SiteAuditLint checklist library
What this checklist covers
An AI search SEO checklist prepares your website for ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews by checking AI crawler access, server rendered content, clear structure, entity signals, structured data, and citable passages.
It is organized into 10 sections: Search Engine Accessibility, AI Crawler Accessibility, Content Accessibility, Page Structure, Entity Signals, Structured Data, Citability, Internal Linking, Indexability and Monitoring. Each check lists exactly what to verify and a priority, so you can work through the highest impact items first.
For background on the concepts behind these checks, see AI search course, SEO, GEO and AEO audit checklist, AI visibility tracker.
Who it is for:
Download the ai search seo checklist
Use the interactive version below, or download it to share with your team, attach to tickets, or work through offline.
AI Search SEO Checklist
Work through each check
0 of 16 checks complete
Search Engine Accessibility
AI Crawler Accessibility
Content Accessibility
Page Structure
Entity Signals
Structured Data
Citability
Internal Linking
Indexability
Monitoring
Progress is saved in this browser only.
Detailed explanations
Each section below explains what to check, why it matters, the problems you will usually find, how to fix them, and how to confirm the fix.
Search Engine Accessibility
What to check:
- Check search crawler access. Googlebot and Bingbot can crawl and index.
Why it matters: A page can be crawled but still excluded from search results. Indexability depends on several signals working together: status code, meta robots, the X-Robots-Tag header, canonical tags, and robots.txt. A single conflicting signal is enough to remove a page from Google.
Common problems:
- A noindex left in place after a staging build goes live
- X-Robots-Tag noindex sent by a server or CDN rule nobody remembers
- Canonical tags pointing to a different URL than intended
- Pages blocked in robots.txt, so Google never sees the noindex or canonical
How to fix it: Remove noindex directives from pages that should rank, align canonical tags with the URL you want indexed, and make sure robots.txt does not block indexable content.
How to verify: Check the page source and response headers for every key template, then use Search Console URL Inspection to confirm Google sees the page as indexable.
Learn more: Indexing explained, Indexing tests, Noindex issues and fixes, Noindex issue.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks search engine accessibility across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
AI Crawler Accessibility
What to check:
- Check GPTBot. Allowed or blocked intentionally.
- Check OAI-SearchBot. Allowed if you want ChatGPT search visibility.
- Check ChatGPT-User. User-triggered fetches are not blocked unintentionally.
- Check ClaudeBot and Claude-SearchBot. Rules match policy.
- Check PerplexityBot. Rules match policy.
- Check Google-Extended. Choice is deliberate.
Why it matters: Search engines can only rank what they can discover. If crawlers cannot follow links to a URL, that page will rarely be indexed, no matter how good its content is. Crawl depth also signals importance: pages buried many clicks deep get crawled less often.
Common problems:
- Navigation built with JavaScript click handlers instead of anchor links
- Important pages only reachable through internal search or forms
- Pagination or filters creating near infinite URL spaces that waste crawl budget
- Key pages sitting five or more clicks from the homepage
How to fix it: Use standard <a href> links for all navigation, add contextual links from high authority pages to deep content, and constrain parameter and filter URLs so crawlers spend time on pages that matter.
How to verify: Run a full crawl, compare discovered URLs with your sitemap and analytics landing pages, and review the crawl depth report for any important URL deeper than three clicks.
Learn more: Crawling explained, What is a website crawler, Crawlability vs indexability, Deep page issue.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks ai crawler accessibility across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Content Accessibility
What to check:
- Check server-rendered content. Key content exists in HTML without JS.
Why it matters: Search engines reward content that fully satisfies intent and adds information not already available. Thin, duplicated, or generic content is filtered out or outranked.
Common problems:
- Thin pages with little unique value
- Manufacturer or templated copy repeated across pages
- Missing coverage of related subtopics and questions
- No original data, examples, or experience
How to fix it: Consolidate thin pages, rewrite duplicated copy, cover the entities and questions users expect, and add original information.
How to verify: Review word count and duplicate content reports, then compare coverage against top ranking pages for the target query.
Learn more: Thin content, Optimize content for answer engines, Keyword vs entity optimization, Thin content issue.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks content accessibility across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Page Structure
What to check:
- Use clear headings. Headings describe each section.
- Answer questions directly. Short answers near the top of sections.
Why it matters: Headings outline the page for users, search engines, and AI systems extracting passages. A clear H1 states the topic, and logical H2s make sections easy to cite.
Common problems:
- Missing H1 on templates
- Multiple H1s from shared components
- Headings used for styling rather than structure
- Skipped levels that break the outline
How to fix it: Use one H1 that states the topic, then H2 and H3 in a logical order. Fix shared components that output extra H1s.
How to verify: Crawl and filter for missing, duplicate, and multiple H1s, then review the heading outline on key templates.
Learn more: Headings lesson, H1s lesson, Multiple H1 tags, Why articles need H2 to H6.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks page structure across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Entity Signals
What to check:
- Define entities. Brand, product and author entities are named consistently.
