AI Readiness Score: What It Measures and How to Improve Yours

Your AI readiness score is a 0-100 measure of how well your website is positioned to be discovered and cited by AI search engines. Here's exactly what we measure, why each factor matters, and how to move your score up.

What the Score Represents

The AI readiness score answers a simple question: if an AI search engine wanted to cite a source on your topic, how likely is it to choose your site?

A high score doesn't guarantee citations — content relevance and query matching still drive selection. But a high score means the technical, structural, and content foundations are in place so that when your topic comes up, you're a viable candidate.

A low score means you have barriers that actively prevent AI from citing you, regardless of how good your content is.

The Four Categories

Our scanner evaluates your site across four weighted categories. Each represents a different dimension of AI citability.

AI Accessibility (25% of score)

This measures whether AI systems can physically reach and read your content. Checks include:

• robots.txt AI bot permissions — are GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Amazonbot, and Bytespider allowed to crawl?
• llms.txt presence — does your site have the AI briefing file?
• Sitemap availability — can AI crawlers discover your full content library?

Why 25%: If AI can't access your content, nothing else matters. This is the gatekeeper category. Many sites score zero here because they unknowingly block AI crawlers.

Quick wins: Updating robots.txt takes 5 minutes. Adding llms.txt takes 15 minutes (or use our scanner to auto-generate one). These fixes alone can boost your total score by 15-20 points.

Content Quality (30% of score)

This evaluates how well your content is structured for AI comprehension and extraction. Checks include:

• Heading hierarchy — proper H1 through H3 structure
• Content depth — sufficient word count and topical coverage
• Meta descriptions — present and descriptive
• Open Graph tags — provide additional context signals

Why 30%: This is the highest-weighted category because content quality is the primary driver of citation decisions. AI models cite content they can understand and trust.

Quick wins: Add missing meta descriptions (many sites have none). Ensure every page has a single, clear H1. Break long content into logical sections with descriptive H2 headings.

Technical Setup (20% of score)

This measures the technical foundation that supports AI discoverability. Checks include:

• Schema markup — presence and variety of structured data
• HTTPS — secure connection (trust signal)
• Canonical URLs — proper URL canonicalization
• Page performance — load time indicators

Why 20%: Technical issues create friction that reduces AI engagement with your content. They're less impactful than content quality but create a ceiling on your citability.

Quick wins: Add basic Article schema to blog posts. Ensure canonical URLs are set correctly. These are one-time implementations that permanently improve your score.

AI-Specific Signals (25% of score)

This evaluates signals that specifically influence AI citation behavior. Checks include:

• FAQ schema — provides direct question-answer pairs AI can cite
• Schema richness — depth and variety of structured data
• Brand clarity — consistent naming and attribution signals

Why 25%: These signals differentiate AI-optimized sites from traditionally-optimized ones. A site can have perfect SEO and still score low here if it lacks AI-specific markup.

Quick wins: Add FAQ schema with 3-5 real questions and answers to your most important pages. This is one of the highest-ROI AI optimization actions.

Score Benchmarks

• 80-100: Excellent. Your site is well-positioned for AI citations. Focus on content strategy and monitoring.
• 60-79: Good foundation. Likely missing a few key optimizations that are holding you back.
• 40-59: Significant gaps. Basic accessibility or content structure issues need attention.
• 20-39: Major barriers to AI citation. Usually means AI crawlers are blocked or fundamental technical issues exist.
• 0-19: AI effectively can't see your site. Start with the accessibility category.

The average website scores between 35 and 45. Simply addressing the basics puts you ahead of most of the web.

How to Improve: Priority Order

1. Fix accessibility first. If AI crawlers are blocked, nothing else matters. Unblock them in robots.txt and add llms.txt.
2. Add schema markup. Article + FAQPage schema on content pages gives the biggest technical boost.
3. Improve content structure. Proper headings, meta descriptions, and OG tags.
4. Build content depth. Ensure key pages have substantial, well-organized content worth citing.
5. Rescan and iterate. After each round of changes, rescan to verify improvements and identify the next priorities.

FAQ