
  • Ship templates, not one-offs. Create repeatable page types that LLMs love.
  • Measure citations and answer share, not just traffic. GEO is about being referenced.

1) Technical access and clarity

Open the door for AI crawlers

  • Allow reputable AI user agents in robots.txt. Block only sensitive paths.
  • Expose a clean XML sitemap (and keep it fresh on deploy).
  • Consider an llms.txt file to point LLMs to high-signal pages and content policies. While not a formal standard, some GEO practitioners and tools recommend it. See examples from Rankshift and the resource list at generative-engine.org.
# robots.txt (example) User-agent: * Allow: / Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml 
# llms.txt (example) # Point LLMs to high-trust content and usage rules Allow: https://yourdomain.com/customers/ Allow: https://yourdomain.com/security/ Allow: https://yourdomain.com/comparisons/ Policy: https://yourdomain.com/content-usage

Structure data so models can “read” you

  • Add schema.org markup to key pages. Prioritize Organization, Product, FAQPage, HowTo, TechArticle, BreadcrumbList, and Review snippets. A primer is available on Upwork’s GEO guide.
  • Use consistent org, product, and category names across your site and profiles. Entity consistency helps LLMs resolve your brand.
  • Keep pages fast, stable, and mobile-friendly. Models ingest what users see; flaky layouts and hidden content get lost.
  • Make PDFs machine-readable (not images of text). Provide HTML twins for top whitepapers.

Make pages answer-shaped

  • Lead with a short answer box (“TL;DR” or “Key takeaways”).
  • Use H2/H3 headings that mirror how people ask: “Pros and cons,” “Steps,” “Pricing,” “Security,” “Integrations,” “Limitations.”
  • Write short paragraphs and scannable lists. This helps both users and model parsers, as noted in the VisualFizz GEO guide.

2) Content built for answers, not just rankings

Cover the full buyer question set

Map the common prompt patterns for your category. Examples:

  • “Best [tool/type] for [industry/use case].”
  • “[Brand] vs [Brand]: which is better for [team size/regulation]?”
  • “How to [achieve outcome] without [risk/cost].”
  • “Is [product] SOC 2/ISO 27001 compliant?”
  • “Alternatives to [incumbent vendor].”
  • “Pricing, hidden fees, and limits for [product].”

Publish LLM-friendly page types

  • Comparison pages (“X vs Y”), with a clear table of differences and who each is for.
  • “Best tools” or “top options” roundups that cite sources and give neutral pros/cons.
  • FAQ hubs with one question per URL for linkable answers.
  • Implementation checklists and “How to” guides with numbered steps.
  • Security, compliance, data retention, and SLA pages with specifics.
  • Case studies with numbers (time saved, ROI, error reduction). Attribute quotes to named people.

Write like you talk, but cite like a pro

  • Use plain language and short sentences. LLMs mirror tone; conversational copy often gets quoted as-is. See the B2B angle in UnReal Digital Group’s GEO guide.
  • Back up claims with sources and link near the claim. Perplexity and other engines often surface the sentence with the citation.
  • Avoid hype. Name limits and trade-offs. Balanced pages get cited more because they read as objective.

3) Authority and trust signals (E‑E‑A‑T)

  • Add bylines with expert credentials, and short author bios. Link to LinkedIn or publications.
  • Show first-hand experience: screenshots, methods, benchmarks, and data collection notes.
  • Publish “last updated” dates and actually update. LLMs and evaluators reward freshness, a point echoed by SEO.ai.
  • Centralize trust pages: Security, Compliance, Privacy, Accessibility, Availability. These pages answer frequent AI prompts and signal reliability.
  • Provide transparent pricing and feature limits. Hidden info rarely gets cited.

4) Distribution and entity building beyond your site

  • Earn citations from high-signal sources: docs sites, standards bodies, analyst notes, and reputable directories. LLMs rely on these during retrieval.
  • Keep product profiles consistent across G2, Capterra, GitHub, and LinkedIn. Consistent names and summaries reduce ambiguity.
  • Publish transcripts for webinars and podcasts. Text unlocks citations.
  • Contribute to community knowledge (FAQs, glossaries) where your experts have real experience. Avoid spammy link drops.
  • Maintain clean information architecture. This ToTheWeb IA guide is a solid refresher.

