How the Google + AI visibility score works

What goes into the 100 points?

Each bucket contributes up to 20 points. We recompute the breakdown so you can see what to improve next.

• Crawler access (20 pts): Can Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude read your site? We check your robots.txt file.
• Page details (20 pts): Whether your pages clearly label business info, articles, products, breadcrumbs, official profiles, and dates.
• Answer clarity (20 pts): Whether key answers are clear, direct, and easy to understand.
• Recent updates (20 pts): How many distinct URLs were updated in the last 30 days. 10 or more updates earns the full 20 points.
• Site basics (20 pts): The average of three sub-scores: llms.txt completeness, SEO sanity (titles, descriptions, canonicals), and link graph health (orphans, broken links).

How is answer clarity calculated?

Answer-engine optimisation looks at the Markdown body of each tracked URL and adds points for eight signals that make content easier for humans, search systems, and answer systems to understand. The maximum per page is 98 in 2026:

• Question-style headings: An H2 or H3 ending in "?" or starting with What/How/Why/When (+18). Three or more question headings earns a +4 FAQ-density bonus.
• Definition-style opening: A 30-120 word lead paragraph that defines what the page is about (+14).
• Lists or structured items (+10).
• Short, scannable paragraphs: Median paragraph ≤ 90 words (+10).
• Sensible heading hierarchy: Never skip a level (+10).
• Authority markers: Citations, statistics like "30%", or year references like "2026" (+12).
• Conversational tone: At least two uses of "you" (+6).
• Sweet-spot length: Between 300 and 3,000 words (+14).

How is freshness measured?

We count the distinct URLs whose updated_at timestamp falls within the last 30 days. 10 or more earns the full 20 points, 3 to 9 earns 12 points, and 1 to 2 earns 6 points. Every tracked content update refreshes the timestamp, so consistent publishing is the easiest way to keep this bucket maxed.

How do I push my score from 90 to 100?

The score plateaus around 90 once bot access and schema are clean. The remaining gains usually come from answer clarity, freshness, and internal linking:

1. Open the Audits tab and click Recompute.
2. Sort URLs by answer score ascending and pick the lowest five.
3. Add a question heading and a 30-120 word definition lead.
4. Refresh those URLs from the Index tab.
5. Recompute again after roughly 90 seconds.

Crawler access: let search and AI tools read your site

Search engines and AI tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) send automated programs called bots to read content. If your robots.txt file blocks a bot, that bot can't crawl your site. The fix is usually one line of text.

1. Find your robots.txt file. Open a browser and go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt. If you see a page that says "User-agent: *" or lists bots, that file exists and controls who can crawl your site.
2. Check for blocked bots. Look for lines like "Disallow: /" under entries for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, CCBot, or Google-Extended. A "Disallow: /" blocks the entire site for that bot.
3. Allow AI bots. Add these lines to your robots.txt file (or ask your developer to do it). You can place them anywhere in the file, ideally near the end:

   User-agent: GPTBot
   Allow: /
   
   User-agent: ClaudeBot
   Allow: /
   
   User-agent: PerplexityBot
   Allow: /
   
   User-agent: CCBot
   Allow: /
   
   User-agent: Google-Extended
   Allow: /

Using WordPress? Install the Yoast SEO or Rank Math plugin. Both have a built-in robots.txt editor under SEO → Tools → File Editor. Add the lines above and save.

Using Squarespace? Go to Settings → Advanced → External API Keys or Custom Code. Squarespace controls robots.txt automatically – contact their support to allowlist specific bots if blocked.

Using Wix? Open the Wix SEO Wiz or go to Marketing & SEO → SEO Tools → Robots.txt. The editor shows your current file; add the Allow entries above.

Full score (20/20): all five major AI bots allowed. Each unblocked bot earns points – GPTBot (5 pts), ClaudeBot (3 pts), PerplexityBot (3 pts), CCBot (2 pts), Google-Extended (2 pts). An empty robots.txt or one with only "Allow: /" for all passes automatically.

Page schema: help AI identify what your pages are about

Schema markup is hidden code (JSON-LD) that gives search systems explicit clues about what a page contains: an article, product, organization, person, or breadcrumb trail. It doesn't guarantee rankings, but it can improve classification and eligibility for supported rich results.

1. Use a plugin – the easiest path. For WordPress: install Yoast SEO (free) or Schema Pro (paid). Yoast automatically adds Article and WebPage schema to posts and pages. Enable the structured data feature in the plugin settings.
2. Add an Organization block to your homepage. This anchors your brand as a real entity. Example (paste into your page's HTML, inside a <script> tag):

   <script type="application/ld+json">
   {
     "@context": "https://schema.org",
     "@type": "Organization",
     "name": "Your Company Name",
     "url": "https://yourdomain.com",
     "logo": "https://yourdomain.com/logo.png",
     "sameAs": [
       "https://www.linkedin.com/company/yourcompany",
       "https://twitter.com/yourhandle",
       "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Company"
     ]
   }
   </script>

3. Add sameAs links. The "sameAs" field (shown above) links your brand to official profiles such as LinkedIn, Wikidata, Crunchbase, Wikipedia, or other authoritative pages you control. Add only real profiles.
4. Use FAQPage schema only when a page is genuinely a question-and-answer page. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results for most sites in 2026, so don't use FAQPage as a shortcut; prefer Article, Product, HowTo, Organization, WebSite, and BreadcrumbList where they match the page.

   <script type="application/ld+json">
   {
     "@context": "https://schema.org",
     "@type": "FAQPage",
     "mainEntity": [{
       "@type": "Question",
       "name": "What is your product?",
       "acceptedAnswer": {
         "@type": "Answer",
         "text": "Our product is..."
       }
     }]
   }
   </script>

5. Add datePublished and dateModified to articles. If your site publishes blog posts or news, include dates in the Article schema. This gives crawlers explicit freshness metadata.

