- Everything you need to start AI search improvement in one place: tools, templates, checklists, and guides
- Organized by skill level: beginner (week 1), intermediate (weeks 2-4), and advanced (months 2-3)
- All free resources, no paywalls or premium upsells to get started
- If you only do 5 things from this kit, I tell you which 5 to prioritize
Starting AI Search Improvement Feels Overwhelming. This Kit Fixes That.
I talk to marketing teams every week who want to get started with AEO (Answer Engine Improvement) but don’t know where to begin. They’ve read a few articles. They know it’s important. But the gap between “I should do this” and “I know exactly what to do first” is huge.
That gap is what this starter kit fills. I’ve organized every resource, tool, template, and checklist you need into a single reference. Everything here is free. No premium tier required. No “sign up for our newsletter to unlock” gates.
Work through it at your own pace. If you do everything in this kit, you’ll go from zero AI search presence to a solid foundation in about 4-6 weeks.
Source for that growth stat: BrightEdge 2025 AI search data.
The 5 Things to Do First (If You Do Nothing Else)
Short on time? If you can only do 5 things, do these:
Check Your AI Visibility
Use our free AI citation checker to see if any AI engines cite you right now. Takes 2 minutes. This is your baseline.
Fix Your robots.txt
Make sure AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) can access your site. Check yourdomain.com/robots.txt. If any AI crawlers are blocked, unblock them. 5-minute fix.
Add Organization Schema
Add Organization structured data to your homepage with your company name, description, logo, and sameAs links to social profiles. Use our schema generator to create the markup. 10 minutes.
Improve Your Most Important Page
Pick your single best blog post or guide. Add a direct answer in the first 200 words. Add 3-5 FAQ questions with answers. Add 3+ external source citations. 30 minutes.
Create an llms.txt File
Use our llms.txt generator to create a machine-readable file telling AI engines what your site is about. 5 minutes.
Total time for all 5: about one hour. And you’ll already be ahead of 80% of websites that have done zero AI search work.
Beginner Level: Week 1 Essentials
Start here if you’re brand new to AI search improvement.
Learn the Basics
Required Reading
Our pillar guide. Covers what AEO is, why it matters, and how it works. 15-minute read.
Understand how AI search improvement differs from traditional SEO. You need both, but they’re not the same.
The basic building block of AI search visibility. Understand what citations are and why they matter.
Run Your First Audit
Beginner Audit Steps
Use the free citation checker. Test your brand name and 5 industry queries.
Open ChatGPT and ask “What is [Your Brand]?” Do the same on Perplexity. Screenshot the results.
Use our AI search readiness scorecard for a quick site assessment.
Go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Check if any AI crawlers are blocked.
Make Your First Fixes
Quick Wins (Week 1)
If they’re blocked, add allow rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended.
Use our schema generator. Add the JSON-LD to your homepage.
Use our llms.txt generator. Upload to your site root.
Intermediate Level: Weeks 2-4
Once you’ve got the basics in place, it’s time to work on content and entities.
Content Improvement
Content Tasks
Use our AI content scoring template. Rate each page on the 10 AI search signals. Identify the weakest signals.
The first 200 words of each page should contain a clear, extractable answer to the page’s main question.
Add 3-5 FAQ questions to each of your top 10 pages. Add FAQ schema markup for each one.
Every page should cite at least 3 external, authoritative sources. Link to research, official data, and reputable publications.
Entity Building
Entity Tasks
Go to wikidata.org. Create an entry for your brand if one doesn’t exist. Fill in all relevant properties.
Create author pages with Person schema. Update LinkedIn profiles to match. Connect author entities to your Organization entity.
Claim and complete profiles on Google Business, Crunchbase, LinkedIn Company, and industry directories.
For deeper entity building strategies, read our entity architecture guide.
Monitoring Setup
Monitoring Tasks
Create a custom channel group in GA4 that separates AI referral traffic from organic and direct.
