Check any AI search claim against the actual research.
Paste something you read on LinkedIn. Get the evidence, the sources, and how much to trust it — free, no signup.
Example claim checks
Claim checked: “Demonstrate E-E-A-T signals”
High confidence (14.4/35) — Yes — E-E-A-T SEO improves Google AI Overview eligibility. Author bios and credentials are evaluated when Google determines content for AI Overview inclusion.
Claim checked: “Build knowledge graph presence”
High confidence (12.0/35) — Yes — knowledge graph and entity signals directly improve AI citation rates. Content referencing 15+ connected entities shows 4.8x higher AI Overview selection probability; brands with multi-platform entity presence are cited even on queries that do not name them. Authority is the filter AI applies before assessing content quality — which means off-page entity signals are a prerequisite, not a bonus.
Ranked by evidence, not by how often it's repeated.
The best-evidenced tactics in the database right now. Click any row to see the full source breakdown.
What moves the needle, per platform.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews use different signals. Optimising for one does not help the others.
The same tactic doesn't apply the same way everywhere.
Each platform weighs different signals, so a tactic's evidence can be strong for one and untested for another. This shows which of the top-evidenced tactics actually apply per platform — not a fabricated score, just what the research covers.
| Tactic | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Google AI Overviews | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use clear H2/H3 heading structure | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Display author bio and credentials | — | — | ✓ | — |
| Demonstrate E-E-A-T signals | — | — | ✓ | — |
| Optimise for Google AI Overviews | — | — | ✓ | — |
| Use domain-specific technical language | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lead with a direct answer | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
The studies behind the scores.
Every tactic is backed by reviewed sources. Click any to read the original.
Optimize Your Crawl Budget
Google· Aug 2026
The New Search Journey, How AI Is Changing Online Discovery
YouGov· Jul 2026
Block indexing
Google· Jul 2026
Google Ads Benchmark Report Q1 2026
Optmyzr· Jul 2026
Search Off the Record
Google· Jul 2026
Case Study: The Prevalence of AI Overviews in Local Search
Whitespark· Jul 2026
ChatGPT Access Tied To 9% Drop In Traditional Search
Bocconi University· Jul 2026
The Old Rules Are Dead
Quantable· Jul 2026
When the evidence surprises us.
Deep dives into findings that contradict the conventional wisdom.
Domain Rating is the weakest predictor of AI citations in a 75,000-brand study. Entity signals are 3x stronger.
An Ahrefs analysis of 75,000 brands found Domain Rating correlates with AI citation rates at just 0.266-0.326, the weakest signal measured. Branded web mentions hit 0.664-0.709. YouTube channel mentions hit 0.737. Here is what entity SEO for AI search actually means, and why most SEO teams are optimising the wrong metric.
Syndicated press releases earn 0.04-0.9% of AI citations. Original editorial coverage earns 57x more per piece.
A Digital Applied study found brands are 6.5x more likely to be cited in AI responses through third-party sources than through owned content, and 82% of AI citations come from earned media. Here is what digital PR for AI search actually requires, and why press release volume does not substitute for genuine editorial coverage.
95% of the queries ChatGPT uses to find your content have zero search volume in any keyword tool.
ChatGPT expands a single prompt into 25+ sub-queries before retrieving content. An AirOps analysis of 548,534 pages found 32.9% of AI-cited pages were discoverable only through these fan-out sub-queries, invisible to traditional keyword research. Here is what fan-out query coverage means and why optimising for one primary keyword actively hurts adjacent AI citations.
97% of llms.txt files get zero AI crawler requests. Here is why the format does not work like robots.txt.
An Ahrefs analysis of 137,000 domains found only about 38,000 had a valid llms.txt file, and 97% of those received zero requests. An OtterlyAI 90-day experiment tracking 62,100+ AI bot visits found llms.txt pages performed 3x worse than average content pages. Here is what three independent studies actually show about llms.txt, and what to implement instead.
Generative engine optimisation (GEO): what it is, what the research shows, and how to do it
Generative engine optimisation is the practice of improving content so AI systems — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini — select it as a citation source. Here is the evidence base: what GEO tactics are confirmed, which are overhyped, and how to prioritise.
ChatGPT SEO: how to get cited in ChatGPT answers — what the research actually shows
ChatGPT does not use backlinks or PageRank. It selects sources based on author authority, content structure, brand entity recognition, and retrieval relevance. Here is what controlled studies show about how to get your content cited in ChatGPT answers.
An Ahrefs post and a Google engineering doc are not the same evidence.
So we don't count them the same. Every source is tiered before it moves a score, and studies lose weight as they age — a tactic backed only by old research falls on its own. How the scoring works →
⏱ Freshness decay: AI platforms change fast, so a tactic backed only by old studies scores lower automatically, regardless of tier.
Stop being the last to know what works.
We add new research as it publishes and update tactic scores when the evidence shifts — so you know what to act on before it becomes LinkedIn noise.