How to Improve Your AI Score

Why does this matter?

52%

of all web traffic is now bots - more than human visitors

2.5B

daily prompts on ChatGPT alone - 31% trigger web searches

7,851%

growth in AI agent traffic in the last year

AI agents like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude are becoming how people find businesses. When someone asks "best barber in Austin" or "dentist near me", AI searches the web for answers. If your site isn't AI-readable, you're invisible to a growing share of potential customers.

Most websites aren't ready for AI

Only 12% of all domains have Schema.org markup - the #1 factor for AI visibility. Google and Microsoft both confirmed they use structured data for their AI features. Sites with Schema.org and FAQ markup get 44% more AI citations. By adding it, you're ahead of most of your competitors.

Your AI Score breakdown

Your score is 0-100, based on signals that research shows actually impact AI visibility:

25 pts

Schema.org + FAQ (most impactful)

What: A JSON-LD script in your HTML that describes your business in a structured way.

Why: Research shows sites with Schema.org and FAQ markup get 44% more AI citations. This is the single biggest factor.

How to add: Add this to your HTML <head>:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Your Business Name",
  "description": "What you do",
  "telephone": "+1-234-567-890",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "123 Main St",
    "addressLocality": "Your City"
  }
}
</script>

Use the right @type: Restaurant, BarberShop, Dentist, LegalService, etc. Full list here. Add a second FAQPage schema for bonus points.

Don't want to write it yourself? Use our free Schema.org generator - enter your URL and we create the code for you.

20 pts

Content quality

What: Detailed, well-structured text content on your page.

Why: Pages with 5,000+ characters, headings, lists, and tables get up to 4x more AI citations than short pages.

How to improve:

Write detailed service/product descriptions
Add a FAQ section
Use H2/H3 headings to organize content
Include price tables, feature lists, hours of operation

15 pts

Meta tags + Open Graph

What: Description and social sharing tags in your HTML head.

Why: AI agents use these for context when structured data is incomplete.

How to add:

<meta name="description" content="Short description of your business">
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Business Name">
<meta property="og:description" content="What you do">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg">

10 pts

llms.txt file

What: A plain text file at yoursite.com/llms.txt that describes your business for AI agents.

Why: An emerging standard that gives AI agents a clean summary of your business. Not widely used by AI bots yet, but growing and easy to add.

How to add:

Use our free generator - enter your URL and we create the file
Download the file
Upload it to your website's root folder (same place as index.html)
Verify it's accessible at yoursite.com/llms.txt

Not technical? Contact us and we'll help you set it up.

10 pts

robots.txt

What: A file that tells bots which parts of your site they can access.

Why: Some sites accidentally block AI crawlers. If GPTBot or ClaudeBot is blocked, AI can't read your site.

How to fix: Create yoursite.com/robots.txt with:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Make sure you don't have lines blocking GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or Anthropic-AI.

5 pts

Sitemap, HTTPS, speed

These are basics of a well-maintained website:

sitemap.xml - list of your pages, helps all crawlers find your content
HTTPS - secure connection, most hosting provides this free
Fast loading - under 3 seconds, optimize images and use a CDN

3+2 pts

Bonus files

Small bonus points for extra files:

llms-full.txt (3 pts) - extended version of llms.txt with more detail
security.txt (2 pts) - at /.well-known/security.txt, security contact info

Common issue

Cloudflare is blocking AI bots

If you use Cloudflare, it may be blocking AI crawlers by default. Cloudflare's "Managed robots.txt" feature adds rules that block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and others from accessing your site.

How to check: Visit yoursite.com/robots.txt. If you see "Cloudflare Managed content" with Disallow rules for GPTBot/ClaudeBot, your site is blocked.

How to fix:

Go to Cloudflare Dashboard → your domain → AI → AI Bots
Disable "Managed robots.txt"

Note: this only controls whether AI bots can read your site to answer user questions. If you want to block AI training on your content but still allow AI search, you can keep Cloudflare's managed robots.txt and add this to your own robots.txt:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

This allows AI search bots to read your site while Cloudflare's content signals still mark your content as "no AI training" (ai-train=no).