The GEO research archive covers every layer of the discipline: the foundational guide, the operating stack, the audit checklist, the measurement playbook. This piece sequences them into a single practitioner's guide — the right order to do everything, at the right depth at each stage.
Stage 1: Baseline (Week 1–2)
Run the Citation Share audit. Use the 35-Prompt Starter Set. Run all 35 prompts across all five engines. Document every response. Score using the 2-1-0 framework. Calculate the baseline Citation Share score.
Map the source architecture. Note which publications the AI engines cite when answering about your brand and category. These are the publications your earned media program needs to target. Cross-reference with the Who Controls AI Answers source map for your vertical.
Identify the gap types. Classify low-scoring prompts: identity gaps, category gaps, comparative gaps, named-person gaps. Each gap type has a different fix.
Stage 2: Entity infrastructure (Week 3–6)
Wikipedia. If your brand meets notability standards and doesn't have an entry, build one. If you have one, audit it. Quarterly maintenance from here. Full guide: How to Build a Wikipedia Entry AI Engines Actually Use.
Entity consistency. Audit your brand's founding date, description, key executives, and product names across your website, Wikipedia, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile. Inconsistencies force AI engines to average conflicting signals.
Schema implementation. Organization schema on homepage. Person schema on all founder and executive bio pages. Article schema on editorial content. FAQPage schema on Q&A content. Validate with Google's Rich Results Test.
Stage 3: Content restructuring (Week 5–8)
Audit top 20 pages for extraction-readiness. Does each page answer its primary query in the first 1–2 sentences? AI engines extract passages — pages that bury the answer in paragraph 4 are not citation-ready.
Build FAQ pages for your 10 highest-value direct queries. What are the 10 questions buyers most commonly ask AI engines about your category? Build dedicated pages for each, with FAQPage schema and a direct answer in the first sentence.
Stage 4: Earned media targeting (Month 2–ongoing)
Build the media list from your source map. The publications cited in your baseline audit are your target list. Typically 5–10 publications that move AI citation in your specific category. Use the AI Platform Citation Source Index 2026 engine-by-engine source maps to calibrate by engine.
Build the named-practitioner program. Identify which founders and senior leaders should have byline programs. One byline per quarter per practitioner in a target publication. Track which practitioners' content generates Citation Share improvement on expert queries.
Run the full 35-prompt audit monthly. Score against baseline. Track which specific prompts improved and which declined. Attribute movement to program activities where possible. Present to leadership quarterly using the Citation Share Measurement Playbook.
Everything-PR is the intelligence platform for communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009. Original reporting, research, and analysis — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
