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Travel AI SEO·v1.0
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How we work

How the audit actually works.

No black-box scoring. No proprietary algorithm. Just five days of working journalists running real travel queries through real AI agents — then translating the gaps into a placement plan.

01 / Framework

Three steps to GEO. Only one moves the needle.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — the practice of making your brand visible in AI-generated answers — boils down to three steps. The first is where the work lives. The other two are bog-standard technical hygiene.

  1. Step 01 · Off-page · Where the lift lives

    Citation gap analysis

    Identify the AI queries your destination should appear in. Run them across five agents. Catalogue which publications, listicles, Wikipedia entries, Reddit threads and trade-press articles AI returns — and which competitors are winning them. This is where ~85% of AI citations come from. Closing the gap is a journalism problem: only working journalists with byline relationships in those publications can credibly fix it.

  2. Step 02 · On-page

    Crawlability

    Make sure AI agents can actually read your site. robots.txt rules for GPTBot / ClaudeBot / Google-Extended / PerplexityBot. JavaScript-only content that AI can't parse. Server responses on AI bot user-agents. Sitemap currency. Audit ships a fix-list; your CTO implements.

  3. Step 03 · On-page

    Content gap

    Make sure the content that exists on your site is structured for AI retrieval. Schema.org markup coverage. Author / byline markup for E-E-A-T. 50–150 word self-contained chunks (AI retrieves chunks, not pages). Topic structure. Citation-worthy claims with named sources. Audit ships a fix-list; any halfway-decent agency can implement.

02 / The audit

What we actually do in five days.

Day 1 — Kickoff
60-min call to define the 30 queries that matter to your destination. Co-designed with you. We supply 20 standardised travel-planning queries; you add 10 you specifically want to win.
Day 1–2 — Competitor selection
You name 3 direct rivals to benchmark against. We add 2–3 more we've seen winning your queries in prior audits.
Day 2–3 — Query runs
30 queries × 5 AI agents (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity) = 150 retrievals per destination, plus the same for each competitor. Each retrieval is reviewed manually for mention quality, position, and the editorial sources AI cited.
Day 3–4 — Gap mapping
For each query you lose, we identify exactly which publication, listicle or content piece is being cited instead. Prioritised list: which of those publications we already write for, which we could pitch, and which would require new client-funded editorial.
Day 4–5 — Technical scan
Steps 02–03 of the framework: crawlability checks, schema coverage, author markup. Bog-standard SEO hygiene, but worth running once before you start placing editorial.
Day 5 — Report + walkthrough
12-page branded PDF delivered. 30-minute walkthrough call. Prioritised editorial fix-list with named publications, suggested feature angles, estimated placement timelines.
03 / The retainer

The audit shows the gap. The retainer fixes it.

The Citation Editorial retainer is where AI citation rates move. Most clients run it for 3 months minimum; many continue indefinitely.

2–3 features per month
Authored by Ruth Brindle Features alliance journalists under their real bylines. Topics, angles and target outlets agreed monthly against the audit fix-list.
Publication network
The Sun, Daily Mail / Mail Online, Daily Express, Silver Travel Advisor, MSN UK, Travel Weekly, BBC, plus the full National World network (100+ regional titles) and the Newsquest group.
Schema + markup
Each placement comes with the schema.org Article markup, Person author markup, and citation hooks that AI agents read. Included.
Monthly placement report
Every feature published in the period, with the URL, the publication, the date, and a citation-monitoring snapshot showing whether AI is yet retrieving from it.
Audit credit
The £2,500 audit fee is credited against your first 3 months of retainer if you continue. Effectively makes the audit free for clients who proceed.

Ready to see where you stand?

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