CiteProof.co
End of the course

Final exam

Two parts: 30 multiple-choice questions, which you pass with 24 right answers, and a hands-on project on your own site. Pass both and you get the free “AEO and GEO Specialist” certificate. How the certificate works.

Part 1 · The 30 questions

They come from the module quizzes, rewritten. Grading tells you how many are right and which ones to review, not the answers: you can grade again whenever you like.

  1. 1.You start working for a restaurant that wants to show up in AI answers. What's the first step of the method?
  2. 2.A client doesn't want their content used to train models, but doesn't want to disappear from the answers either. Which robots.txt do you suggest?
  3. 3.A bike shop in Denver is choosing the questions to track. Which one is written the right way?
  4. 4.You're rewriting the opening of the page "how much does a dental implant cost in Denver?". Which pattern do you follow?
  5. 5.Someone clicks a link in a Google AI Overview and lands on your site. In GA4, where does that visit end up?
  6. 6.Your site has the new phone number; Google Business Profile and a directory still have the old one. What's the risk?
  7. 7.Which OpenAI bot can you block without losing citations in ChatGPT?
  8. 8.Which product description is written the way the course asks?
  9. 9.What's the right way to ask for reviews on Google?
  10. 10.You and a competitor are checked on the same questions and the same engines. How do you compare your citation shares?
  11. 11.You have the sitemap and a crawl that starts from the home page. Which pages are orphans?
  12. 12.Which statement follows the course rules?
  13. 13.Your robots.txt lets search bots through, but not a single visit from them ever shows up in the logs. Where do you look?
  14. 14.You're writing an article with the help of an AI assistant. Which step can you leave to the assistant?
  15. 15.You're doing your second audit. What makes it comparable with the first?
  16. 16.A client asks: "If we add structured data, will AI cite us?" What do you reply?
  17. 17.You resell a product, and the manufacturer has no barcode for it. What do you put in the GTIN field?
  18. 18.Which of these practices is link spam for Google?
  19. 19.Why should your company's name go only in brand questions?
  20. 20.In a Shopify store, a detail is missing from the Product block written by the theme. Where do you step in first?
  21. 21.How do you find out whether a product page's price is visible to AI bots that don't run JavaScript?
  22. 22.Which sentence do you write in a proposal to a new client?
  23. 23.Which signal shows experience and trust, instead of just claiming them?
  24. 24.Which link text passes the test "I read the words on their own and I can tell where they lead"?
  25. 25.A store that sells mostly outside the United States asks how to get ready for shopping in ChatGPT. What do you advise?
  26. 26.Which sentence works in a report for the owner?
  27. 27.An AI assistant answers a question about a company without a single link. Where does that answer most likely come from?
  28. 28.You want to use a figure you read in an article that reports on a study. What do you do?
  29. 29.What role does the AI visibility box in Wix's SEO and GEO panel play?
  30. 30.For the initial audit, the client wants to give you the password to their Google account. What do you do?
30 answers missing.

Part 2 · The hands-on project

What you need to do

The project is an audit of a real site: your own, or a client's, with their written permission. From that audit you draw up:

  1. the 5 most important fixes, each with the reason why;
  2. a 90-day plan to put them into practice and re-measure.

The project can be done entirely by hand, with the course's free tools and the worksheet. CiteProof is not required.

The worksheet

Use the course worksheet (aeo-geo-course-worksheet.xlsx, Lesson 0.3). The tabs you need for the project:

Tab What goes in it Lessons
Questions The questions you track, with type, source and priority 2.1
Manual audit One row for each question and engine, with the date and the engine 2.2, 2.3
External sources The outside sites that AI cites for your questions 8.1–8.4
Competitors The 3 names that win most often, their share and yours, the winning page 2.4
Link plan The links to add: from which page, to which page, with what words (if one of the fixes is about links) 6.1–6.3
Product pages The product pages to fix and the test result (only if you sell online) 7.1–7.4
Before and after Your baseline, and the second audit if you've already done it 9.1
Report The one-page report (if you've already done the second audit) and how you'll re-measure 9.2–9.4
90 days The calendar, week by week 11.2

What to submit

Check off each item before you submit.

1. The questions you track (Questions tab)

  • 15 to 20 questions, written the way a customer would ask them.
  • For each one: the type (informational, comparison, purchase, local, brand), where it comes from and its priority.
  • The company's name appears only in brand questions.
  • If it's a client's site: the questions are approved by the client.

