The AI Attribution Crisis Is Real
Here's a number that should worry you: 60% of Perplexity answers include zero source links. Google's AI Overviews are answering queries that used to send you traffic. ChatGPT is summarizing your expertise without linking back.
If you're still only tracking Google Search Console rankings, you're measuring yesterday's SEO while AI engines eat your visibility today.
Step 1: Run a Free AI Citation Scan
The fastest way to check if ChatGPT cites your website is to use a dedicatedAI citation tracking tool. LoudPixel queries all major AI engines simultaneously:
- ChatGPT (GPT-4o) — the largest AI engine by users
- Perplexity — the AI search engine gaining fastest
- Gemini — Google's AI, integrated into Search
- Claude — Anthropic's reasoning engine
- Grok — X's real-time AI
- Mistral — Europe's leading AI model
Step 2: Review Your Citation Report
A good citation report tells you three things:
- Coverage — which engines cite you at all
- Context — are they citing you accurately?
- Position — where in the answer do you appear?
Most websites discover they're cited by 0-1 out of 6 engines. That's a massive visibility gap.
Step 3: Identify Why You're Not Getting Cited
The top reasons AI engines skip your content:
| Issue | Impact | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No TL;DR / answer block | AI can't extract a quotable summary | Add 40-60 word answer immediately after H1 |
| AI crawlers blocked in robots.txt | Engines can't index your content | Allow GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-Web |
| Missing llms.txt | No machine-readable knowledge base | Deploy llms.txt at root with key content |
| Weak E-E-A-T signals | AI trusts you less than competitors | Add author bios, credentials, data sources |
| Poor content structure | Paragraphs too long for RAG chunking | Keep paragraphs ≤120 words, H2 every 300 words |
Step 4: Optimize for AI Citation
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing your content to be cited by AI engines. The key techniques:
Deploy llms.txt
This is a machine-readable file at your domain root that helps AI scrapers understand your site. Think of it as robots.txt for AI — but instead of blocking, you're inviting.
Structure Content for AI Parsing
- 40-60 word TL;DR block immediately after H1
- Paragraphs ≤120 words (RAG systems chunk at this length)
- Data in markdown tables (AI parses tables better than prose)
- H2 subheads every 250-300 words
Add JSON-LD Structured Data
Deploy FAQPage, HowTo, and Article schemas. AI engines increasingly use structured data to verify facts and attribute sources.
Step 5: Monitor Over Time
AI engines update their knowledge bases constantly. What doesn't cite you today might cite you next week — if your content is optimized. Scan weekly to track:
- New citations appearing across engines
- Citation accuracy (are they summarizing correctly?)
- Competitive movement (are competitors gaining citations you lost?)
The Bottom Line
AI search isn't replacing Google — it's happening alongside it. The brands that win in 2026 are the ones visible in both traditional search and AI engines. Step one is knowing where you stand.