The checklist
Answer-first: the opening two to four sentences fully answer the core question on their own. Question-shaped headings: each H2 is a real question someone would ask. Self-contained sections: each one makes sense if quoted out of context.
Add a short FAQ with direct answers and FAQPage schema, give the topic genuine depth with concrete facts and named entities, and make sure AI crawlers are allowed in your robots.txt.
How to audit a page against it
Read your opening: does it answer the question before any preamble? Scan your headings: are they questions? Check for a FAQ and structured data, and confirm the page has real substance, not filler.
A free AI-visibility check runs all of these automatically and scores the page, so you don't have to eyeball it.
Common mistakes
Burying the answer under a long intro, using vague marketing headings instead of questions, publishing thin pages with no real depth, and - the silent killer - blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt so the page can't be read at all.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check my page against this checklist?
Run it through a free AI-visibility check, which scores answer-first structure, question headings, FAQ, schema, depth and crawler access, and lists what to fix.
Do I need every item?
The more you hit, the more citable the page. Answer-first structure and crawler access are non-negotiable; the rest each add to how confidently an engine can quote you.
Does RankMoss do this automatically?
Yes - RankMoss writes to this checklist by default and scores every post against it before delivery.
See how your pages score with AI search
Paste a URL into the free AI Visibility Check - the same check RankMoss runs on every post it writes.
Run the free check