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Our Framework

The full list of signals we evaluate when auditing your AI search visibility — 55 curated criteria, plus dozens of derived sub-checks the audit engine runs on top. We share them openly because doing them well takes context, judgment, and consistent execution. Most businesses won't, and that's precisely why most businesses stay invisible.

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Importance
Business type
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Showing 55 of 55 criteria

Crawlability & AI bot access

Can AI engines actually read your site?

8 criteria

  • robots.txt allows AI crawlers

    critical Quick Win

    Your robots.txt explicitly allows GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, CCBot, and Google-Extended. Blocking any of them — even by accident — makes you invisible to that platform.

    • All business types

  • Cloudflare WAF doesn't block AI bots

    critical Quick Win

    Cloudflare's 'Block AI Scrapers and Crawlers' setting and default Bot Fight Mode can silently block AI crawlers. Verify the rules don't apply to GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc.

    • All business types

  • Sitemap.xml present and submitted

    high Quick Win

    A complete sitemap.xml exists, lists all important pages, is referenced in robots.txt, and is submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

    • All business types

  • llms.txt file published

    medium Quick Win

    An llms.txt at the site root tells AI agents what your site is about and points to the most authoritative pages. It's an emerging standard worth getting in front of.

    • All business types

  • Content rendered server-side

    high Strategic

    Your important content is in the initial HTML response, not rendered by JavaScript afterwards. Most AI crawlers don't execute JS, so client-rendered content is invisible to them.

    • All business types

  • Critical content is not PDF-only

    high Strategic

    Case studies, product specs, and white papers exist as crawlable HTML pages, not just downloadable PDFs. AI cites HTML pages roughly 10x more often than PDFs.

    • B2B

  • Full HTTPS, no mixed content

    high Quick Win

    Every page loads over HTTPS with a valid certificate, and no internal links or assets fall back to HTTP.

    • All business types

  • Canonical tags set correctly

    medium Quick Win

    Every page declares a canonical URL, with no conflicting or self-referential errors. Critical for e-commerce with faceted navigation.

    • E-commerce
    • B2B

Structured data

How clearly machines can understand who you are.

9 criteria

  • Organization schema

    critical Quick Win

    JSON-LD Organization schema on the homepage with name, logo, URL, sameAs links to social profiles, address, and contact info. This is the single most-cited structured data block by AI.

    • All business types

  • LocalBusiness schema

    critical Quick Win

    LocalBusiness (or specific subtype like Restaurant, Store) schema with address, hours, geo coordinates, price range, and aggregated review rating.

    • Local

  • Product schema with reviews

    critical Quick Win

    Product schema on every product page with brand, GTIN/SKU, price, availability, and aggregated reviews. Drives both rich results in Google and citations in shopping AI agents.

    • E-commerce

  • Service schema per core offering

    high Strategic

    Each main service has its own page with Service schema, describing what it is, who it's for, and areas served.

    • B2B
    • Local

  • Person schema for leadership

    medium Strategic

    Founders and key staff have Person schema with role, credentials, and sameAs links to LinkedIn. Helps AI characterize who runs the business.

    • B2B

  • FAQ schema on key pages

    high Quick Win

    FAQ schema markup on pages that genuinely answer customer questions. Don't fake it — Google penalises FAQ stuffing, and AI engines verify against page content.

    • All business types

  • Article schema on content pages

    medium Quick Win

    Blog posts and case studies use Article schema with author, datePublished, and dateModified. AI weighs freshness signals.

    • All business types

  • BreadcrumbList schema

    medium Quick Win

    BreadcrumbList schema on category and product pages helps AI understand your site hierarchy.

    • E-commerce
    • B2B

  • sameAs linking to social and directories

    high Quick Win

    Organization schema includes sameAs URLs to your LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Crunchbase, industry directories — all the entities AI uses to build a trustworthy picture of you.

    • All business types

Content structure for AI citation

How easy it is for AI to quote you.

9 criteria

  • Industry-vertical pages

    critical Strategic

    Dedicated pages for each vertical you serve, with the language, use cases, and outcomes specific to that industry. AI excels at recommending vertical-specific service providers.

    • B2B

  • Technology / platform pages

    high Strategic

    Explicit pages naming every major technology you work with (e.g., Siemens, Rockwell, Shopify, Salesforce). AI looks for exact-match technology terms when matching buyer intent.

    • B2B

  • Case studies in crawlable HTML

    high Strategic

    Each case study is a public HTML page with client name (where permitted), problem, solution, technologies used, and measurable outcomes. Not just a PDF download.

    • B2B

  • Long-form About page

    high Strategic

    Substantive About page (1,000+ words) covering history, philosophy, team, and concrete differentiators. The single page AI cites most when answering 'who is X' queries.

