--- title: "Citation-readiness audit | ChatGPT and answer engines | Len P. van der Hof" description: "A citation-readiness audit is a fail/pass card for one URL: Search door open, first HTML screen quoteable, a name the engine can attach, and a log of whether you were actually named. Eligibility is not a citation." image: "https://lenvanderhof.com/media/generated/blog-hero-citation-readiness-audit-v1.4190ca46c2b8.wide.webp" --- [SEO, GEO and AEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/category/seo-geo-aeo/) Research guide # Citation-readiness audit: eligible is not cited If you cannot fail the page in fifteen minutes, you do not have an audit. You have a mood. Len P. van der HofPublished 2 September 20263 min read Open the door. Then fail the page on purpose. Direct answer A citation-readiness audit is a written fail/pass on one public URL. Four checks, in order: can OAI-SearchBot fetch it, is one checkable claim in the first HTML screen with a person or organisation attached, did you test ChatGPT Search rather than a memory chat, and did you log named / linked / used-not-cited as three different outcomes. A page can be eligible for ChatGPT Search and still never be named. Robots.txt, schema, and llms.txt do not close that gap. Google's generative reports measure Google, not ChatGPT. This page is the card; the how-to and the diagnosis are separate pages. ## Key takeaways - Four checks: door, first screen, named test, three-outcome log. Skip one and you are guessing. - Eligible is not cited. A crawl is not a name in the answer. - Test ChatGPT Search. A memory chat with no sources is the wrong product. - This page is the audit. The how-to owns the week of work. The diagnosis page owns the miss. A citation-readiness audit is the card you run before you buy a GEO retainer. One URL. Four checks. A fail is useful. A vibe is not. **What is a citation-readiness audit?** A written fail/pass on whether an answer engine *could* name you from that URL, and whether you actually checked. Eligibility is not a citation. A crawl is not your name in the answer. [How to get cited by ChatGPT](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) is the week of work. [Why ChatGPT does not name you](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/why-chatgpt-does-not-name-you/) is the diagnosis after a miss. This page is the card you fill in fifteen minutes. ## The four checks Run them in order. Stopping early is a result. 1. **Door.** Can `OAI-SearchBot` fetch the live URL? OpenAI’s crawler docs say that bot surfaces sites in ChatGPT Search. Sites that opt out “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers,” though they can still appear as navigational links. The publishers FAQ is blunter: summaries and snippets require you not to block it. `GPTBot` is training. `ChatGPT-User` is a person-triggered fetch and does not decide Search inclusion. If a vendor slide collapses those names, throw the slide out. 2. **First screen.** Fetch the URL the way a crawler does, not the way a browser paints it. This site’s audit heuristic: one checkable claim in the server-delivered HTML, with a person or organisation sitting on that claim. OpenAI does not document a universal “first screen” citation rule. Treat client-only copy as unverified for the audit. 3. **Named test.** Turn Search on. Ask the question you actually want to win. A logged-in memory chat with no sources is the wrong product. One run is not a result. 4. **Log.** Write three columns: named, linked but unnamed, used without attribution. Absence is a door or discovery miss. A source link without your name is a weak entity cue. Apparent reuse without a name is not proof of copying. If you cannot produce the four answers on paper, you do not have an audit. You have a feeling that the competitor is “better at GEO.” ## What a fail means Fail the door: fix `robots.txt` and wait. OpenAI says a Search-side robots change can take about 24 hours. Then retest. Fail the first screen: move one dated, sourced sentence above the fold in the HTML. Attach a name. Do not add a fake FAQPage. Google ended FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026. Fail the named test: you tested the wrong product, or the page is eligible and still not the capsule. That is the diagnosis page, not a schema plugin. Fail the log: you cannot tell which miss you have. Start logging before you change copy. Google’s generative reports in Search Console measure Google. They do not measure ChatGPT. `llms.txt` is ignored by Google Search. Do not treat a green GSC tile as a citation. ## What this page is not It is not a ranking guarantee. It is not a ChatGPT algorithm. It is not the nine-step how-to and not the full CITATION expansion. [The Findability Engine](https://lenvanderhof.com/books/the-findability-engine/) owns that expansion. The book is in production and not for sale. You can already fail a URL. Write the four answers on a card. Run them on the URL you think should win. If the card is empty, you are not ready to complain that ChatGPT named someone else. ## Terminology - [CITATION](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/citation/) - [AEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/aeo/) ## Sources 1. [How to get cited by ChatGPT](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) 2. [Why am I not mentioned in ChatGPT?](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/why-chatgpt-does-not-name-you/) 3. [How answer engines select sources](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-answer-engines-select-sources/) 4. [CITATION (glossary)](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/citation/) 5. [The Findability Engine](https://lenvanderhof.com/books/the-findability-engine/) 6. [Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) · OpenAI 7. [Publishers and developers FAQ](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12627856-publishers-and-developers-faq) · OpenAI Help Center 8. [Latest documentation updates (FAQ rich result removal)](https://developers.google.com/search/updates/search_docs_updates) · Google Search Central 9. [Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) · Google Search Central ## Further reading - [How to get cited by ChatGPT](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) - [Why am I not mentioned in ChatGPT?](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/why-chatgpt-does-not-name-you/) - [CITATION](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/citation/) About the author ## [Len P. van der Hof](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/authors/len-p-van-der-hof/) Entrepreneur, AI Innovator and Venture Builder Len P. van der Hof builds practical AI systems, digital ventures and evidence-informed tools for founders. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://lenvanderhof.com/#person", "name": "Len P. van der Hof", "alternateName": [ "Len van der Hof", "L.P. van der Hof", "Leendert Pieter van der Hof" ], "honorificSuffix": "MSc", "url": "https://lenvanderhof.com/", 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