Claude SEO Checklist 2026

Allow ClaudeBot in robots.txt

Add: User-agent: ClaudeBot / Allow: /. ClaudeBot is Anthropic's primary crawler for Claude's training data and web retrieval.

Allow anthropic-ai in robots.txt

anthropic-ai is an alternate Anthropic crawler identifier. Allow both ClaudeBot and anthropic-ai to ensure full Claude crawler access.

Allow Claude-Web in robots.txt

Claude-Web is used for real-time web access in Claude's browsing-enabled responses. Required for citation in live Claude sessions.

Implement llms.txt with a clear organisation description and content index

Claude uses llms.txt to understand your site's scope and content. A well-structured llms.txt improves Claude's ability to identify your most relevant pages for a given query.

Ensure key pages return HTTP 200 for unauthenticated requests

Claude's retrieval skips pages requiring login or returning error codes. All target citation pages must be publicly accessible.

Write in plain, clear language — Claude favours clarity over jargon

Claude's training emphasises helpful, clear, honest communication. Content written in plain language that directly addresses the query is favoured over dense technical jargon.

Lead with the answer — direct response in the first 100 words

Claude's web retrieval extracts answers from early in the page. Content that leads with a direct, complete answer earns citation priority.

Make every factual claim specific and verifiable

Claude is trained to value accuracy. Vague claims ('many businesses') are deprioritised versus specific, verifiable statements ('68% of B2B buyers — Nielsen, 2025').

Use numbered steps for procedural content

Numbered steps are Claude's preferred format for 'how to' content. Clear sequential steps are extracted and reproduced more accurately than narrative procedure descriptions.

Add explicit source citations for all statistics and claims

Claude cannot responsibly cite content that makes unsourced claims. Every statistic needs: '[Figure] (Source Name, Year)' to be citation-eligible.

Write honest, balanced content — acknowledge limitations and caveats

Claude favours sources that acknowledge nuance and limitations rather than presenting one-sided promotional content. Balanced, honest framing increases Claude citation trustworthiness scores.

Add named author attribution with professional credentials

Claude weights author expertise particularly heavily for health, legal, financial, and technical content. Named, credentialed authors improve citation selection probability.

Include first-hand expertise signals and personal experience

Claude's training emphasises E-E-A-T. First-person expertise signals ('based on our analysis of 200+ campaigns') differentiate experience-based content from generic summaries.

Publish original research that Claude can cite as a primary source

Proprietary data and original research force Claude to name your brand as the source — creating high-persistence branded citations.

Earn citations from publications Claude's training data considers authoritative

Academic publications, major news organisations, and established industry publications appear frequently in Claude's training data. Citations from these sources improve your domain's authority signal.

Maintain a consistent publishing schedule on your core topics

Topic depth (multiple high-quality articles on the same subject) builds the topical authority signal that Claude uses for expertise-based source selection.

Article schema with author markup on all editorial content

Article schema provides Claude's crawler with structured author and publication date metadata — key inputs for source trust evaluation.

FAQPage schema on all FAQ content

FAQPage schema creates structured Q&A pairs that Claude can extract and attribute accurately.

Organization schema with complete business name, description, and contact

Organization schema establishes your brand as a named entity in the semantic web — improving Claude's ability to identify and consistently attribute content to your brand.

Test 20 target queries monthly in Claude.ai with web access enabled

Claude's web access feature is available in Claude Pro. Test your 20 most important target queries and record when your domain appears as a cited source.

Monitor branded search volume as a proxy for Claude citation awareness

Claude citations drive branded awareness. Rising branded search volume indicates Claude (and other AI) citations are generating discovery-to-intent conversion.

Check server access logs monthly for ClaudeBot crawl activity

Presence of ClaudeBot in your server logs confirms active crawling. Zero ClaudeBot activity suggests a robots.txt block or technical access issue.