    • All business types

  • FAQ section answering buyer questions

    high Quick Win

    An FAQ section on the homepage or a dedicated FAQ page that answers common buyer questions in clear, quotable language.

    • All business types

  • Menu / pricing publicly visible

    critical Quick Win

    Restaurant menus and service prices are on the website as HTML text — not behind PDF, image, or login. AI cannot quote what it cannot read.

    • Local

  • Specific numbers in your claims

    high Strategic

    Concrete metrics ('320 projects since 2008', 'OEE improved 18%') rather than vague adjectives ('large portfolio', 'great results'). AI rewards specificity with citations.

    • All business types

  • Detailed product specifications

    critical Strategic

    Product pages include full specs, dimensions, materials, compatibility, and clear use-case descriptions. AI shopping agents filter by these attributes.

    • E-commerce

  • Comparison and 'vs' pages

    medium Long Game

    Honest comparison pages versus competitors or alternatives. AI surfaces these for high-intent comparison queries.

    • B2B
    • E-commerce

Entity clarity & brand identity

Whether AI can describe who you are in two sentences.

4 criteria

  • Wikipedia mention or page

    high Long Game

    A Wikipedia page (where notability allows) or mentions in relevant Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is one of the most heavily weighted citation sources by AI engines.

    • All business types

  • Consistent business name everywhere

    high Quick Win

    Same exact business name across website, Google Business, LinkedIn, social, directories, and press. Inconsistencies fragment the entity in AI's understanding.

    • All business types

  • Consistent NAP (name, address, phone)

    critical Quick Win

    NAP information matches exactly across every directory and platform. A single typo in your address can cost local visibility.

    • Local

  • Clear two-sentence positioning

    critical Strategic

    Your home page hero, About page, and meta description all say what you do and who for in two sentences a stranger could repeat. AI cannot recommend what it cannot summarize.

    • All business types

Authority & citation sources

What outside sources back you up.

7 criteria

  • Press and media coverage

    high Long Game

    Mentions in publications AI trusts (sector-specific or regional press). Even a single feature in a respected outlet moves the needle.

    • All business types

  • Third-party reviews on trusted sites

    high Strategic

    Reviews on Google, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, G2, Capterra, or sector-specific directories. AI weighs aggregated review presence as a credibility signal.

    • Local
    • B2B
    • E-commerce

  • Industry directory listings

    medium Strategic

    Listings in directories specific to your sector, with complete profiles and consistent information.

    • B2B
    • Local

  • Active LinkedIn company page

    high Long Game

    Complete LinkedIn company page with regular posting (1-2 per week minimum) and a meaningful follower count. Heavy AI citation source for B2B.

    • B2B

  • Founder LinkedIn presence

    medium Long Game

    Founders publish technical or strategic posts with some regularity. Personal brand of leadership amplifies company visibility in B2B contexts.

    • B2B

  • Original research or data publication

    high Long Game

    Published reports based on data only you have (industry surveys, methodology papers, internal benchmarks). The highest-leverage long-game move — gets cited for years.

    • B2B

  • Speaking engagements and panel slots

    medium Long Game

    Conference talks, panels, and podcast appearances. Each one produces durable content that AI later cites.

    • B2B

Local & geographic presence

Visibility for queries with a place attached.

5 criteria

  • Google Business Profile fully filled

    critical Quick Win

    Every field of your Google Business Profile is populated — categories, services, attributes, photos, hours, posts. The single biggest local visibility lever.

    • Local

  • Recent photos on Google Business

    high Quick Win

    Fresh photos uploaded monthly (interior, products, team, events). Drives both ranking and click-through.

    • Local

  • Google reviews — volume and recency

    critical Strategic

    A steady inflow of reviews (not just a one-time push) with proprietor responses on most. Quantity, recency, and engagement all matter.

    • Local

  • City and neighborhood named on the site

    high Quick Win

    Your city and neighborhood appear naturally in the homepage copy, About, and footer. AI cross-references these against the place names in user queries.

    • Local

  • Apple Maps and Bing Places presence

    medium Quick Win

    Listings on Apple Maps and Bing Places, both increasingly important as AI engines pull from them. Don't only optimize for Google.

    • Local

Core Web Vitals & performance

Speed and stability metrics that gate ranking.

5 criteria

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5s

    high Strategic

    Your main content loads quickly. LCP is one of three Core Web Vitals Google uses as a ranking signal.

    • All business types

  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200ms

    high Strategic

    Your site responds instantly to clicks and taps. INP replaced FID as a Core Web Vital in 2024.

    • All business types

  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1

    high Quick Win

    Your layout doesn't jump around as it loads. Frequent CLS issues come from images without dimensions and late-loading ads.

