checklist · reviewed 24 July 2026

AI search source readiness checklist

A website cannot become a trusted AI source if its official facts are vague, hidden, contradictory or unsupported. Use this checklist to find what is blocking citations, qualified enquiries and revenue.

Searchmaxxed publishes this work so you can inspect the evidence, use the method, and decide what deserves to be built next.

How Searchmaxxed uses this research

Searchmaxxed turns this evidence into an ordered build queue: the pages, proof, technical fixes, internal links and authority work most likely to improve qualified enquiries and revenue.

Official facts

The website should state who the business is, what it sells, who it serves, where it operates, how to contact it and what policies govern the offer in plain crawlable HTML. If AI discovery cannot send qualified enquiries or support revenue, it is not a commercial win.

  • Consistent organisation name, category and description.
  • Clear services, products, industries and locations.
  • Visible people, authorship and responsibility.
  • Accurate pricing posture, policies and eligibility where relevant.

Proof and corroboration

Owned pages are the official-facts layer. Recommendation claims need independent corroboration: reviews, directories, publishers, partner pages, forums, associations and other public sources.

  • Each major claim has evidence or is removed.
  • Case studies state baseline, result, window and attribution limit.
  • External profiles agree with core company facts.
  • Important proof is not trapped in images, PDFs, private pages or JavaScript-only interfaces.

Answer extraction

Important pages should answer the target question in a clean standalone section, then provide the detail, caveats and sources required to trust it.

Use it now

  1. Check whether the homepage defines the business in one extractable paragraph.
  2. Verify service, location and people facts across public profiles.
  3. Map every commercial claim to retained proof.
  4. Add direct answers, dates, sources and visible limitations.
  5. Test fixed prompts and record factual errors separately from mentions.

Sources and related assets

  • Google guidance for AI features and website owners
  • Google Search Essentials
  • OpenAI publisher guidance for ChatGPT search
  • Schema.org vocabulary