On-site infrastructure (15 items)
Ship these once across the site:
- Organization JSON-LD with sameAs links to LinkedIn, Crunchbase, Clutch
- LocalBusiness JSON-LD with NAP, openingHours, areaServed
- WebSite + Person schema for founder/authors
- llms.txt at site root, scoped to indexable pages
- Sitemap.xml in sync with llms.txt
- robots.txt allowing GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended
- Server-side rendering or static HTML on indexable pages (no JS shell)
- Sub-2s LCP on all key pages
- Title tag and meta description distinct per page
- Canonical link tag on every page
- Open Graph + Twitter Card meta on every page
- Breadcrumb schema on deep routes
- Author bio component with Person schema and sameAs LinkedIn
- dateModified updated quarterly on evergreen content
- 404 page with clear navigation back to indexable content
Content patterns (15 items)
Apply to every page you want LLMs to cite:
- H1 written as the literal question or topic a buyer would search
- Quick-answer paragraph in the first 100 words
- Structured H2 sub-questions matching the buyer's mental model
- At least one comparison table or data table per page
- At least one bulleted list with parallel item structure
- FAQ block (5+ pairs) at the bottom
- FAQPage JSON-LD matching the FAQ block
- Article JSON-LD with author, datePublished, dateModified
- Internal links to 3+ related pages
- External citations to 2+ authoritative sources
- Specific numbers, dates, and named entities (not vague claims)
- Original data, opinion, or framework (not regurgitated content)
- Author byline at top with role and credentials
- Last-updated date visible to readers
- Word count appropriate to depth: 600-900 for answers, 1,500-3,000 for guides
Off-site citation building (10 items)
Recurring monthly work:
- Complete profiles on Clutch, GoodFirms, UpCity, G2, Capterra
- Earn 5 verified reviews per directory in first 90 days
- Pitch HARO/Qwoted/Featured 4x per week
- Answer 10+ Reddit/Quora threads monthly with brand-appropriate value
- Publish 1-2 branded listicles per quarter in your category
- Get listed on 3+ third-party listicles per service line
- Appear on 2-3 niche podcasts per quarter
- Ship 1 original data study per year (highest-leverage off-site asset)
- Wikipedia mention where defensible (cite-able product/founder/methodology)
- Monthly founder-authored LinkedIn long-form post