Internal SOP · 84-item audit framework

The exact GEO checklist we run on every client site.

Not a blog post. Not a generic SEO checklist. This is the internal audit framework Search Scope uses to make Australian businesses citable inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini. Score yourself honestly — every “non-compliant” box is a reason a competitor is being cited instead of you.

Built and maintained by Dorian Menard. 13+ years SEO, only.

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ChatGPTPerplexityGoogle AIGemini
84 items 8 categories · impact-ranked
60–120 min To complete the full audit
Used on Every Search Scope engagement
Live
Your GEO score
Overall progress
0%
1 · Technical0/11
2 · Schema0/11
3 · Content0/12
4 · E-E-A-T0/13
5 · Entity0/10
6 · Citation0/9
7 · Distribution0/9
8 · Tracking0/9
Not evaluated Compliant Non-compliant
Where to start

Pick the entry point that matches your situation.

84 items is a lot. Most teams will not finish in one sitting. Pick the route below — fix that block first, come back for the rest. Progress saves automatically.

  1. 01
    New site · shaky tech
    Start at Technical Foundation

    If hosting is slow, robots.txt is wrong, or schema is missing, nothing further on this list will rank you. Fix the foundations first.

  2. 02
    Australian local business
    Start at Entity Recognition

    Google Business Profile, Knowledge Panel, NAP consistency and sameAs links drive 70%+ of local AI citation. Fastest leverage for service-area businesses.

  3. 03
    Content-heavy site
    Start at AI-Optimised Content

    You already have pages. They are not being cited. The fix is structure, freshness and citation-ready formats — not more content.

  4. 04
    Established brand · soft authority
    Start at E-E-A-T Signals

    LLMs cite experts, not brands. With no author bio, no Person schema, no media mentions, the model has no reason to trust you over the next site.

01

Technical Foundation

0%

AI crawlers are impatient. Slow site? They move on. Broken robots.txt? You do not exist.

Core Web Vitals

  • TTFB under 300ms Critical
  • LCP under 2.5 seconds Critical
  • CLS under 0.1 High
  • INP under 200ms High

Crawl Access

  • AI crawlers explicitly allowed in robots.txt Critical
  • No accidental noindex on money pages Critical
  • XML sitemap current and submitted High

Mobile & Performance

  • Mobile-first responsive design Critical
  • Image optimisation (WebP / AVIF + descriptive alt text) High

Security & Trust

  • HTTPS everywhere with HSTS enabled Critical
  • Zero 404 errors on key pages Medium
02

Structured Data & Schema

0%

Schema is how LLMs read your site. No schema, the model is guessing what your content means — and guessing wrong.

Essential Schema Types

  • Organization schema on all pages Critical
  • LocalBusiness schema (Australian context) Critical
  • Article schema on all blog posts Critical
  • FAQPage schema (3–6 questions per topic) High
  • BreadcrumbList schema Medium

Advanced Schema

  • Product schema on every product page (e-commerce) High
  • HowTo schema on procedural guides Medium
  • VideoObject schema on video content Medium
  • Speakable schema where it makes sense High

Validation & Maintenance

  • Zero schema errors in Search Console Critical
  • dateModified and Last-Modified header are accurate Medium
03

AI-Optimised Content

0%

Write once, get cited forever. LLMs do not read like humans. They scan for structure, facts and sources.

Content Structure

  • One H1 per page, under 70 characters Critical
  • Logical H2 / H3 hierarchy with no skipped levels High
  • Clickable table of contents on posts over 1,500 words Medium
  • Bulleted and numbered lists used correctly (5–7 items max) High
  • HTML tables include a <caption> Critical

Writing Style

  • Sentences under 15–20 words Medium
  • Paragraphs of 2–4 sentences Medium
  • Direct Q&A format with immediate answers High
  • Neutral, fact-based tone (no hype) High

Content Depth

  • Original data or exclusive insights on every cornerstone page Critical
  • Claim → Evidence → Source format used consistently Critical
  • Visible "Last updated" date on every long-form post High
04

E-E-A-T Signals

0%

AI trusts experts, not brands. Google and the LLMs grade content on who wrote it, how much they know, and whether anyone else trusts them.

Experience

  • Real case studies with real results Critical
  • First-person voice where it makes sense Medium

Expertise

  • Detailed author bio on every article High
  • Author schema with a real Person entity High
  • LinkedIn profile is complete and active Medium

Authority

  • 10–20 topical backlinks from reputable sites Critical
  • Mentions in Australian business media High
  • Natural, diversified link profile Medium

Trustworthiness

  • Complete contact details (address, phone, business email) Critical
  • Up-to-date privacy policy and terms High
  • All sources and data claims cited inline Critical
  • Reviews on Google and ProductReview.com.au with responses High
  • No fake or stolen reviews on your profile Critical
05

Entity Recognition

0%

Be a real entity, not just a website. AI models build knowledge graphs. If you are not in the graph, you do not exist to them.

Business Identity

  • Claimed Google Knowledge Panel Critical
  • Fully optimised Google Business Profile Critical
  • sameAs array linking every social and registry profile High
  • ABN and official registry links visible High
  • GBP is active and not suspended Critical

Advanced Entity Signals

  • Wikidata entry (optional, for established brands) Medium
  • Wikipedia page (optional, high bar) Medium
  • Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across all citations Critical

Social Proof

  • Active social profiles (minimum weekly cadence) Medium
  • Steady review velocity (Google + industry platforms) High
06

Citation Optimisation

0%

Citations are the new rankings. AI models do not link — they cite. Your content gets quoted inside the answer, or it does not exist.

