IN SHORT
- AI visibility is whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude mention your business when someone asks them about a service like yours.
- It comes down to three things: can assistants reach your site, can they understand it, and do they trust it.
- Most of the problems are technical and take a day to fix: robots.txt, text that shows without JavaScript, structured data.
- You can check your site for free in about 20 seconds.
What AI visibility is
When someone asks ChatGPT "which dentist in Leeds is open on Saturdays", the assistant does not show ten links. It gives one answer with two or three names. AI visibility is the chance that yours is one of them.
You will also see it called GEO (generative engine optimization) or AEO (answer engine optimization). They mean roughly the same thing: preparing a site so language models can find it, understand it and cite it.
It matters now because part of the people who used to search Google now ask an assistant, and Google itself puts an AI overview above the results. If you are not in the overview, many people never scroll to the links below it.
How it differs from SEO
| SEO | AI visibility | |
|---|---|---|
| What the person gets | A list of links | One answer with a few names |
| What matters | Your position in the results | Whether you are mentioned at all |
| Who reads the site | Googlebot, which runs JavaScript | Bots, most of which do not run JavaScript |
| What helps | Keywords and links to the site | Clear text, concrete facts, structured data, reviews |
The two do not conflict. Good SEO is the foundation, and AI visibility adds a few things on top.
How an assistant decides whom to recommend
Finds
It searches the web or its own index. If robots.txt blocks its bots, your site does not exist for it.
Reads
It fetches the page text. If the text only appears after JavaScript runs, most bots see an empty page.
Understands
It tries to say in one sentence what you do, for whom and where. The clearer the site, the more confident the answer.
Trusts
It compares you with other sources: reviews, directories, articles. A business mentioned in many places with the same details is easier to recommend.
What to do
- Let AI bots in through robots.txt. The ones that matter most are OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User. Google has no separate bot for AI overviews: they come from Googlebot.
- Serve the text without JavaScript. If the site was made with a builder or as an app, check how it looks with JavaScript turned off.
- Say in the first paragraph what you do, for whom and where. Plain words, no slogans.
- Add structured data. JSON-LD of type LocalBusiness or Organization with name, address, phone and opening hours.
- Write a questions and answers section. Use the questions customers actually ask on the phone.
- Give concrete facts. Services, prices or a price range, locations, years in business.
- Show why you can be trusted. Reviews, client names, certificates, the people on the team.
- Add an llms.txt file. A short description of the business and links to the main pages. The standard is new and not every assistant reads it yet, but it takes ten minutes.
- Keep your details the same everywhere. Google Business Profile, directories, social media: one name, one address, one phone.
Check your site
The check opens your site the way a bot would, goes through the list above and gives a score from 0 to 100. An AI model also reads the text and says how it would describe your business.
Free, no sign-up.
What nobody can promise
Nobody can guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend you. Models change, and the answer depends on the question and on who is asking. What you can do is make your site easy to find, understand and cite. That is the part in your hands, and it is a big part.
QUESTIONS
How long until I see an effect?
Search bots read the site at the moment of the question, so they see a change as soon as you publish it. The knowledge built into the models themselves is refreshed rarely, every few months, and there the effect is slower.
Should I block the training bots?
That is your choice. If you block them, your content will not be used to train future models, but the models will also know less about you. Search bots are separate, and it is best to leave them open.
What is llms.txt?
A text file at the root of the site, for example yoursite.com/llms.txt, that briefly describes the business and points to the main pages. It is like robots.txt, but written for language models.
Is the check free?
Yes. The score and the main problems show straight away. For the full report with a fix for every problem, you leave your name, email and phone.
Can you do it for me?
Yes. We build and rework websites for small businesses at a fixed price agreed up front. Get in touch through the contact form.