---
name: atlas-geo
title: GEO (AI answer engines)
description: Generative Engine Optimization for the Atlas: being found, understood and cited by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews. Covers the robots.txt policy for AI bots, llms.txt and llms-full.txt, .md twins, server-rendered text for non-JS crawlers, answer-first writing, quotable sourced facts, entity clarity (Wikidata), honest freshness and geographic signals. Use when writing or templating content, adding a public page type, or changing robots, llms.txt or markdown routes.
roles: [editor, frontend]
---
# GEO: being cited by AI answer engines
Answer engines quote pages they can fetch without JavaScript, understand as clear entities,
trust (sources, named authors, honest dates) and lift as self-contained passages. Classic SEO
(`atlas-seo`) is the base: Google's AI features need no special files, only an indexable page
with good text. Everything here adds to it.
## Before you start
- Related skills: `atlas-seo` (canonical, sitemap, dates, JSON-LD builders), `atlas-content`
(house style for writers), `atlas-architecture` (static/ISR rule), `atlas-maps-data`
(globe, indicators), `atlas-performance`.
- Decision record: ADR-021 in `docs/architecture/10-rozhodnuti-adr.md` (open to AI crawlers).
- Tests: `src/lib/seo/llms-robots.test.ts`, `src/lib/seo/markdown.test.ts`,
`src/features/seo/documents.test.ts`, e2e `tests/seo.spec.ts`.
- Bot tables, llms.txt anatomy and evidence: [reference](reference.md).
## Rules
### Crawler access (robots.txt)
- Today's policy (owner decision): every search engine, AI search/assistant bot and AI training
bot is allowed. `ALLOWED_BOTS` in `src/lib/seo/robots.ts` names them in three groups, and
`robotsRules()` gives the named group the same rules as `*`: allow `/`, disallow only `/api/`,
`/admin`, `/auth/` and `PRIVATE_PATHS`.
- Never block a search or retrieval token: Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User,
Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User. Blocking OAI-SearchBot alone
removes the Atlas from ChatGPT search answers.
- Training tokens (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, Amazonbot,
Meta-ExternalAgent) stay allowed. Closing one is an owner decision; do it by moving the
token into its own `Disallow` group, never by IP or user-agent blocking. Disallowing
Google-Extended also stops Gemini grounding, but not Google Search.
- Bots must reach robots.txt and pages: make sure Vercel Firewall or bot protection never
challenges or 403s the allowed bots
([Vercel team](https://vercel.com/atlas-of-today-s-world) → project → Firewall).
- A new bot token goes into the right group of `ALLOWED_BOTS` with its operator, and
`llms-robots.test.ts` is updated.
### Rendering for crawlers that don't run JavaScript
- GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and CCBot fetch HTML and do not execute JS.
Main text, headings, numbers with their sources, author, dates and navigation links must be
in the server-rendered HTML.
- Every client-only view (globe, charts, embeds in `VisualsCarousel`, map visuals) has a text
equivalent (rule in `atlas-maps-data`). For crawlers it must be in the server HTML: a short
summary and the key numbers with source and year.
- Public routes stay prerendered (`atlas-architecture`; CI guard
`scripts/check-static-routes.mjs`). Next 16 caveat: on a dynamic route, `generateMetadata`
output is streamed into `` for any user agent not in `htmlLimitedBots`. The default list
(`node_modules/next/dist/shared/lib/router/utils/html-bots.js`) covers Google, Bing and social
bots but not GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot or PerplexityBot. Those bots
would then miss title, canonical and description. Keep the route static. If one ever must be
dynamic, set `htmlLimitedBots` in `next.config.ts` to the default pattern plus those tokens
(the option replaces the default list, it doesn't extend it).
- Keep redirects to one hop and old slugs as 308 forever (`atlas-seo`): AI indexes keep stale
URLs for a long time.
### llms.txt and llms-full.txt
- `/llms.txt` and `/llms-full.txt` are route handlers (`src/app/[locale]/llms.txt/route.ts`,
`llms-full.txt/route.ts`, both `llmsRoute()` from `src/features/seo/feeds.ts`). Content comes
from `getLlmsTxt` / `getLlmsFullTxt` (`src/features/seo/queries.ts`); the format is built by
`llmsTxt` / `llmsFullTxt` (`src/lib/seo/llms.ts`).
- They read the same cached DB queries as the sitemap, so they never list a page that 404s.
Never hand-edit a static llms file.
- Shape (llmstxt.org): H1 site name, `>` summary, short detail paragraphs, H2 sections of
`- [Name](url): note`, a final `## Optional` section. Keep the citation-format note.
- A new public section is added to `getLlmsTxt` in the same PR that adds it to the sitemap.
- `llms-full.txt` is about 800 KB. Split it per section if it grows past a few MB.
- Every page links it: the `[locale]` layout emits `` to llms.txt and
the RSS/Atom alternates. Keep them.
- llms.txt is a community proposal, not a standard, and Google ignores it. Keep it accurate;
don't invest beyond that.
### Markdown twins
- Articles have `.md` twins: `/topics/.md` and `/news/.md`. `src/proxy.ts` rewrites
them to `src/app/[locale]/md/[kind]/[slug]/route.ts`, which renders `articleMarkdown()`
(`src/features/seo/documents.ts`) with an HTTP `Link: ; rel="canonical"` header.
- A page advertises its twin with `pageMetadata({ markdown: true })`
(``). Set it only when the twin exists: never
advertise a 404.
- Adding a twin for another page type means extending the route's `kind` check and
`generateStaticParams`, the proxy's `.md` rewrite, a document builder in `documents.ts`, and
`markdown: true` on that page, in one PR.
### Answer-first content (editors and templates)
- Open every topic, news item, country, region and issue page with an "In short" answer of 2–3
sentences that names the entity, the place and the time ("As of 2025, …").
- For topics, editors write it in the article's SEO form, field "In short (GEO)"
(`geo_summary`, max `GEO_SUMMARY_MAX` = 800 characters). `EncyclopediaArticle` shows it at
the top of the dossier and the page feeds it to JSON-LD `abstract`. Any new "In short" field
works the same way: visible first, then structured data.
- Write sentences that stand alone when quoted: never start with "This", "It" or "The above".
- Use question-shaped H2/H3 headings where natural ("Who counts as a refugee?"), each followed
by a direct one- or two-sentence answer.
- Every statistic in text has value, unit, year, named source and a link, in HTML text, not
only in a chart or on the globe. Indicator cards already do this (`MetricCards`, `SourceLink`
in `src/components/atlas/ui.tsx`).
- Quote primary voices (treaty text, a UN body, a named expert) briefly, in `