Strengthen search and AI citation

Executive summary

This audit covers 100 URLs from the Vikāra sitemap (pages, blog posts, forum, and programme content). The site has a solid crawl foundation: permissive robots.txt, sitemap index, canonical URLs, Open Graph basics, WebSite JSON-LD, and llms.txt present (optional for ChatGPT and Perplexity; neutral for Google AI Overviews). Critical gaps for Google AI visibility: missing og:image and twitter:image site-wide, no Organization schema, multiple H1s on key templates, and the /about page serving “Who We Are” content under a Home title tag. For ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, extractability is the main opportunity: few answer-first intros, citations, statistics, or freshness signals on priority MSD pages — despite deep original content in the research lab, symposium, and blog.

Path to global MSD practitioner leadership: Implementing this audit makes Vikāra’s existing expertise machine-readable and citable. Technical fixes (social images, schema, H1, page-specific meta) secure snippet eligibility for high-intent queries like “market systems development practitioner” and “MSD advisory”. Lens B work (answer blocks, cited statistics, expert quotes, Organization + FAQ schema, third-party corroboration) positions Vikāra as the entity AI systems cite when donors and practitioners ask who leads MSD globally. The full-site task list (513 tasks) is the sequenced roadmap — tick off fixes as you implement them on Wix.

Full-site task list

AI platform visibility map

GEO checklist

SEO & GEO explained

Traditional SEO and Google generative search (AI Overviews, AI Mode) share the same foundation: indexed, crawlable pages and helpful, reliable, people-first content. Google retrieves supporting links from its Search index using ranking systems — for Google, strong SEO is generative search optimisation. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot use different retrieval paths (training data, live browse, proprietary indexes), so this audit also covers multi-platform citation: AI crawler access, extractable content (citations, statistics, expert quotes, clear answer blocks), schema for entity clarity, freshness, and authentic authority signals. Where Google and other platforms disagree — for example llms.txt — recommendations are tagged so you know what helps where.

Schema to add

Rich results + multi-platform entity resolution — not required for Google AI Overviews.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Vik\u0101ra Institute",
  "url": "https://www.vikarainstitute.org",
  "logo": "https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0b4ec_93873e755ca549f8a9dc891374617ca3%7Emv2.png",
  "description": "Vik\u0101ra Institute is a global nonprofit research and training organisation specialising in Market Systems Development (MSD), systems thinking, and resilience strategies.",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/vikara-institute",
    "https://www.instagram.com/vikarainstitute",
    "https://www.facebook.com/vikarainstitute"
  ],
  "contactPoint": [
    {
      "@type": "ContactPoint",
      "contactType": "general",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "areaServed": "Worldwide"
    }
  ],
  "address": [
    {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "addressLocality": "Washington, D.C.",
      "addressCountry": "US"
    },
    {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "addressLocality": "Cape Town",
      "addressCountry": "ZA"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is market systems development (MSD)?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Market systems development is a systems-thinking approach that strengthens how markets function so they deliver inclusive, resilient outcomes for communities \u2014 used in agriculture, finance, health, climate adaptation, and livelihood programmes."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What does Vik\u0101ra Institute do?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Vik\u0101ra Institute is a global nonprofit specialising in MSD research, technical assistance, training, learning labs, and programme design for donors, NGOs, and practitioners working in fragile and complex environments."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Who is Vik\u0101ra Institute for?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Donors, implementing partners, and MSD practitioners seeking research, assessments, capacity building, coaching, and systems-change advisory across finance, agriculture, health, climate, and livelihood market systems."
      }
    }
  ]
}