Set up a Google Sheet to track citations weekly and AI traffic monthly.
30 minutes every Monday morning. Check citations, review traffic, update spreadsheet.
Advanced Level: Months 2-3
Once your foundation is solid, these advanced tasks build compounding authority.
Advanced Tasks
Test 20 queries across 3 platforms against 5 competitors. Identify gaps and opportunities.
Build 3-5 new pages specifically designed to win AI citations for queries where no competitor has strong content.
Run a survey, analyze data, or compile a unique report. Original data is the strongest citation magnet.
Guest posts, podcast appearances, industry publication features. Every mention of your brand on an authoritative external site strengthens your entity.
Re-run your full audit. Compare to your Week 1 baseline. Celebrate improvements. Plan the next quarter based on remaining gaps.
Free Tools and Resources Index
Everything in this kit is free. Here’s the complete list:
| Resource | What It Does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| AI Citation Checker | Check if AI engines cite your brand | Free tool |
| Schema Markup Generator | Create AI-focused schema markup | Free tool |
| llms.txt Generator | Create a machine-readable site description | Free tool |
| AI Search Readiness Scorecard | Quick site assessment | Free tool |
| AI Search Improvement Checklist | Complete task checklist | Free guide |
| Technical AEO Checklist | Technical setup checklist | Free guide |
| AEO Playbook | Full strategy playbook | Free guide |
| Google Rich Results Test | Validate your schema markup | Google tool |
Common Questions From Beginners
“Do I need to stop doing SEO?” Absolutely not. AEO works alongside SEO. Keep doing everything you’re doing for Google rankings. AEO adds a new layer on top. Read our AEO vs SEO comparison for the full picture.
“How much time does this take?” The starter tasks (Top 5 list above) take about an hour. The full beginner level takes a week of part-time work. The complete kit through advanced level takes 4-6 weeks at 5-8 hours per week.
“When will I see results?” Perplexity can pick up changes within days. Google AI Overviews respond to changes within weeks. ChatGPT depends on model training updates, which can take months. Start tracking from day one so you can measure progress.
“Can I do this for an e-commerce site?” Yes. The fundamentals apply to all website types. E-commerce sites should focus extra on Product schema, comparison content, and FAQ sections on category and product pages.
“I’m an agency. Can I use this for clients?” Yes. Everything in this kit applies to client work. Start with the beginner audit for each new client, then work through the intermediate and advanced levels based on their budget and timeline.
What’s Next After the Starter Kit?
Once you’ve worked through this kit, you’ll have:
- A clear picture of your current AI visibility
- Technical foundations in place (schema, robots.txt, llms.txt)
- Your top content improved for AI search signals
- Entity profiles established across key platforms
- Monitoring in place to track progress
From here, it’s about consistency. Monthly content improvement. Weekly monitoring. Quarterly audits. The foundation you build in these first 4-6 weeks supports everything that comes after.
Want Expert Help Getting Started?
If DIY isn’t your thing, or if you want a head start, our free AI visibility audit gives you a professional assessment of where you stand and what to prioritize. No strings attached.
Frequently Asked Questions
AEO (Answer Engine Improvement) is the practice of making your content the source that AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini cite when answering questions. SEO targets Google’s traditional link results. AEO targets AI-generated answers. You need both, but they use different tactics and signals.
You can start for free using the tools in this starter kit (citation checker, schema generator, llms.txt generator, readiness scorecard). The main cost is your time: about 5-8 hours per week for 4-6 weeks to build a solid foundation. Paid tools start at about $12/month if you want automated tracking later.
Start with Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Perplexity always cites sources (making it easiest to track and win citations), and Google AI Overviews are tied to the world’s largest search engine. ChatGPT is important but harder to influence because it depends on training data rather than real-time crawling.
Perplexity can pick up content changes within days to weeks. Google AI Overviews respond within weeks to months. ChatGPT base model recognition depends on training updates and can take 3-6 months. Start tracking from day one so you can measure progress across all platforms.