Assess your rung: Rank, Cited or Recommended
To place a page on the ladder, check three things in order: does it rank in Google, does an AI cite it as a source, and does an AI name your brand as the answer? The lowest failing step is your next job.
The three rungs
Rank means the page appears in search results and is crawlable. Cited means an AI uses it as the factual basis for an answer. Recommended means the AI names your brand as the choice. Each rung depends on the one below, so you climb in order.
Run the check
For a target page: search its main query and note the position; ask an AI the same query and see if your page is cited; then ask the AI to recommend a tool or option in your category and see if your brand is named. Wherever the answer is first 'no', that is the rung to work on.
What to do at each rung
Not ranking: fix crawlability, relevance and links. Ranking but not cited: rewrite for extraction, answer-first, sourced claims, FAQ schema. Cited but not recommended: build entity trust, consistent facts everywhere, original data, and brand recognition.
Frequently asked
Because ranking gets you into the pool AI draws from but doesn't decide citation. Around half of top Google pages aren't cited by AI, so ranking is necessary, not sufficient.
Cited means the AI uses your content as a source, often one of several. Recommended means it names your brand as the answer to a category question. Recommendation is the stronger, brand-level outcome.
Start at your lowest failing rung on your most valuable pages. Fixing the foundation first makes the higher rungs reachable, since each depends on the ones beneath it.
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