Check your work. Paste any page URL into Google's Rich Results Test (search for it) to see what schema the page returns and whether it parses correctly.

Full score (100/100 per page): JSON-LD present (required to score above 0), Organization or WebSite type, sameAs links, a supported content type (Article/Product/HowTo/Breadcrumb), and datePublished or dateModified.

Answer clarity: write content AI quotes

Answer clarity measures whether your pages contain clear, self-contained answers. Eight signals decide your score. None require technical skills – they are about making content easier to understand.

• 1. Question headings (+18 pts per page). Rewrite important H2 and H3 headings as direct questions where it helps the reader. Instead of "Our Features", write "What features does {product} include?". Aim for three or more only when the page naturally answers multiple questions.
• 2. Definition lead (+14 pts per page). Start every page or post with a 30–120 word paragraph that defines the topic directly. Think of it as the first sentence of a Wikipedia article. Example: "Keyword research is the process of finding the words and phrases that your target customers type into search engines so you can create content that answers those questions."
• 3. Lists and bullet points (+10 pts). Use bulleted or numbered lists whenever you have three or more related items. Lists make complex information easier to scan and extract.
• 4. Short paragraphs (+10 pts). Keep each paragraph under 90 words. Long walls of text are hard for AI to extract individual facts from. One idea per paragraph.
• 5. Clean heading hierarchy (+10 pts). Never skip heading levels. H1 → H2 → H3 only. Avoid jumping from H1 directly to H3. Most CMS editors show heading levels in the toolbar – stick to logical nesting.
• 6. Authority markers (+12 pts). Include at least one statistic ("increases conversion by 30%"), a year reference ("as of 2026"), or a citation (link to an external source). These signals make claims easier to verify.
• 7. Conversational tone (+6 pts). Use "you" at least twice per page. "When you publish a new post…" instead of "When a post is published…". AI tools trained on conversational data respond better to second-person content.
• 8. Optimal length (+14 pts). Pages between 300 and 3,000 words score best. Pages under 300 words lack enough substance; pages over 3,000 words spread the signal too thin. Aim for 600–1,500 words per key topic.

Max score (98/100 per page). Run the answer clarity audit from the Audits tab. For each page scoring below 70, click into the URL, read the individual breakdown, and apply the fixes listed above from the top down.

SEO basics: the foundation every page needs

SEO basics covers the technical signals every page needs before AI and search engines treat it as credible. We check your sitemap, page titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, and hreflang tags. All of these can be managed without writing code if you use a CMS.

• Page title (20–65 characters). Every page needs a unique, descriptive title. It appears in browser tabs, search results, and AI summaries. Too short (under 20 chars) and it lacks context. Too long (over 65 chars) and search engines truncate it. In WordPress: Yoast SEO shows a live preview with a green indicator when your title is the right length.
• Meta description (50–160 characters). This is the summary text that appears below your page title in search results. Write it as a clear, benefit-focused sentence. In most CMS editors, you will find a "SEO" or "Meta" tab when editing a page. Fill in the description field there.
• Canonical URL. A canonical tag tells search engines which version of a page is the "real" one – it prevents duplicate-content penalties when the same content is accessible at multiple URLs. Most CMS platforms add canonical tags automatically. Check that your platform does: in WordPress, Yoast and Rank Math both add canonicals. Verify by viewing your page source and searching for "rel=canonical".
• Sitemap with lastmod dates. A sitemap.xml file lists all your pages with their last-updated date, helping crawlers find and prioritize fresh content. WordPress: install Yoast or Google XML Sitemaps — they generate sitemaps automatically. Submit the sitemap URL to Google Search Console (Search Console → Sitemaps → Add new sitemap). We auto-detect and submit your sitemap daily.
• Hreflang (multi-language sites only). If your site serves content in more than one language, add hreflang link tags so search engines serve the right language to the right audience. Your CMS multilingual plugin (WPML, Polylang, Weglot) should add these automatically – check the plugin settings to ensure it is enabled.

Score 100/100: sitemap.xml accessible with lastmod dates, no noindex tags on key pages, page titles between 20–65 characters, meta descriptions between 50–160 characters, canonical tags present, correct hreflang for multilingual sites.

Internal links: connect your content so nothing is orphaned

Internal links are links from one page on your site to another page on the same site. They help AI crawlers discover all your content and understand which pages are most important. An orphan page – one with no links pointing to it – is invisible to crawlers that start from your homepage.

What is an orphan page? Any page that can't be reached by following links from your homepage is an orphan. We detect orphans by mapping every link in your mirrored content. The audit shows the number of orphan pages — the goal is zero.

1. Link from high-traffic pages to lower-traffic ones. Open your most visited pages (check Google Analytics or Search Console) and add 2–3 links to related pages that have fewer visitors. Use descriptive anchor text – "learn more about our pricing" is better than "click here".
2. Add a Related Articles or Related Posts section. Most CMS themes support this out of the box or as a plugin. Every article that shows related posts automatically links to other content, eliminating orphans quickly.
3. Update your navigation menu. Ensure every important page appears in your main menu or footer menu. Pages reachable from global navigation are never orphans.
4. Fix broken internal links. A link to a page that no longer exists is a broken link. Geodeck counts these in the audit. Search your CMS for any redirect or 404 error log, or ask your developer to run a broken-link checker.
5. Use your sitemap as a checklist. Export your sitemap URL list. For any URL not linked from at least one other page, find the most relevant existing page and add a link there.

Score 100/100: zero orphan pages (every page linked from at least one other), zero broken internal links, and a healthy hub structure where important pages receive links from many others.