The FQR framework: how to be Findable, Quotable and Recommendable in Google and AI search

Ask five agencies what AEO or GEO means and you'll get five answers, a list of 40 tactics and a quote. Owners end up doing random things, like adding an llms.txt file while Google still can't index half their pages.

FQR puts the work in order. Three questions, asked in sequence:

1. 1Findable: can search engines find, read and index my pages?
2. 2Quotable: when someone asks a question I can answer, does my page give an answer that can be lifted and quoted?
3. 3Recommendable: when someone asks who to use, is there enough consistent evidence about me across the web for an AI to name me?

If the answer to 1 is no, nothing in 2 or 3 helps. That's the whole point of the framework.

Being Findable is classic SEO, and it's still the foundation of AI search. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet in normal Search to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that no extra technical steps are needed beyond that.

The 10-minute Findable test

1. 1Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. Do your important pages appear?
2. 2Run your home page through the AI crawler checker. Are Googlebot, Bingbot and the AI search crawlers allowed?
3. 3Run your main service page through the meta tag checker. Does the title say what you do and where?
4. 4Run it through the page speed checker. Does it load reasonably on a phone?

Common Findable failures

• A robots.txt line, plugin or firewall setting that blocks crawlers.
• Every service crammed onto one page, so no page clearly matches a search.
• Titles like "Home" or just the business name.
• Important text inside images or only loaded by scripts.

Fix these first. They're usually the cheapest wins in the whole framework.

Being Quotable means your page contains answers that a search engine or AI assistant can lift with confidence. AI answers are assembled from passages, not whole pages, so the shape of your writing matters.

There's research behind this. In the 2023 GEO study by researchers from Princeton and other universities, rewriting source pages to add quotations raised their visibility in AI-generated answers by about 41% in the study's main measure, adding statistics by about 31%, and citing sources by about 27%. Keyword stuffing made visibility worse, by about 8%. The effects varied by topic, but the direction is clear: specific, sourced, quotable content wins.

The Quotable test

1. 1Pick your three most important pages. Read the first two sentences of each. Do they answer the question the page is about, in plain words?
2. 2Are your headings written as the questions customers ask ("How much does a root canal cost in Pune?")?
3. 3Does each page include at least one specific fact: a price range, a time, a number, a named standard?
4. 4Run the page through the AEO checker.

Our Answer-First Rewrite method shows how to rewrite a page step by step.

Being Recommendable is about trust and consensus. When someone asks "who's the best CA in Jaipur for GST?", an assistant names businesses it can identify clearly and that other sources talk about.

Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands found that branded web mentions had the strongest link to appearing in Google's AI Overviews, a correlation of 0.664, while the number of backlinks was much weaker at 0.218. Correlation isn't proof, as Ahrefs points out, but it matches what we see: being talked about matters more than link counts.

Where assistants look also differs. Profound's analysis of about 30 million citations (August 2024 to June 2025) found Wikipedia was ChatGPT's most-cited source at 47.9% of its top citations, while Reddit led for Perplexity (46.7%) and Google AI Overviews (21%).

The Recommendable test

1. 1Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity: "Who are the best [your trade] in [your city]?" Are you named?
2. 2Ask: "What can you tell me about [your business]?" Is it accurate?
3. 3Search your exact business name. Do your Google, Bing and directory listings all show the same name, address and phone?
4. 4Use our free "Does AI name my business?" check to see the sources Gemini uses.

Our Source Mapping technique turns those sources into a to-do list.

From the sites we've audited, the pattern is fairly consistent:

• Stuck at F: sites built on a page builder with one long home page, or a robots.txt problem nobody noticed. They can't be quoted or recommended until this is fixed.
• Stuck at Q: sites that rank but say nothing specific. Lots of "we provide quality services", no prices, times or facts. AI has nothing to lift.
• Stuck at R: good pages, but the business is barely mentioned elsewhere, or its listings disagree. AI isn't confident enough to name it.

Find your stage and work on that one. Don't skip ahead.

Findable

• Important pages indexed in Google
• Search and AI search crawlers allowed in robots.txt
• One page per main service, each with a clear title
• Main text in real text, not images
• Loads reasonably fast on a phone

Quotable

• First two sentences answer the page's main question
• Headings written as customer questions
• At least one specific, sourced fact per page
• Author, date and business details shown
• Details match across the page and its structured data

Recommendable

• Same name, address and phone on your site, Google, Bing, Apple and directories
• Listed on the review sites and directories that come up for your trade
• Real customer reviews, replied to
• Mentioned on local news, trade or community sites
• Checked monthly in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity

SEARCH ONE's free audit runs most of the Findable and Quotable checks on any page.

[[faq:[["Is FQR just SEO with a new name?", "Findable is SEO. Quotable and Recommendable cover what AI search adds: whether your content can be lifted into an answer, and whether you're trusted enough to be named. The point of FQR is the order: each step depends on the one before."], ["Which step should I start with?", "Findable, always, unless you've checked it. A crawler block or unindexed pages make everything else pointless."], ["How long does each step take?", "Findable fixes are often a few hours of work. Quotable rewrites take a few days for your key pages. Recommendable builds over months, because mentions and reviews take time."], ["Do I need special AI files or markup?", "Google says no special files or markup are needed for its AI features. llms.txt is optional. Clear pages, accurate details and real mentions matter far more."], ["Can I measure FQR?", "Roughly. Findable: indexed pages in Search Console. Quotable: AEO checks and the Generative AI report in Search Console. Recommendable: a monthly 10-question check in AI assistants."]]]