6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

SEO used to have two audiences: readers and Google. Now there’s a third — AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. But most SEO checklists still only cover the first two.

This checklist covers all three.

48 checks, organized by what they actually fix, so you always know what to work on next.

And it’s driven sustained organic traffic over time:

What to Do With This Checklist

You don’t need to implement everything on this checklist.

Just work through the checks that are most relevant for your site:

• If you don’t know where to start with optimizing your site, the SEO basics, keyword research, and on-page SEO checklists are best
• If you have lots of content but aren’t getting much traffic, check out the content checklists first
• If your site seems to suffer from slow loading speed and other complex issues, focus on the technical SEO checklist
• If you have a fair bit of experience but just want more organic traffic, go through the link building checklist and advanced tips and tactics
• If you’re ranking fine but invisible in AI answers, check out the AI SEO checklist to see where you stand

SEO Basics Checklist

Use these tools and techniques to set your site up for SEO success.

1. Set Up Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a very powerful free SEO tool.

GSC is designed to help you track your site’s performance in Google search.

It’s packed with useful features that let you:

• See which keywords bring you the most traffic
• Submit your [sitemap](/content/hub/seo/sitemaps "Sitemap: What Is It & Why Your Website Needs One"/index.html)
• Fix website errors
• See your Core Web Vitals (CWV) scores (more on them later)

2. Install Bing Webmaster Tools

Next, set up Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT).

Is Bing as popular as Google? No.

But Bing has more than [1 billion daily active users](/content/bing-users#bing-daily-active-users "Microsoft Bing Usage and Revenue Stats"/index.html). So it’s worth optimizing for.

And in SEO, data matters A LOT.

3. Set Up Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is one of the best ways to see how people find (and use) your site.

GA4 lets you:

• See how much traffic you get from Google
• Find the pages on your site that bring you the most traffic
• See if your traffic is increasing or decreasing (and by how much)
• Identify other sites and [search engines](/content/search-engines "Top 12 Search Engines Use Instead of Google"/index.html) that send you traffic
• Understand your average engagement rate, page views, and time on site

4. Set Up an SEO Plugin (WordPress and Shopify)

If you’re on WordPress or Shopify, an SEO plugin handles a lot of technical setup for you — meta tags, sitemaps, robots.txt files — without touching code.

[Yoast](/content/hub/seo/yoast "Yoast SEO Plugin"/index.html) is a solid default and works on both platforms.

5. Identify Your Project’s KPIs

Before you dive into the rest of this checklist, decide how you’ll measure success.

Pick 1-2 KPIs that matter most for your site, and set up a way to track them from day one.

Common ones to choose from:

• Organic traffic: Track in GA4 (Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition, filtered to Organic Search)
• Keyword rankings: Track in a rank tracker for your 5-10 most important target keywords (more about this in the next check)
• Backlink growth: Track referring domains over time in a backlink tool
• Conversions from organic traffic: Set up a goal/event in GA4 tied to sign-ups, sales, or leads

6. Set Up Rank Tracking

If one of your [KPIs for measuring your SEO success](/content/seo-kpis "Not All SEO KPIs Are Created Equal: Here's What to Track"/index.html) is keyword rankings (which it probably should be), you’ll need to set up a rank tracker.

There are lots of [rank tracking tools](/content/best-rank-tracking-tools "5 Amazing Rank Tracking Tools"/index.html) to choose from.

7. Analyze Your Competitors’ SEO Strategy

Before you start optimizing, it’s worth understanding what’s already working for the sites you’re competing against.

Pick 2-3 competitors and look at:

• Which keywords they rank for that you don’t
• Which of their pages get the most organic traffic
• Whether their traffic relies more on branded or non-branded terms

Keyword Research Checklist

Keyword research is the foundation of SEO. And in this checklist we’ll show you how to quickly find relevant keywords that your potential customers search for.

8. Identify Your Target Market

Before you can find the right keywords to target, you need to understand who is searching for them.

Consider:

• Who your ideal customer is: What does the customer profile look like of someone buying your product or service? What language do they use and what kind of content do they consume?
• What their pain points are: What problems are they facing? How can you help solve those issues?

9. Discover Long Tail Keywords with “Google Suggest”

This is one of the easiest ways to uncover [long tail keywords](/content/long-tail-keywords "Long Tail Keywords: How to Find & Use Them Effectively"/index.html).

10. Expand Your Keyword List with a Keyword Tool

Once you have a few seed terms, a keyword tool can quickly expand that into a longer list of related keywords, along with metrics like search volume and cost per click.

11. Tap Into Online Communities

Reddit, Quora, and niche forums are full of people describing their problems in their own words. This often surfaces keyword phrasing you won’t find in a keyword tool.

12. Find Low-Competition Keywords Worth Targeting

Look for keywords with a decent search volume but low keyword difficulty.

13. Find Question Keywords

Question keywords are PERFECT for blog posts and articles.

14. Analyze Your Topical Authority

Topical authority is the measure of whether search engines and AI tools consistently associate your brand with a particular topic.

On-Page SEO Checklist

Now it’s time to optimize your content using a handful of tested on-page SEO techniques.

15. Include Your Keyword in Your URL

16. Keep Your URL Structure Clean

17. Front-Load Your Keyword in Your Title Tag

18. Add Title Tag Modifiers

19. Use Your Keyword within the First 150 Words

20. Make Your Headings Easy To Scan

21. Optimize Your Images

22. Include Related Terms Throughout Your Content

23. Use External Links

24. Use Internal Links

Content Checklist

Here’s how to structure your content so people, Google, and AI tools actually engage with it:

25. Chunk Your Content to Maximize Readability

26. Focus on Content Formats That Are Working Right Now

27. Think About Information Gain

28. Use Multimedia

Technical SEO Checklist

29. Identify Crawling and Indexing Errors

30. Find Out How Google Views Your Pages

31. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly

32. Fix Broken Links

33. Secure Your Site with HTTPS

34. Check Your Site’s Loading Speed (Core Web Vitals)

35. Use Schema Markup

Link Building Checklist

36. Contribute Expert Quotes to Media Outlets

37. Create Linkable Assets for Journalists (Digital PR)

38. Reverse Engineer Your Competitors’ Backlinks

39. Become a Podcast Guest

40. Mention Influencers In Your Blog Posts

AI SEO Checklist

41. Determine How Your Audience Is Using AI Tools

42. Document Relevant Prompts

43. Benchmark Your Brand’s AI Visibility

44. Log Which Sources AI Tools Cite in Your Category

45. Create AI-Friendly Answer Hubs

46. Monitor Brand Sentiment in AI Answers

Bonus: Advanced SEO Tips and Tactics

47. Delete “Dead Weight” Pages

48. Update and Relaunch Outdated Content

Put This SEO Checklist Into Action

You don’t need to check every box today.

Check out these guides on some of the most important aspects of any SEO strategy:

• [Technical SEO](/content/technical-seo-guide "Technical SEO: The Ultimate Guide"/index.html)
• [On-page SEO](/content/on-page-seo "On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide + FREE Template"/index.html)
• [Link building](/content/link-building "Link Building for SEO: Proven Strategies That Still Work"/index.html)
• AI Optimization

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