blog-geo

# Blog GEO: AI Citation Optimization Audit

Scores blog posts for AI citation readiness across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and
Google AI Overviews. Generates citation capsules and a 0-100 AI Citation
Readiness score with platform-specific recommendations.

## Cross-reference

This skill covers FLOW surface 3 (AI assistant citations: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, You.com) and contributes to surface 2 (SERP plus AI Overviews). Surface mapping: `skills/blog/references/flow-alignment.md`.

For directly relevant AI-citation prompts (AI-supporting-pages-rewrite-prompt, ai-detector-test, ChatGPT discovery, visibility prompts), see `/blog flow optimize`.

## Key Research Data

Reference these benchmarks throughout the audit:

- Only 11% of domains cited by both ChatGPT and Perplexity (Digital Bloom, domain-level)
- 80% of LLM citations don't rank in Google's top 100 (Ahrefs)
- Brands 6.5x more likely cited through third-party sources (AirOps)
- 120-180 word sections get 70% more ChatGPT citations (SE Ranking, Nov 2025)
- Comparison tables with `<thead>` achieve 47% higher AI citation rates (directional)
- Content freshness: 76.4% of top citations updated within 30 days (Ahrefs, ~17M citations)

## Audit Process

### Step 1: Read Content

Extract from the blog post:
- Full content text and word count
- Heading structure (H1, H2, H3 hierarchy)
- Individual paragraphs and their word counts
- FAQ sections (if present)
- Schema markup (JSON-LD, microdata, RDFa)
- robots.txt mentions or meta robots directives
- Any TL;DR or summary boxes
- Comparison tables and their HTML structure
- Numbered/ordered lists
- Definition-style formatting

### Step 2: Passage-Level Citability (4 pts)

Check each section between headings for AI-extractable passages:

| Check | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| Word count | Each section contains 120-180 word self-contained passages |
| Context independence | Each passage makes sense extracted from surrounding context |
| Claim structure | Passages contain: specific claim + supporting evidence + source attribution |
| Completeness | Passage answers a question without requiring reader to read adjacent sections |

**Scoring:** Count passages meeting all criteria vs total sections.
- 4 pts: 80%+ sections have citable passages
- 3 pts: 60-79%
- 2 pts: 40-59%
- 1 pt: 20-39%
- 0 pts: <20%

### Step 3: Q&A Formatting (3 pts)

Check heading format and answer structure:

| Check | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| Question headings | 60-70% of H2s are phrased as questions |
| Answer-first format | Opening paragraph under each H2 provides a direct answer |
| FAQ section | Dedicated FAQ section with structured question-answer pairs |

**Scoring:**
- 3 pts: All three criteria met
- 2 pts: Two criteria met
- 1 pt: One criterion met
- 0 pts: None met

### Step 4: Entity Clarity (3 pts)

Check topic consistency and disambiguation:

| Check | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| Canonical topic | One unambiguous primary topic per page |
| Consistent naming | Same entity name used throughout (no confusing synonyms) |
| Intro statement | Clear topic statement in the introduction paragraph |
| Title-content match | Title accurately reflects the content focus |

**Scoring:**
- 3 pts: All four criteria met
- 2 pts: Three criteria met
- 1 pt: One or two criteria met
- 0 pts: None met

### Step 5: Content Structure for Extraction (3 pts)

Check for AI-extractable content patterns:

| Check | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| TL;DR box | 40-60 word standalone summary present at top |
| Comparison tables | Tables with proper HTML `<thead>` (47% higher citation rate) |
| Ordered lists | Numbered lists for processes and step-by-step instructions |
| Definition formatting | Key terms formatted with clear definition patterns |
| Citation capsules | 40-60 word definitive statements in each major section |

**Scoring:**
- 3 pts: 4-5 elements present
- 2 pts: 3 elements present
- 1 pt: 1-2 elements present
- 0 pts: None present

### Step 6: AI Crawler Accessibility (2 pts)

Check technical requirements for AI crawler indexing:

| Check | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| Static HTML | Content rendered in static HTML, not behind JavaScript |
| robots.txt | Allows AI crawlers: GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot |
| Schema in HTML | Schema markup in static HTML, not JS-injected |
| Page size | Reasonable page size within AI crawler limits |

**Scoring:**
- 2 pts: All criteria met
- 1 pt: Most criteria met but one issue
- 0 pts: Multiple issues blocking AI crawlers

### Step 7: Platform-Specific Analysis

Evaluate the post for each AI platform's citation preferences:

#### ChatGPT
- Favors "Best X" listicles (43.8% of citations)
- Prefers well-cited, authoritative content
- Recency matters: recent updates get priority
- Domain authority influences citation likelihood

#### Perplexity
- Favors Reddit sources (6.6% of all citations)
- Rapid content decay: 2-3 day citation window
- Freshness is the most critical factor
- Community-validated content preferred

#### Google AI Overviews
- Favors Google properties (23% of citations)
- High Domain Rating strongly correlated with citation
- Present in 49% of SERPs
- Prefers content that already ranks well organically

For each platform, provide:
- Current citability rating (High / Medium / Low)
- Specific improvements to increase citation likelihood
- Content format recommendations

### Step 8: Generate Citation Capsules

For each H2 section in the post, write a citation capsule:

- **Length**: 40-60 words, self-contained
- **Structure**: Specific claim + data point + source attribution
- **Purpose**: A passage AI could directly quote as a citation
- **Format**: Present as a suggested addition the author can embed

Example:
```
According to [Source], [specific claim with number]. This represents
[context/comparison], making it [significance]. [Supporting detail
that reinforces the claim].
```

Generate one capsule per H2 section. Label each with the