GEO technical audit checklist: 25 items to check
Use this checklist to audit your website's technical GEO health. These 25 items cover every technical signal that affects whether AI search engines can access, understand and cite your content.
A complete GEO technical audit covers 25 items across five areas - AI crawler access, llms.txt, schema markup, content structure, and technical foundations - and sites that pass all 25 checks are statistically far more likely to appear as cited sources in AI-generated answers.
AI crawler access (check these first)
- ☐ GPTBot not blocked - confirm
yoursite.com/robots.txtdoes not disallow GPTBot - ☐ PerplexityBot not blocked - same check for PerplexityBot
- ☐ ClaudeBot not blocked - same check for ClaudeBot
- ☐ No blanket disallow - no
User-agent: * / Disallow: /rule blocking all bots - ☐ Key pages not blocked - your most important content pages are accessible to all crawlers
llms.txt
- ☐ llms.txt exists - file is accessible at
yoursite.com/llms.txt - ☐ Accurate description - the one-line description accurately describes your site
- ☐ Key pages listed - your 5 to 10 most important pages are listed with descriptions
- ☐ Topics covered - key topic areas are listed clearly
- ☐ Contact information - contact details or URL included
Schema markup
- ☐ Organisation schema on homepage - with name, URL, logo and sameAs profiles
- ☐ Article schema on all posts - with author, datePublished, dateModified
- ☐ FAQPage schema where applicable - on any page with Q&A content
- ☐ Person schema on author pages - with credentials and professional profiles
- ☐ BreadcrumbList on all pages - reflecting correct site hierarchy
- ☐ Schema validates cleanly - no errors in Google Rich Results Test
- ☐ JSON-LD format used - not microdata or RDFa
Content structure
- ☐ H1 on every page - one H1 per page, accurately describing content
- ☐ Logical heading hierarchy - H1 > H2 > H3, no skipped levels
- ☐ Core answer in first paragraph - key point stated immediately, not buried
- ☐ Alt text on all images - descriptive labels, not empty or keyword-stuffed
Technical foundations
- ☐ HTTPS on entire site - no mixed content warnings
- ☐ Canonical tags on all pages - preventing duplicate content issues
- ☐ XML sitemap submitted - all important pages included and submitted to Search Console
- ☐ Core content not JavaScript-dependent - main content loads in HTML, not only via JS
Faster option: Run a free SearchScore audit to automatically check all 250+ GEO signals across your website - including all the items in this checklist - in under 60 seconds.
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Sources & Further Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I run a technical GEO audit?
Run a full technical GEO audit at least quarterly. Also run one after any major website change - redesigns, CMS migrations, robots.txt updates - as these frequently introduce regressions that undo previous GEO work.
What is the most common technical GEO issue?
Blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt is the most common issue, found on 73% of websites audited. It is also the most impactful - a blocked crawler means zero AI citation regardless of content quality or other optimisations.
Can I automate a GEO technical audit?
Yes. SearchScore runs an automated technical GEO audit covering all six signal categories in seconds. For manual audits, tools like Screaming Frog can check robots.txt rules and find missing schema, while Google Search Console shows crawl errors and coverage issues.
What technical foundations are required for GEO?
Five technical foundations matter most: AI crawler access (so bots like GPTBot and ClaudeBot can reach your pages), an llms.txt file, clean schema markup, a logical heading structure, and the basics - HTTPS, canonical tags, an XML sitemap, and content that loads in HTML rather than only through JavaScript. Get these right and AI search engines can find, read and cite your pages. Miss them and even great content stays invisible.
How do you do technical GEO?
Work through it in five stages, in order. First, check that AI crawlers aren't blocked in your robots.txt - this is the single most common problem. Then add an llms.txt file, fix your schema markup, tidy your heading structure so the main answer comes first, and confirm the technical basics like HTTPS and your sitemap. The 25-point checklist above walks through every item. If you'd rather not do it by hand, a free SearchScore audit checks all of it in under 60 seconds.
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