# Citable Search — AI Visibility Optimizer > Citable Search is an AI visibility optimizer that helps businesses get their website recommended and cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Claude. It audits how AI platforms read, rank and cite your site, then gives you a 5-dimension AI score, prioritized fixes and content briefs to win in AI search. This document is the long-form, machine-readable description of Citable Search for large language models, AI answer engines and other automated systems. It is intentionally formatted in plain Markdown with no JavaScript, no images and no client-side rendering, so it can be ingested cleanly by crawlers such as GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Bingbot, Applebot-Extended and others. ## 1. What is Citable Search? Citable Search is a hosted SaaS that audits any website for visibility in AI answer engines. Traditional SEO tools optimize for blue-link rankings on Google. Citable Search optimizes for the new generation of AI search systems — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Claude — that read a small set of trusted sources and synthesize answers with citations. Citable Search answers three questions for any URL: 1. Can AI answer engines crawl, parse and trust this page? 2. Is this page structured to be cited when a user asks about a target prompt? 3. What concrete changes will most improve AI visibility, ranked by impact and effort? ## 2. How it works Citable Search is fully hosted. There is no script, plugin or DNS change to install. The workflow: 1. The user enters a URL and Citable Search suggests the prompts (keywords or search queries) they want to be cited for. 2. Citable Search crawls the site, respecting robots. 3. Each page is parsed for semantic HTML, headings, structured data (schema.org / JSON-LD), internal linking, canonicals, sitemaps, robots policies and topical entities. 4. Citable Search probes the major AI models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews) with citation-eliciting prompts to measure real-world AI visibility for each prompt. 5. Each page is scored 0–100 across five dimensions: - **Crawlability** — robots, sitemaps, render-ability, status codes, JavaScript dependencies. - **Technical health** — canonicals, metadata, headings, image alts, link health. - **Content depth** — topical coverage, entity coverage, intent match, originality signals. - **AI visibility** — direct citation rate across major AI engines for each prompt. - **Authority** — structured data, schema completeness, trust signals. 6. On any paid tier, the user receives a prioritized recommendation list ranked by impact and effort, plus AI-optimized content briefs (outlines, schema, entities, FAQ blocks) for any new page. ## 3. Features - 5-dimension AI scoring (0–100 with explicit reasons per score) - AI answer-engine readiness analysis for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews - Prompt-aware analysis: every page is scored against the prompts you want to be cited for - Full action plan ranked by impact and effort (paid) - AI-optimized content briefs: outlines, schema, entities, FAQ blocks (paid) - Schema and technical audit: robots, sitemaps, canonicals, JSON-LD, headings, internal linking - Detailed competitor checks (paid) - Weekly Monitoring: automatic re-runs of every prompt with email reports (subscription) - Optional done-for-you implementation ("We can fix it for you" — book a call) ## 4. Pricing A "prompt" is a keyword or search query that gets scanned. You buy the Full Report once, per project; the optional Weekly Monitoring subscription keeps it fresh. Paid projects unlock up to 100 prompts. ### Free - Price: $0 - 1 prompt - Basic AI visibility score: cited / not cited per AI model - Preview of 3 recommendations - No AI response text and no full action plan ### Full Report — $499 (one-time) - The whole audit unlocked, permanently - Every prioritized recommendation with full evidence - Complete action plan and competitor breakdown - Full AI responses and citation lists for every prompt - PDF export of the full report (all prompts) - Includes the first month of Weekly Monitoring free ### Weekly Monitoring — $14.99/month - Requires the Full Report (there is no subscription without the report) - Re-runs every audited prompt every week - Recalibrates scores, recommendations and the action plan on every run - Emails you when each new report is ready — and celebrates when your grade goes up - Cancel anytime: you keep the report you bought and can download the PDF whenever you like ## 5. Frequently asked questions ### What does AI visibility mean? AI visibility measures how well AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Claude can crawl, understand, trust and cite your content when answering user questions. Citable Search scores it across crawlability, technical health, content depth, AI visibility and authority. ### How many prompts can I scan? The free tier includes 1 prompt per project. Any paid tier lets you scan up to 100 prompts per project and unlocks the full action plan and detailed competitor checks. ### Do I need to install