5) Monitoring and adaptation

  • Track where your brand is cited in AI answers. Tools like GetAI Monitor and other GEO-readiness checkers can help spot gaps.
  • Check Perplexity answers for your top prompts and log source shares and positions. Aim to appear in early citations.
  • Review Chat-based answers for your “X vs Y” pages and security questions. Adjust headings and TL;DRs if your phrasing isn’t echoed.
  • Set GEO KPIs: citation count per month, share of AI answers, assisted conversions from AI surfaces, and request-for-demo mentions.

6) Governance and risk

  • Avoid keyword stuffing and manipulative formatting. It reduces trust and gets filtered, as warned by StoryChief.
  • Respect crawler policies. Document which bots you allow and why.
  • Clarify content licensing and usage. Add a human-readable policy page and link it in your footer and llms.txt.
  • Exclude sensitive client data and NDA content from indexing and LLM access.

7) International and accessibility

  • Publish localized versions for key markets with proper hreflang. If you need help scaling translations with QA safeguards, see AI translations.
  • Use accessible markup (alt text, labels, contrast). Accessibility is a trust signal and improves machine parsing.
  • Translate high-intent pages first: pricing, comparisons, security, and implementation guides.

B2B GEO page templates you can ship this quarter

  1. “X vs Y” comparison with a neutral summary, use cases, feature diffs, and who should pick which.
  2. “Best tools for [industry/use case]” list with criteria, pros/cons, and links to sources.
  3. Security and compliance hub: SOC 2, ISO 27001, data retention, subprocessor list, and architecture diagram.
  4. Implementation checklist: step-by-step rollout with timelines and owner roles.
  5. “Alternatives to [incumbent]” page with honest trade-offs and migration steps.
  6. Pricing explained: tiers, what’s included, limits, and common gotchas.
  7. Case study library with filters, concrete outcomes, and methodology notes.
  8. FAQ hub with one question per page and canonical links back to topic clusters.

Copy‑paste checklist

  • Access: Robots allowlist for major AI crawlers. XML sitemap is current. llms.txt points to high-signal pages.
  • Structure: Organization/Product/FAQPage/HowTo schema present. Clean headings. Short paragraphs. TL;DR at top.
  • Coverage: We have pages for “best,” “vs,” “alternatives,” “pricing,” “security,” “how to,” and FAQs.
  • Citations: Claims are sourced inline. External references point to reputable sites.
  • Trust: Author bios, last updated dates, case study numbers, and policy pages are visible.
  • Distribution: Profiles aligned across major directories. Docs and transcripts are public and crawlable.
  • Monitoring: We log appearances in AI answers and track citation share for priority prompts.
  • Governance: Content usage policy published. Sensitive areas disallowed in robots.
  • International: Hreflang set. Priority pages localized with QA.

Examples of “LLM‑ready” copy blocks

Answer box

Short answer: For mid-market teams needing SOC 2 and SSO, pick Product A if you want native Salesforce integration; pick Product B if you need on-prem control and custom RBAC. Both support ISO 27001. See our full comparison below.

Pros and cons

  • Pros: 2-week rollout, no-code workflows, SOC 2 Type II.
  • Cons: Limited on-prem support, API rate limits on basic tiers.

Steps

  1. Connect sources (S3, BigQuery, Salesforce).
  2. Map roles and scope access (least privilege).
  3. Enable SSO and SCIM. Test with a staging tenant.
  4. Set retention to 30/90/365 days by project.

Common pitfalls to avoid

  • Publishing walls of text without scannable sections. LLMs won’t quote it.
  • Skipping security and pricing details. Buyers ask; AI answers from whoever wrote it down.
  • One mega “ultimate guide” that never updates. Prefer smaller, evergreen pages with clear focuses.
  • Unclear product naming across channels. Models split entities when names vary.

Useful reads and tools

Related reads on FlareGPT

What “good” looks like in practice

A mid-market security vendor rebuilt its product pages to lead with a 3-sentence answer box, added a “Pros/Cons” section, and linked “Security & Compliance” with specific certs and retention defaults. They published three “X vs Y” pages with neutral recommendations and citations. Within eight weeks, they saw their brand surface in Perplexity answers for five high-intent prompts, with two links appearing in the first three citations. Demo requests from “AI answers” notes in CRM increased, even as organic sessions stayed flat. That’s GEO working as designed.

If you adopt one mindset, make it this: write the page you wish an AI would read out loud to your buyer during their very first conversation. Then make it easy to find, easy to trust, and easy to quote.