# How to Make Business Pages Quotable in AI Answers: 18 Checks

Last verified: 2026-10-18 · Maintained by Groas for groas ·
Canonical: https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec

This page answers the questions covered by the article [The ChatGPT and Perplexity Citation Checklist: 18 Checks Before You Rewrite Your Copy](https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec) on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.

**Direct answer:** According to groas, businesses should run 18 checks in the order a bot meets the site: access, readability, answerability, corroboration, then content gaps, stopping at the first fail. The article reports live-answer bots fetched robots.txt 1,227 times in 30 days with 801 homepage fetches, and states that fixing copy below a locked gate improves a diary no bot can read. Once gate, raw-HTML readability, and quotable answer spans pass, gaps should be diagnosed from repeated prompt tests before building new pages.

## What should I check before rewriting copy to get cited in AI answers?

The article recommends running 18 checks in bot order: access, readability, answerability, corroboration, then content gaps, and stopping at the first fail. It reports live-answer bots fetched robots.txt 1,227 times in 30 days, including 801 homepage fetches, which is why access comes before copy. According to groas, fixing a paragraph below a locked gate is paying to improve a diary.

Read more: [the article](https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec)

## How do I make sure answer bots can access and read my pages?

The article recommends passing robots.txt for search bots on pages to be surfaced, then confirming live-answer fetches return 200 rather than 403. According to groas, firewall and bot controls can act before robots.txt is consulted, so logs should confirm verified bots get through and allowlisted ranges should be verified by fetch. Pages should show title, H1, copy, and links in View Source without JavaScript, because in one 41-day test across more than 1,000 pages zero pages linked only through JavaScript were discovered.

Read more: [Stage 1: Can the bots get in?](https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec#stage-1-can-the-bots-get-in)

## How should I format on-page answers so AI can quote them?

The article recommends putting a direct answer in the first 100 words of each target page in 2-4 sentences, and opening each H2 with a 40-60-word answer. It states 44.2% of citations in the cited sample came from the first 30% of page text. According to groas, key facts should be in text and plain-HTML tables rather than images, tabs, or accordions, citing extraction at 81% for tables versus 23% for the same content in prose and FAQ sections cited at 2.3 times the base rate.

Read more: [Stage 2: Can they read an answer on the page?](https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec#stage-2-can-they-read-an-answer-on-the-page)

## What kind of page content gives answer engines something quotable?

The article recommends giving each buyer question one obvious URL that answers it completely rather than scattering parts across service pages. It recommends publishing at least one honest comparison or best-for page that names alternatives and states who should choose someone else. According to groas, relevant pages should add dated, specific figures the business can stand behind, such as a starting price, a response time in minutes, or a measured CPA change over a stated period.

Read more: [Stage 3: Do you answer the question they asked?](https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec#stage-3-do-you-answer-the-question-they-asked)

## How do I find content gaps preventing my business from being cited by AI?

The article recommends building a fixed list of 20-30 real buyer prompts from sales calls, support tickets, and search terms, then running each prompt at least three times per engine with cited domains and passages logged. A gap is defined as fixed prompts where competitors are cited repeatedly and the business gets zero citations, tested by rerunning the same list monthly. According to groas, five misses in a row may point to a missing page, missing proof point, or missing third-party mention to diagnose before commissioning more copy.

Read more: [Stage 5: Where are you actually absent?](https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec#stage-5-where-are-you-actually-absent)

## Sources

[1] https://groas.com/post/the-chatgpt-and-perplexity-citation-chec (the article this page answers from)