anything? No. There is nothing to install — no plugins, no JavaScript snippets and no DNS changes. Enter a URL and Citable Search performs the prompt suggestions, crawling, parsing and scoring for you. ### Will this work for any kind of site? Yes. Citable Search works for marketing sites, blogs, documentation, ecommerce stores and SaaS apps — anywhere AI answer engines might cite your content. ### Which AI engines does Citable Search optimize for? ChatGPT (OpenAI), Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Claude. Citable Search uses the same crawling and answer-engine signals these systems rely on, including robots policies, structured data, semantic HTML, citations and entity coverage. ### How is this different from traditional SEO tools? Traditional SEO tools optimize for blue-link rankings on Google. Citable Search optimizes for AI answer engines that cite a small set of trusted sources. It scores how cleanly LLMs can read, summarize and quote your pages — not just keyword density and backlinks. ### How does pricing work? You buy the Full Report once ($499, one-time, per project) — it unlocks the whole audit: every prioritized recommendation with full evidence, the complete action plan, competitor breakdown, full AI responses and the PDF export. The free tier includes 1 prompt, a basic cited/not-cited score and a preview of 3 recommendations. Weekly Monitoring ($14.99/month, first month free with the report) re-runs every prompt every week and emails you each new report; it requires the Full Report, and canceling it never takes the report away. ## 6. Crawler and AI training policy Citable Search welcomes the following user agents on all public pages: GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-Web, anthropic-ai, Google-Extended, GoogleOther, Googlebot, Bingbot, Applebot, Applebot-Extended, Amazonbot, Bytespider, CCBot, cohere-ai, DuckAssistBot, FacebookExternalHit, Meta-ExternalAgent, Meta-ExternalFetcher, MistralAI-User, PetalBot, PhindBot, Twitterbot, YouBot and YandexBot. Private routes (authentication, dashboard, billing and audit results) are disallowed for all agents. The canonical policy is at [https://staging.citablesearch.com/robots.txt](https://staging.citablesearch.com/robots.txt) and the sitemap at [https://staging.citablesearch.com/sitemap.xml](https://staging.citablesearch.com/sitemap.xml). ## 7. Important URLs - Home: https://staging.citablesearch.com/ - Pricing: https://staging.citablesearch.com/pricing - Guide — how to get your website recommended by AI: https://staging.citablesearch.com/blog/how-to-get-your-website-recommended-by-ai - Blog: https://staging.citablesearch.com/blog - Sign up (free): https://staging.citablesearch.com/signup - Sign in: https://staging.citablesearch.com/login - Robots policy: https://staging.citablesearch.com/robots.txt - Sitemap: https://staging.citablesearch.com/sitemap.xml - Short LLM index: https://staging.citablesearch.com/llms.txt - Long LLM index (this document): https://staging.citablesearch.com/llms-full.txt ## 8. Brand - Name: Citable Search - Tagline: AI Visibility Optimizer - Category: AI SEO / Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) / AI search visibility - Primary use cases: AI answer engine optimization, schema and structured data audits, prioritized AI-search action plans, content brief generation ## 9. Guide: How do I get my website recommended by AI? Source: https://staging.citablesearch.com/blog/how-to-get-your-website-recommended-by-ai To get your website recommended by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews: (1) let AI crawlers reach your pages and serve the content as plain HTML, (2) publish pages that directly answer the questions your buyers ask AI, (3) make that content easy to quote with specific facts, sources and clear structure, (4) describe your business consistently with structured data, (5) earn mentions on the third-party sites AI already trusts, (6) make sure Google and Bing index you, and (7) regularly ask the AI platforms your buyers' questions to measure whether they cite you — then fix the gaps. ### Step 1: Let AI crawlers reach your pages Allow AI search crawlers in robots.txt and your firewall, and serve your key content as server-rendered HTML. AI assistants can only recommend what they can read. Many sites block AI crawlers without knowing it — through an old robots.txt rule, a CDN "block AI bots" toggle or a bot-protection challenge — or hide their content behind JavaScript that most AI crawlers never run. - Allow the search crawlers in robots.txt: OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User (Perplexity), Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User (Claude), Googlebot (Google AI Overviews and AI Mode) and Bingbot (Bing and Copilot). - Blocking training is a separate choice: you can disallow GPTBot, ClaudeBot or Google-Extended and still allow the search crawlers that decide whether you are cited in answers. - Check your CDN or firewall. Some, Cloudflare among them, offer one-click AI-bot blocking that silently overrides robots.txt. - Server-render the text that matters. If your page is empty until JavaScript