ai-search-readiness

AI Search Readiness Checker

Evaluate how well a website is positioned to appear in AI-generated search results — Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Browse, Perplexity, and other LLM-powered search engines. Identify gaps and provide actionable optimization recommendations.

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Core Workflow

Phase 1 — Information Gathering

Collect from the user:

1. Website URL and brand name
2. Primary topics/services the brand should be known for
3. Target audience (B2B/B2C, industry, geography)
4. Top 5 queries they want to appear in AI search results for
5. Known competitors appearing in AI results (optional)

Phase 2 — Content Structure Analysis

Analyze the website for AI-crawlability and citation-worthiness:

Technical Accessibility

• robots.txt — check for blocks on AI crawlers (GPTBot, Google-Extended, anthropic-ai, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Bytespider)
• Sitemap.xml — exists, valid, includes key pages
• Crawl depth — important content within 3 clicks of homepage
• Page speed — fast-loading pages are more likely crawled
• Clean URL structure — descriptive, keyword-rich paths

Content Quality Signals

Signal	Check	Impact
Structured headings	H1-H3 hierarchy with clear topics	High
Direct answers	Concise definitions/answers in first paragraph	Critical
Data & statistics	Original data, cited sources	High
Author expertise	Author bios, credentials, E-E-A-T signals	High
Freshness	Content updated within 6 months	Medium
Comprehensiveness	Topic coverage depth vs competitors	High
Unique perspective	Original research, case studies, first-party data	Critical
List/table format	Structured data AI can easily extract	Medium

Schema & Structured Data

• FAQPage schema for Q&A content
• HowTo schema for tutorial content
• Article schema with author and dateModified
• Organization schema with complete entity info
• BreadcrumbList for site hierarchy

Phase 3 — Entity & Brand Presence

Check brand entity recognition across AI systems:

1. Search brand name in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
2. Evaluate responses for accuracy, recency, and sentiment
3. Check entity associations — is the brand correctly linked to its industry, products, and location?
4. Wikipedia/Wikidata presence — strong signal for entity recognition
5. Knowledge panel — does Google show a knowledge panel?

Document findings in a structured format:

| AI Platform | Brand Mentioned? | Accuracy | Sentiment | Recency |
|-------------|-----------------|----------|-----------|---------|
| Google AIO  | Yes/No          | 1-5      | +/0/-     | Date    |
| ChatGPT     | Yes/No          | 1-5      | +/0/-     | Date    |
| Perplexity  | Yes/No          | 1-5      | +/0/-     | Date    |

Phase 4 — Citation Opportunity Analysis

For each target query, analyze what AI platforms currently cite:

1. Run each query through available AI search tools
2. Document which sources are cited
3. Identify patterns in cited content (format, length, authority)
4. Map gaps between current citations and user's content
5. Score citation potential per query (Low/Medium/High)

Phase 5 — Recommendations Report

Generate the readiness report using references/readiness-report-template.md:

1. AI Readiness Score (0-100)
2. Crawler Access Status — which AI bots can/cannot crawl the site
3. Content Optimization — specific pages to improve for AI citation
4. Entity Building — steps to strengthen brand entity recognition
5. Schema Gaps — missing structured data implementations
6. Citation Strategy — content to create/optimize for AI search visibility
7. Monitoring Plan — how to track AI search appearances over time

Scoring System

Category	Weight
Technical Accessibility (crawlers, speed, structure)	20%
Content Quality & Format	30%
Entity & Brand Recognition	25%
Schema & Structured Data	15%
Citation Presence	10%

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Key Principles

• AI search engines favor authoritative, well-structured, concise content that directly answers queries
• Original data and unique perspectives dramatically increase citation probability
• E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) matter even more for AI search
• Blocking AI crawlers is a business decision — document tradeoffs, do not assume one answer
• AI search is evolving rapidly — recommendations should be framed as current best practices

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Additional Resources

Reference Files

• references/readiness-report-template.md — Full report template with scoring rubric
• references/ai-crawler-list.md — Complete list of known AI crawler user-agents and their robots.txt directives