Why it matters: AI search tools such as ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews rely on crawlers to retrieve and cite content. Blocking them, or relying on JavaScript they cannot render, removes your pages from AI answers.
Common problems:
- OAI-SearchBot blocked when ChatGPT search visibility is wanted
- Blanket blocks copied from a template without a policy decision
- Key content only available after JavaScript runs
- No monitoring of AI crawler activity in server logs
How to fix it: Decide a policy per crawler, separating training crawlers like GPTBot from search and user retrieval crawlers, then encode it in robots.txt and keep content server rendered.
How to verify: Test robots.txt against each AI user agent and check server logs for AI crawler requests and response codes.
Learn more: AI crawlers lesson, AI citations lesson, AI crawlers vs search crawlers, Fix 403 errors blocking AI crawlers.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks entity signals across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Structured Data
What to check:
- Add schema. Organization, Article, Product or FAQ schema as relevant.
Why it matters: Structured data helps search engines and AI systems understand entities on the page and can unlock rich results. Invalid or misleading markup is ignored or can trigger manual actions.
Common problems:
- Syntax errors in JSON-LD
- Required properties missing for the chosen type
- Markup describing content not visible on the page
- Schema removed during a template change
How to fix it: Use JSON-LD, include required and recommended properties, and keep markup consistent with visible content.
How to verify: Validate key templates with the Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator, then monitor enhancement reports in Search Console.
Learn more: Schema markup for AI, Invalid schema issue, Missing schema issue.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks structured data across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Citability
What to check:
- Add original data. Statistics and claims are sourced and quotable.
Why it matters: AI search tools such as ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews rely on crawlers to retrieve and cite content. See the earlier section on this topic for common problems.
How to verify: Test robots.txt against each AI user agent and check server logs for AI crawler requests and response codes.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks citability across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Internal Linking
What to check:
- Link topic clusters. Related pages interlink.
Why it matters: Internal links distribute authority, define site architecture, and help crawlers discover content. Broken links waste crawl budget and frustrate users, while orphan pages are almost invisible to search engines.
Common problems:
- Links to deleted pages returning 404
- Links pointing to redirected URLs instead of final destinations
- Orphan pages with no internal links
- Generic anchor text like click here on important links
How to fix it: Fix or remove broken links, update links to point at final URLs, link to orphan pages from relevant hubs, and use descriptive anchor text.
How to verify: Crawl the site and review the broken links, redirecting links, and inlinks reports. Compare sitemap URLs against crawled URLs to find orphans.
Learn more: Internal links lesson, Fix broken internal links, Orphan pages, Internal link analysis.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks internal linking across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Indexability
What to check:
- Check indexability. Pages are indexable in Google and Bing.
Why it matters: A page can be crawled but still excluded from search results. See the earlier section on this topic for common problems.
How to verify: Check the page source and response headers for every key template, then use Search Console URL Inspection to confirm Google sees the page as indexable.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks indexability across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Monitoring
What to check:
- Monitor AI crawler logs. Server logs show AI crawler activity.
Why it matters: SEO issues often appear days after a change, as search engines recrawl. Ongoing monitoring catches drops in indexing and traffic before they become expensive.
Common problems:
- No baseline to compare against
- Traffic drops noticed weeks late
- New 404s from old backlinks going unfixed
- Index coverage declining unnoticed
How to fix it: Schedule recurring crawls, set alerts for indexability and status code changes, and review Search Console coverage and performance weekly.
How to verify: Compare scheduled crawl results and Search Console trends against the pre change baseline.
Learn more: Scheduled SEO audits, Slack SEO alerts, Site health score.
How SiteAuditLint helps: it checks monitoring across every crawled URL instead of one page at a time and lists exactly which URLs are affected.
Common mistakes
Blocking all AI crawlers without separating training from search bots
Relying on JavaScript rendering for key content
Long unstructured pages with no direct answers
Inconsistent brand and entity naming
No sources or original data to cite
When to run the checklist
- When defining your AI crawler policy
- When AI referral traffic is low
- When publishing cornerstone content
- Quarterly alongside a technical SEO audit
How to verify fixes
- Save a baselineCrawl the site before making changes so you have a record of every status code, canonical, directive and title.
- Fix by priorityStart with High priority checks and issues that affect templates, since one fix there resolves many URLs. See how to prioritize audit findings.
- Re-crawl the same scopeUse the same start URL, crawl limit and settings so the results are comparable.
- Compare the crawlsConfirm the issue count dropped and that no new problems appeared elsewhere. Audit comparison does this field by field.
- Confirm in Search ConsoleUse URL Inspection and the indexing reports to check that Google sees the change. Our indexing tests lesson covers the process.
SiteAuditLint workflow
From manual checklist to automated checks
Most checks in this list run automatically in a SiteAuditLint crawl. Use audit comparison to diff crawls and scheduled audits to monitor for regressions.