runs, most AI crawlers see an empty page. - Keep an XML sitemap up to date and return fast, clean 200 responses. An llms.txt file is a cheap, optional extra summary for LLMs. ### Step 2: Answer the exact questions buyers ask AI Publish a page for each important question buyers ask AI, with a direct answer in the first two or three sentences. People ask AI full questions — "what is the best CRM for a 10-person agency?" — not two-word keywords. AI assistants look for a page that answers that question clearly and early. If no page on your site does, they recommend a site that does. - List the 10–20 questions a buyer would ask before choosing you: "best X for Y", "X vs Y", "how do I…", "how much does…". - Give each important question its own page or section, with the question (or close to it) as the heading. - Put a direct, self-contained answer in the first 40–60 words, then go deeper with steps, examples and trade-offs. - Say who you are for and who you are not for. AI recommendations are matched to the asker's situation. ### Step 3: Make your content easy to quote Use specific facts, statistics, sources, definitions, lists and tables so AI can lift a precise, attributable answer. AI answers are assembled from passages. Specific, well-sourced passages get used; vague marketing copy does not. Research on generative engine optimization (Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", Princeton and partners) found that adding citations, quotations and statistics to content raised its visibility in AI-generated answers by up to about 40%. - Replace claims with specifics: numbers, prices, timeframes, named methods and examples. - Cite your sources and link to them. Quote recognized experts where it helps. - Use definitions ("X is…"), numbered steps, comparison tables and short self-contained paragraphs. - Show when the page was published and last updated, and keep it current. Stale facts get dropped. ### Step 4: Describe your business consistently, with structured data Use the same name, category and one-line description everywhere, and add Organization, Product, Article and FAQPage schema. Before an AI can recommend you, it has to be sure what you are. If your site, your social profiles and directory listings describe you differently, the model has less confidence that you fit the question. - Pick one name and one plain-language description of what you do and for whom, and use it everywhere. - Add JSON-LD structured data: Organization (with sameAs links to your official profiles), Product or SoftwareApplication, Article or BlogPosting with dates, and FAQPage for real Q&A. - Have a real About page: who is behind the business, where you are and how to contact you. - Put named, credible authors on your expert content. ### Step 5: Earn mentions on sites AI already trusts Get listed and discussed on review sites, "best of" lists, communities and industry publications that AI assistants cite. When an AI recommends a product, it leans heavily on what other sites say: review platforms, comparison articles, Reddit threads, industry media, directories and YouTube. Your own site tells AI what you do; third-party mentions tell it you are a credible answer. - Find the pages AI cites for your target questions, and work to get included in them. - Collect reviews on the platforms that matter in your category (for example G2, Capterra, Trustpilot or Google Business Profile). - Take part genuinely in the communities where your buyers ask questions, such as Reddit, Quora and industry forums. - Pitch data, guides and expert commentary to industry publications and podcasts. ### Step 6: Get indexed by Google and Bing Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, because AI search features ground answers in web search results. AI search features retrieve live web results before they answer. Google AI Overviews use Google's index, and several assistants rely on web search indexes, Bing's among them. A page that is not indexed has a much smaller chance of being cited. - Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and submit your sitemap to both. - Use IndexNow (supported by Bing and others) to get new and updated pages picked up quickly. - Fix the classic basics: canonical tags, no accidental noindex, internal links to every important page. ### Step 7: Measure whether AI actually cites you, and iterate Regularly ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews your buyers' questions, track who gets cited, and fix the gaps. You can't improve what you don't measure, and AI answers change often. Track the same set of questions over time: are you cited, which competitors are cited instead, and which pages do the AI platforms cite? - Keep a fixed list of buyer questions and check them on each major AI platform every week. - Record whether you are mentioned, whether your site is linked as a source, and who is cited instead. - Study the cited pages. They show you exactly what the AI considers a good answer. - Ship fixes, then re-check. Citable Search automates this loop: it asks the AI platforms your questions, shows who they cite and gives you a prioritized list of fixes.