    • All business types

  • Modern image formats and compression

    medium Quick Win

    Images served as WebP or AVIF, properly sized for the device, with lazy loading on below-the-fold content.

    • All business types

  • No render-blocking resources

    medium Strategic

    Critical CSS is inlined. Non-critical CSS and JS are deferred or async-loaded. Especially important for ad-heavy or analytics-heavy sites.

    • All business types

Mobile optimization

Does your site hold up on a phone?

4 criteria

  • Proper mobile viewport meta tag

    critical Quick Win

    viewport meta tag is set correctly so the site adapts to phone screens. Should be standard, but is still missing on older sites.

    • All business types

  • Tap targets large enough on mobile

    high Quick Win

    Buttons and links are at least 44px and not too close to each other. Failing this hurts both mobile UX and Core Web Vitals.

    • All business types

  • Readable text without zooming on mobile

    high Quick Win

    Body text is at least 16px on mobile. Small text triggers Google's mobile usability warnings.

    • All business types

  • No intrusive mobile interstitials

    medium Quick Win

    No full-screen popups or cookie banners that block content on mobile. Google demotes pages with intrusive interstitials.

    • All business types

Backlinks & off-site references

Who links to you, and from where.

4 criteria

  • Backlinks from quality domains

    high Long Game

    Inbound links from domains with real authority — sector publications, partner companies, education or government sites. Quality matters far more than quantity.

    • All business types

  • No toxic or spammy backlinks

    medium Strategic

    Your backlink profile is free of paid-link networks, scraper sites, and irrelevant low-quality directories. Disavow if necessary.

    • All business types

  • Strong internal linking structure

    medium Strategic

    Important pages are linked from many other pages on your site, with descriptive anchor text. Helps AI understand your site hierarchy and what matters most.

    • All business types

  • Natural anchor text profile

    low Long Game

    Backlinks to your site use varied, natural anchor text. Over-optimised anchor text (same keywords repeatedly) triggers spam signals.

    • All business types

Industry Adaptation Matrix

Not every signal matters equally to every business. Here's where each industry should focus first — and why the playbook shifts depending on what you sell and who you sell to.

Industry Most critical signals Secondary priorities Why the playbook differs
Restaurants & food service Google Business Profile + LocalBusiness schema Menu in HTML + Google reviews recency Discovery is local and time-sensitive. AI cites Google Business heavily, then aggregator sites. Menu must be readable.
Local retail & shops LocalBusiness schema + consistent NAP Google Business categories + photos Category accuracy is everything. A shop miscategorized on Google won't surface for the right buyer queries.
Hospitality (hotels, B&B) TripAdvisor + Booking presence + Hotel schema Long-form About + photo richness AI heavily cites OTAs and booking platforms. Your own site supplements rather than leads. Differentiating narrative matters.
Health & wellness clinics MedicalBusiness schema + provider Person schema Insurance coverage + service area pages Trust signals dominate. AI prefers heavily verified entities for health queries, with named professionals carrying credentials.
B2B services & consultancies Industry-vertical pages + LinkedIn presence Case studies in HTML + technology pages AI recommends firms it can characterize precisely by sector and capability. Generic 'we do everything' positioning loses.
B2B technology integrators Technology stack pages + named platforms Original research + speaking engagements Buyers ask AI by exact technology name (Siemens, Salesforce, etc.). Without those keywords on your site, you don't appear.
Manufacturing & industrial Industry verticals + technical specs Sector directory listings + LinkedIn cadence Long sales cycles favour authority-building. Editorial presence in trade publications outweighs short-form content.
Niche e-commerce Product schema with reviews + detailed specs Comparison content + Wirecutter-style citation hunt AI shopping agents filter by attributes. Without clean product data, you're invisible regardless of brand strength.
Professional services (legal, accounting) Person schema for partners + jurisdiction pages Practice area pages + bar / professional directory listings AI defers to named professionals with verifiable credentials. Geographic and specialty filters drive virtually all queries.
Real estate Listings on Zillow / Realtor / equivalent + agent profiles Neighborhood guide content + local schema Aggregators dominate AI citation. Your own site must complement them, never compete head-on.
Education & training Course / Program schema + outcome data Alumni stories + accreditation directory listings AI weighs measurable outcomes (placement rates, completion rates) and recognised accreditation heavily.
Non-profits & associations Organization schema + impact metrics Press coverage + sector directory listings AI cites mission-driven organisations from sector directories and press. A clear, factual impact narrative beats inspirational copy.

See where you stand against this framework.

We run every relevant signal against your business and tell you exactly what to fix this week, this quarter, and over the next two years.

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