The method

Diagnose from the foundation up.

Visibility findings are the most exciting layer, but they mean nothing if your site is blocking crawlers. So we work in strict order, access first, and every finding comes with the evidence behind it.

The six layers

L1

Access

Can AI crawlers reach your site at all?

What we check & fix

We check every relevant crawler. Training, search, and user-triggered fetchers are separate and independently controllable. A blanket block from the scraping panic can silently remove you from AI answers. The fix is usually small, fast, and high-value.

L2

Understandability

Can engines tell who you are and what you do?

What we check & fix

Clarity of naming, plain-language descriptions of what you sell, and structured data that matches what’s visible on the page. If an engine can’t summarize you accurately, it won’t recommend you confidently.

L3

Trust

Is there evidence you’re credible?

What we check & fix

About pages, real bios, credentials, and case studies: the trust architecture engines and buyers both look for. We build what’s missing rather than gesture at it.

L4

Citation-worthiness

Can engines quote your content?

What we check & fix

Structure and evidence, not volume: heading hierarchy, chunking, quotations from credible sources, statistics, and cited claims. The research is clear that this beats keyword stuffing and content churn.

L5

Conversion

When visitors arrive, do they convert?

What we check & fix

Visibility that lands on a leaking bucket is wasted. We check the conversion path so improved demand actually turns into inquiries and revenue.

L6

AI Visibility

Do engines actually name you?

What we check & fix

Active, cross-engine probing of the questions your buyers ask. No engine offers this report, and existing analytics can’t separate it out. We baseline your share of voice against named competitors and re-measure over time.

↑ diagnose bottom-up · L1 → L6 ↓ fix in order · foundation first

What the report covers

Seven disciplines. One report.

The layers set the diagnostic order. The report grades seven disciplines, each with its own score, findings, and one concrete recommendation. Page through what a The Citation Lab diagnostic delivers.

01 · GEO · Generative engine optimization

Get cited in AI answers.

The on-site half of AI visibility. Schema, clean markup, and the crawlers that gate citations: engines train with one set of crawlers and cite live results with another. Blocking the citation crawler makes you invisible even when everything else looks right.

69
Medium priority
1 / 7
69
GEO · Readiness Medium
Schema & canonical in place
Citation crawlers allowed (ChatGPT, Claude…)
Bing crawler blocked, gating Copilot citations
No FAQPage schema
Training opt-out: privacy choice, not a failure
HIGHUnblock the Bing crawler. It gates Copilot citations.
02 · LLMO · Large language model optimization

Get known by the models.

How AI engines see your brand: native training knowledge versus live search, including Google's AI Overviews, the AI answer millions see at the top of search before any blue links.

46
High priority
2 / 7
46
LLMO · AI Visibility High
AI Overviews
54
Perplexity
54
Copilot
45
Claude
44
OpenAI
44
Gemini
30
Scores out of 100Share of voice 50.5%
HIGHEarn citations in the sources engines already pull from.
03 · AEO · Answer engine optimization

Get chosen as the answer.

Being found isn't being picked. We grade whether your pages are built to be lifted into featured snippets, People-Also-Ask and voice answers, and separate the schema you have from the schema that feeds AI answers.

34
High priority
3 / 7
34
AEO · Answer Readiness High
Lists & tables engines can quote
Product schema present…
…but none that feed AI answers (FAQ / HowTo)
No question-shaped headings
No short, direct answers to lift
BUILDAdd FAQ schema and a direct answer under each question.
04 · SXO · Search experience optimization

Get the visitor to convert.

Six signals from first impression to conversion. A strong brand can still lose the visitor: an empty hero or missing social proof costs momentum the moment they land.

6.5
High priority
4 / 7
6.5
SXO · Experience High
Brand Clarity
8
UX & Navigation
7
Visual Design
7
Conversion
6
First Impression
6
Messaging
5
HIGHRewrite the hero headline; put social proof above the fold.
05 · SEO · Search engine optimization

Get found.

Classic findability: titles, headings, internal links and topical copy. The audit flags the exact on-page gaps, like an empty H1, that hold rankings down.

6.0
High priority
5 / 7
6.0
SEO · On-Page High
Keyword-rich title tag
Canonical + schema detected
142 internal links
Empty H1, a top-3 on-page issue
H2s carry cart chrome, not content
HIGHFill the empty H1 with a keyword-rich headline.
06 · Foundation · Technical core

Stay fast & crawlable.

Real-user Core Web Vitals, accessibility and markup hygiene. Field data is the source of truth; one Poor metric can drag an otherwise fast stack.

6.3
Medium priority
6 / 7
6.3
Foundation · Field CWV Medium
LCP
2.52s
Needs work
CLS
0.78
Poor
INP
180ms
Good
FCP
1.27s
Good
MEDIUMDimension hero images to fix the 0.78 CLS.
07 · Authority & Trust · E-E-A-T

Earn the trust to be picked.

The credibility engines and customers check before choosing you: certifications, press and track record, and whether that off-page authority actually shows up on-page.

7.5
Maintain
7 / 7
7.5
Authority · E-E-A-T Maintain
Third-party certifications on-page
13+ year track record
4 active social channels + PR
No visible reviews or press on-page
MAINTAINPut the reviews and press you've earned on the page.
Illustrative sample report · scores and findings are not client data

The evidence base

This is studied, not invented.

40%

Visibility improvement, up to, reported in the foundational GEO benchmark from deliberate optimization. Quotations, statistics, and cited sources were the strongest tested methods.

17.3%

Citation-rate lift from structural changes alone (heading hierarchy, chunking, emphasis) with content held constant, measured across six engines in a 2026 study.

0

Guarantees anyone can honestly make. Engines diverge, change, and published research shows tactics tuned to current behavior degrade, which is why measurement repeats.

Every figure is a research result under specific conditions, never a guarantee.

The report artifact

Share of voice, measured.

We probe the questions your buyers actually ask, across the major AI engines, and count who gets named. This is the table from a visibility report: the one that shows where you really stand.

Measured across Google AI Overviews Perplexity Copilot Claude OpenAI Gemini
BrandShare of voiceMentions
Competitor A
23
Competitor B
16
You
7
Competitor C
5
Illustrative sample · 60 probe questions · 6 engines · figures are not client data