15 Signals Analysed
Across 3 groups, from robots.txt through to llms.txt
Built for AI Search
Scored for how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity read a page
Actionable Fixes
Your top 3 fixes, ranked by impact, before any email
Sample results
72Well Optimised
Accessibility
26/33
Readability
24/37
Understandability
21/30
FixAdd an llms.txt file for AI crawlers
FixAdd FAQ schema markup to key pages
FixImprove author attribution on blog posts
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What is a AI Readiness Score?
A AI Readiness Score measures how well your website is optimised for AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Unlike traditional SEO scores that focus on Google rankings, a AI Readiness Score evaluates whether AI models can discover, understand, and accurately cite your brand in their responses.
Cited's free AI Readiness Score scanner analyses 15 signals across 3 groups to give you a 0–100 score in about 30 seconds. No login, no cost. To check whether the AI crawlers can reach your pages at all, run Crawl Radar, and to see which brands AI actually names in your category, read the Cited Index or run the free report on your own domain.
What the AI Readiness Score measures
Accessibility
33 points
Can AI crawlers find and access your content?
- robots.txt AI Crawler Access (10 pts)
Allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended in robots.txt. Those four carry 8 of the 10 points, which is enough to pass this signal on its own - Sitemap Accessibility (8 pts)
Publish a valid sitemap with lastmod dates and declare it in robots.txt. We read the robots.txt declaration first, so a sitemap on a non-standard path still counts - Page Crawlability (7 pts)
Return a 2xx or 3xx status on every key page, and remove any stray noindex tag. One noindexed page in five costs about 1.4 of the 7 points - llms.txt Presence (8 pts)
Publish /llms.txt covering what your company does, your products, links to key pages, contact details, and how you want to be cited
Readability
37 points
Can AI parse and understand your content's structure?
- Heading Hierarchy (7 pts)
Use exactly one H1 per page. That is the dominant check here. Nesting H2 under H1 and H3 under H2 earns the rest - Answer-Block Formatting (7 pts)
Include FAQ sections, Q&A patterns, and question-style headings (What/How/Why) - Content Depth (6 pts)
Aim for 800+ words of substantive content on key pages - Internal Linking Quality (5 pts)
Add 6 or more contextual in-body links per page, over and above nav and footer links - Meta Description Quality (6 pts)
Write meta descriptions between 80–160 characters on every page - Open Graph Tags (6 pts)
Include og:title, og:description, and og:type on every page. Those three are what an answer engine reads. og:image is a social-card nicety and does not gate the score
Understandability
30 points
Can AI extract meaning, context, and authority?
- JSON-LD Structured Data (8 pts)
Add the JSON-LD schema that matches each page type: Organization on the homepage and About page, Product on product pages, Article or BlogPosting on posts, plus FAQPage wherever you answer questions - Author Attribution (5 pts)
Add author names and Person schema to content pages - Trust & Credential Indicators (5 pts)
Publish an About page with team info and visible contact information - Content Freshness (5 pts)
Keep content updated; show last-modified dates on key pages - AI-Optimised Content Signals (7 pts)
Build comparison pages, buying guides, best-of lists, and structured spec tables for your category
Frequently asked questions
What is a AI Readiness Score?
A AI Readiness Score is a 0–100 measure of how well your website is built for AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. It evaluates 15 signals across 3 groups (Accessibility, Readability, and Understandability) and tells you whether AI crawlers can reach your content, parse its structure, and pull an accurate answer out of it. It measures technical readiness, not how often AI platforms cite you today.
Is the AI Readiness Score really free?
Yes, completely free. No login, no credit card, no trial period, and no paid tier sitting behind it. Your 0–100 score, the three pillar scores, and your top 3 fixes appear the moment the scan finishes. The only thing an email unlocks is the signal-by-signal detail for all 15 checks.
How is the AI Readiness Score calculated?
The AI Readiness Score comes from 15 rule-based signals. No AI or LLM is involved in the scoring itself. We crawl up to 5 representative pages from your site in a real browser and check deterministic factors: robots.txt permissions for AI crawlers, sitemap and llms.txt presence, heading hierarchy, structured data, and so on. Each signal carries a fixed point value, the three groups are worth 33, 37, and 30 points, and the same site scanned twice with nothing changed returns the same score.
What’s the difference between a AI Readiness Score and an SEO score?
An SEO score measures how well your site ranks in Google’s list of links. A AI Readiness Score measures whether AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity can discover your pages, read them, and cite your brand inside an answer. SEO work concentrates on keywords and backlinks. GEO work concentrates on crawler access, structured data, answer-shaped content, and machine-readable signals. A site can rank well on Google and still score poorly here.
How long does a scan take?
About 30 seconds. We crawl up to 5 representative pages from your site in a real browser, run all 15 signals across them, and compute your score. You can watch each check complete in real time while it runs.
What is a good AI Readiness Score?
60 or above. AI Readiness Scores fall into four bands: 80–100 is Fully Optimised, 60–79 is Well Optimised, 40–59 is Partially Optimised, and 0–39 is Not Optimised. A score under 60 usually means one whole pillar is failing rather than a scatter of small misses, so look at the pillar breakdown before the individual signals. Remember what the number is: technical readiness for AI crawlers, not a measure of how often AI platforms currently cite you.
Why do you need my email?
Your score, the three pillar scores, and your top 3 fixes are free and visible without one. The email unlocks the signal-by-signal detail: what each of the 15 checks found on your pages, and the specific fix for each. We also use it to send AEO and GEO insights, and you can run the scan again any time without entering it.
What is an llms.txt file?
An llms.txt file is an emerging standard for giving AI models a readable description of your website, in the same spirit as robots.txt telling search crawlers what they may access. A good one covers what your company does, your main products or services, links to your key pages, contact details, and how you would like to be cited. Those five things are what this scanner checks for, and llms.txt is worth 8 of the 33 points in the Accessibility pillar.
Can I scan my competitor’s website?
Yes. You can scan any public website, and there is no limit on how many. Plenty of people scan two or three competitors before scanning themselves, because a raw 0–100 means more once you know what the rest of your category scores.
How can I improve my AI Readiness Score?
Start with the Top 3 Fixes in your results. They are ranked by impact first and by how many points you are losing second, so the first one is the biggest single move available to you. Make the change, re-run the scan, and confirm the signal flipped. Once the technical gaps are closed the remaining work is usually off-site, and that is where the Cited platform picks up: the same 15 signals tracked weekly, next to how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity actually cite you.