Our methodology
The CITED Method
The CITED Method is Silicon Valley SEO’s five-step system for earning Google rankings and AI citations at the same time: Crawl & Clean, Intent Mapping, Truth-First Content, Entity & Evidence, and Detect & Defend. Each step has defined inputs, deliverables, and a measure of success, so you always know what is being done and why.
Step 1: What is Crawl & Clean?
Crawl & Clean makes sure Google and AI crawlers can reach, render, and understand every page that matters. Nothing else works until this does.
Deliverables
- Full crawl and index report
- Core Web Vitals fixes
- AI crawler access and llms.txt
Success looks like
- Key pages indexed
- No content hidden behind JavaScript
- Passing Core Web Vitals
Step 2: What is Intent Mapping?
Intent Mapping lists the searches and AI prompts your buyers use at every stage, then assigns each one to a page that should own the answer.
Deliverables
- Keyword and prompt research
- Topic cluster map
- Page-to-question assignments
Success looks like
- Every priority question has one owner page
- No pages competing with each other
Step 3: What is Truth-First Content?
Truth-First Content means every page opens with a direct, accurate answer, then supports it with specifics from real experts. It is easy for people to skim and for AI to quote.
Deliverables
- Answer-first rewrites of key pages
- New pages for missing answers
- Question-style headings and FAQs
Success looks like
- Featured snippets and AI Overview inclusion
- Higher engagement and conversions
Step 4: What is Entity & Evidence?
Entity & Evidence builds the signals that tell machines who you are and why to trust you: structured data, author credentials, and mentions on credible third-party sites.
Deliverables
- Organization, Service, Person, and FAQ schema
- Author bios and bylines
- Earned links and brand mentions
Success looks like
- Accurate brand descriptions in AI answers
- Growth in quality referring domains
Step 5: What is Detect & Defend?
Detect & Defend is monthly monitoring of rankings and AI answers, so we catch drops, model changes, and competitor moves early and respond.
Deliverables
- Monthly AI answer tracking on a fixed prompt set
- Rank and traffic reporting
- Updated action list
Success looks like
- Rising mention and citation rate
- Losses caught within a month
Questions about the method
Do the steps always run in order?
Mostly. Crawl & Clean and Intent Mapping come first; after that, content and authority work run in parallel, with monitoring throughout.
Is CITED only for AI search?
No. Every step improves Google rankings too. It is designed so one body of work earns both.
Can we do some steps ourselves?
Yes. Many clients have us run the audit and technical steps, then their team writes content using our briefs.