Getting indexed is whether you get in the door. Getting cited is whether AI chooses to use you. Both must pass before it counts as working.
It does get indexed, usually faster than you expect. But indexed is not the same as cited: for AI to quote your content in a customer answer, you have to pass four gates in a row.
"Will it get indexed" answers: is AI willing to put your pages in its candidate pool. "Will it get cited" answers: when a customer asks, does it extract the answer from you and credit your name.
Many companies only care about the first question — and end up indexed but never mentioned in any answer. The second gate is the one that matters.
So whether a GEO website works is measured by citations, not indexing.
These four gates are the single standard we diagnose against. Each one comes with a self-test you can run yourself first.
These are the typical timings we observe. The exact pace depends on each AI engine and how competitive your industry is.
| Stage | Typical timing | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Index and sitemap submitted | Launch day | The AI-readable index and sitemap are ready and submitted, and AI crawlers can start fetching. |
| Crawled and indexed | Days to weeks | Crawlers visit your pages and the content enters the candidate pools of AI engines and search engines. |
| First citations appear | Weeks to months | You start being cited and credited in customer answers, and AI-referred visits appear on the site. |
| Continuous accumulation | Ongoing | The more content you publish, and the clearer it is, the more pages and citations accumulate. |
After the sitemap and index are submitted, indexing usually takes days to weeks. But indexed is not cited; that depends on whether the content passes all four gates.
Yes, and it is common. Usually the fourth gate fails: no page holds an answer that can be quoted whole, or the content is too similar to competitors for AI to have a reason to cite you.
No. At minimum you need two things: a written record of asking AI the same questions on a schedule, and your server access log. Tools save time, but the conclusions do not depend on them.
We establish a baseline at delivery (currently crawled, indexed, cited — or not), then report against the same measures periodically. You can independently verify using the three methods above.
Send us your website address and core services. We check your site gate by gate — reachable, readable, credible, quotable — and hand back a problem list with priorities. No fee, no commitment.
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