Methodology v1

Site check

What we check, how the score out of 100 is built and why. The formula is public: one site — one score.

Principles

Only what a bot sees

We read the site from the outside, like an AI crawler: robots.txt, HTML, markup, server responses. No access to your admin or analytics is needed.

Rules set the score

The formula is public and the same for everyone: the same site gets the same score. Your site's text is not sent to language models.

Evidence for every item

A robots.txt line, a server response, a page address — you can see where each conclusion came from. In the full audit — for every fix.

A finding is a task

Every item says what is there now, what to do and how to verify. Fixes are ordered by impact / effort.

How the score is calculated

Readiness score = 100 × points earned / maximum of the items checked. An item we could not check drops out of both. If fewer than 60 of the possible 100 points were checked, we don't give a score, so as not to mislead.

Content items are counted across all pages read: the result is the average.

Grades

  • A85 and aboveclearly visible
  • B65 to 84mostly visible
  • C45 to 64partly visible
  • D25 to 44poorly visible
  • Ebelow 25almost invisible

Item statuses

  • passedthe item is met — full points
  • partlypartly met — a share of the points (some bots, pages, fields)
  • problemnot met — 0 points
  • not checkedcould not be checked — not counted
  • tipadvice, no points

What we check

Six areas, 25 items. An area's weight is how much it contributes out of 100.

AAI bot access

up to 20 points

robots.txt and the server's answer to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Alice bots.

ItemPoints
robots.txt is open to AI search and user-request bots (OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot…)10
robots.txt is open to model-training bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended…) — blocking them is legitimate, the penalty is mild3
The server returns the home page to AI bots, not a 403, captcha or firewall page5
No noindex, noai or noimageai in meta robots or X-Robots-Tag2

BReadable without JavaScript

up to 15 points

Whether page text is visible without JavaScript: most AI bots don't run it.

ItemPoints
Share of the home page text visible without JavaScript10
The raw HTML has the title, H1, main text and contacts5

Cllms.txt

up to 10 points

llms.txt and llms-full.txt — a site map and the full text for AI agents.

ItemPoints
/llms.txt opens and is text, not an HTML placeholder4
llms.txt structure: heading, description, sections with links3
llms.txt links point to your site, work, and are not template placeholders3
/llms-full.txt — the full site text for AI agentsadvice

DWho you are

up to 20 points

Organization markup, contacts, profiles — how AI understands whose site it is.

ItemPoints
Organization or LocalBusiness markup on the home page: name, address, logo, contacts6
sameAs links to company profiles (2GIS, Instagram, LinkedIn…)3
Page type markup: product, service, article, FAQ, breadcrumbs5
canonical and Open Graph (og:title, og:description, og:image)3
There are “About” and “Contacts” pages3

ECitability

up to 25 points

An answer in the first paragraph, numbers, tables, FAQ — what AI quotes.

ItemPoints
Answer first: a 20–90-word paragraph with specifics at the top of the page7
Headings: one H1, at least three H2, no skipped levels4
Tables and lists — facts that are easy to extract4
A question-and-answer block4
At least 300 words and numbers in the text3
Links to sources and attributed quotes3

FTrust and freshness

up to 10 points

Dates, authors, sources and a fresh sitemap.

ItemPoints
Publication and update dates on articles3
Authors on articles2
sitemap.xml exists, is listed in robots.txt, with recent dates3
HTTPS with a valid certificate, http redirects to https2

SEO basics — a separate score

Calculated from the same pages, 0 to 100, and not part of AI readiness: good SEO does not guarantee AI will quote you.

ItemPoints
title of 10 to 70 characters15
description of 50 to 170 characters10
One H1 per page15
canonical is set10
og:title is set5
The page is indexable and returns 20020
The language is set in <html lang>10
hreflang for language versions5
Server response under 1.5 s5
Page HTML under 2 MB5

Readiness per AI engine

The same formula, but bot access (robots.txt and server response) is counted only for that engine's bots. So a site can be open to ChatGPT and closed to Alice.

Which bots each engine uses

Extra checks in the full audit

These items are not part of the score: we show them with evidence and fixes. They will join the next methodology version, based on real checks.

  • Bots get the same page as people, not a cut-down version or a placeholder
  • robots.txt does not forbid AI from answering about the site (Content-Signal)
  • The server responds quickly to AI bots
  • A non-existent address returns 404, not the home page
  • The site has one address: www and http lead to the main one
  • Phone and email in the markup match the site
  • Company details (BIN, INN, OGRN) on the site
  • Links to listings on 2GIS, Yandex Maps, Google Maps
  • Products have price, currency and availability marked up
  • Reviews and rating are marked up
  • Images have alt text
  • The site looks alive: current year and dates

Which pages we read

  • Free check: the home page and up to 9 more pages from the sitemap, of different types (catalogue, service, article, contacts). No sitemap — we take links from the home page.

  • Full audit: 30 pages; you can buy more or name your own — but no more than the site has.

  • We open pages with JavaScript in a browser and compare with what is visible without it: the home page in the free check, the home page and one more in the full audit.

  • AiseenBot does the reading: it respects robots.txt and does not overload the server. How AiseenBot works

Questions and answers

Why does the score differ from other services?

We look not only at robots.txt but at what the server actually returns to AI bots, and what is visible without JavaScript. A site with an open robots.txt but a firewall that blocks bots scores lower with us.

Does a score of 100 mean AI will quote me?

No. The score is about readiness: AI can read and understand the site. Whether it appears in answers also depends on demand, competitors and the site's authority.

What if an item was scored wrongly?

Below the report there is “Score wrong?”: pick the item and describe what is wrong. If we made a mistake, we fix the check for everyone.

Will the methodology change?

Yes, as AI search changes its rules. A new version gets a new number; old reports are shown by their own version, so before/after comparisons stay fair.

Do you check whether ChatGPT answers about my site?

Not in this methodology: it is about whether the site is ready. Checking AI answers will come in the extended audit.

Check your site right now

15 seconds — and you'll know whether ChatGPT, Claude and Alice can see your site.

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