2. The audit table (Manual audit, Competitors and External sources tabs)

  • One row for each question and each engine, with the date and the engine.
  • At least four engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers.
  • The rules you followed, written in one line: a new chat for each question, memory and personalization turned off (or a private window), the city you're searching from.
  • For each row: cited, yes or no; how (with link, name only, recommended); which of your pages; who's cited instead of you.
  • High-priority questions asked two or three times, with how stable the result is (always, sometimes, never).
  • The three starting-point numbers: how many questions you're cited on, the best and the worst engine, who beats you most often.
  • Your citation share and that of the 3 most-cited competitors.
  • The external sites cited for your questions (directories, reviews, forums, publications).

3. The 5 fixes, each with:

  • Page (or external source) you're working on.
  • Problem, in one sentence.
  • Evidence: how you know. For example, a row from the audit, the page source, robots.txt, Google Search Console, the Rich Results Test, an AI answer with its date.
  • Fix: what you change, concretely.
  • Why it's in the top five: what it unlocks, and on which questions.

4. The 90-day calendar (90 days tab)

  • Real dates, week by week.
  • The 5 fixes placed in the calendar, in the order you chose.
  • A fixed day for the monthly audit.
  • The plan review at the end of the 90 days.

5. How you'll re-measure (Before and after and Report tabs)

  • Same questions, same engines, same rules as the first audit, with the planned dates.
  • What you'll compare: citation share, engine by engine, and who still wins instead of you.
  • Where you'll read visits, leads and AI data: GA4 (AI Assistant channel, leads from forms), Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Visits and leads from AI are a floor, not the total.
  • The log of what you change and when, so you can tell the facts in chronological order.

6. Honesty

  • No promises of citations or positions.
  • Every number that doesn't come from your audit has its source and date.
  • If you use examples or demo data, they're flagged as such.
  • If it's a client's site: the written permission is attached.

Without written permission, a project on a client's site can't be assessed.

How to hand it in. Put the worksheet and your notes in a shared folder (Google Drive, OneDrive or similar) that anyone with the link can view. You send the link with your certificate request, after passing the questions.

The grading rubric

Each criterion is worth 0 to 2 points. Total: 12 points.

Criterion 0 points 1 point 2 points
1. Well-chosen questions (Lesson 2.1) Fewer than 15 questions, or keywords instead of questions, or the company's name in almost all of them. 15–20 questions written as questions, but all of the same type, or without source and priority. 15–20 questions the way a customer would ask them, of different types, with more weight on comparison and purchase; the name only in brand questions; source and priority noted.
2. Audit done with the method (Lessons 2.2–2.4) Dates or engines missing, or just one answer per engine with no rules. Complete table with dates and engines, but without the rules for clean measurements, without repeats or without competitors. One row per question and engine, at least four engines, rules written down, repeats on the high-priority questions, three starting-point numbers, your share and that of the 3 competitors.
3. Fixes backed by evidence Generic fixes ("improve the SEO") or no evidence. 5 fixes with page and problem, but the evidence is missing or vague for some of them. All 5 with page, problem, verifiable evidence and a concrete fix.
4. Sensible priorities (Lesson 0.2) Random order, or content work while the bots are blocked or the pages aren't indexed. A mostly sensible order, but the reason is missing for some fixes. First what blocks everything else (bot access, indexing), then identity and content on the questions you're losing; the reason is written for every fix.
5. A realistic 90-day plan, with re-measurement (Lessons 9.1 and 11.2) No plan, or no dates. Dates are there, but too much work for the time available, or the re-measurement isn't defined. Real dates week by week, a fixed day for the monthly audit, a second audit with the same questions, engines and rules, a review at the end of the 90 days.
6. Honesty: no promises, sources cited (Lessons 0.1, 5.3 and 9.4) Promises of citations or positions, or numbers with no source. No promises, but some sources or dates are missing, or demo data isn't flagged. No promises; every outside number with its source and date; changes described as facts in chronological order; written permission attached if it's a client's site.

Passing mark: the project passes with at least 8 points out of 12 and no criterion at 0.

How it's graded, for now. At first, the project is checked only for completeness: every item on the "What to submit" list has to be there. Grading with the rubric by our team may be added later. The rubric is published from day one, so you know what you'll be assessed on and can use it to check your own project.