Citation-Ready Formats

  • Publish original statistics and data Critical
  • Definitive glossaries and definitions High
  • Comparison tables with proper structure High
  • Step-by-step guides with numbered lists High

Content Freshness

  • Cornerstone content updated within the last 12 months Critical
  • ISO-8601 date format everywhere Medium

Citation-Friendly Writing

  • Call-out boxes for key stats and facts Medium
  • Bibliography or references section High
  • Descriptive anchor text on internal links Medium
07

Distribution & Visibility

0%

Content that sits idle dies. Getting your content in front of AI crawlers — and the humans who corroborate it — is its own discipline.

Publishing Cadence

  • Publishing 1–2 posts per week (or a deliberate, declared cadence) High
  • Syndicating to LinkedIn and Medium with canonical tags Medium

Link Acquisition

  • Earning topical backlinks from Australian media Critical
  • Guest posts on relevant industry sites High
  • Broken-link building and resource-page outreach Medium

Social & Community

  • Sharing new content on LinkedIn, Facebook and X Medium
  • Participating in Reddit, Quora and niche forums Medium
  • Email newsletter for new content Medium
  • Internal linking to fresh content from established pages High
08

Tracking & Measurement

0%

You cannot improve what you do not measure. Most agencies talking about GEO are not measuring it. Build a real loop.

Manual Citation Checks

  • Weekly manual LLM citation tests Critical
  • Document citation context and co-mentions Medium

GEO Tracking Tools

  • GEO monitoring platform in place (Meteoria, Qwairy, Profound, etc.) High
  • Search Console monitored for AI / Overview referrals Medium

Traffic & Engagement

  • GA4 engagement rate above 60% High
  • Backlink growth tracked monthly Medium

Brand Monitoring

  • Google Alerts on brand and key people Medium
  • Social listening tool tracking brand and competitors Medium

Semantic Coverage

  • Semantic / entity-coverage analysis run on cornerstone pages Medium
Your outcome

Based on your score — what to do next.

Tick boxes above. This panel updates live. Three honest paths, no one-size-fits-all.

Your live score
0% 0 / 84 compliant
FoundationsReady for GEOAdvanced
  1. Under 50%
    Foundations are leaking

    Start with the Technical SEO Audit.

    You have foundational issues that no amount of GEO work will solve. Schema, technical performance, indexation. We map every fix and prioritise it for you.

  3. 80% and above
    Mature program · advanced GEO conversation

    Skip the funnel. Book a working call.

    Your site is doing the work. At this level the conversation is about citation velocity, competitor displacement and the parts of GEO that are not yet on any public checklist.

Save your audit

Email me my score plus the PDF version of the checklist.

You get the full 84-item checklist as a PDF, your live score broken down by category, and the three highest-impact fixes for your bracket. No newsletter spam. Unsubscribe in one click.

We will email you once. No newsletter without opt-in.

Dorian Menard — Search Scope founder and senior SEO consultant
Founder
Dorian Menard
Search Scope · Australia
SEO since
The founder

Meet your senior SEO consultant — Dorian Menard

Founder. 13+ years, SEO only.

13 years specialising in SEO. Founder of Search Scope. I work directly with every client on strategy and execution. No account managers, no offshore teams, no templated retainers.

My work covers local SEO, Google Maps, GBP and GMC reinstatement, ecommerce SEO, technical audits, and AI search visibility. I work with established Australian businesses that want a senior specialist — not a service package.

13+
Years
200+
Engagements
98%
Reinstatement
1
Specialist on your account
FAQ

Honest answers about this checklist.

Anything else, ask Dorian directly on the free 30-minute call.

Book a free check

For most Australian businesses, 60–120 minutes to go through every item honestly. Faster if you already know your tech setup; slower if you have to dig into Search Console, GBP and schema validators for the first time. Progress saves to your browser, so you can leave and come back.

Yes — this is the live SOP. We update it whenever the AI models change behaviour, or whenever we find a new pattern across client work. We are publishing it because the conversion mechanic for an honest checklist is "the audit shows what we do — now talk to us if you want it done", not "gate it behind a download".

It is normal. Most established Australian businesses we audit start in the 30–50% range. The score is not a grade — it is a map of what to fix and in what order. A 35% score with all the Criticals ticked beats an 80% score with three Criticals missing.

No, but you need most of them in your category. The Critical items are the ones we have seen single-handedly cause AI citation to flip. Most pages that start being cited have the schema, freshness, entity and citation-format fundamentals in place — not all 83 items.

That is what the AI SEO program is for. Book the free 30-minute visibility check, share your score, and we will scope the engagement around the gaps that matter for your category.

A combination of: 13 years of SEO across hundreds of Australian businesses, live citation testing across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini, published GEO research (Aggarwal et al., Princeton / Georgia Tech, 2024), and what actually moves the needle on live client work month to month.

Yes — share the URL freely. If you publish or quote the checklist, please credit Search Scope and link back. The "Embed this checklist" snippet below the FAQ gives you a clean attribution block.

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Send this to the team that actually runs your marketing.

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Paste the attribution below at the bottom of any post that pulls from the checklist. It keeps the link active and credits the framework. 

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Written and maintained by Dorian Menard — Founder, Search Scope. 13+ years executing SEO.
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