What we check
6 technical areas, one grade
llms.txt validation
Checks for a valid llms.txt at your site root — the file that tells AI crawlers what your site contains and how it may be used. Missing or malformed llms.txt is the #1 technical reason AI skips your site.
AI crawler policies
Audits robots.txt rules for GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, and 10+ other AI crawlers. Many sites accidentally block the crawlers that feed AI answers.
Structured data
Validates Organization, FAQPage, HowTo, and Article schema. AI systems rely on structured data to parse and attribute your content — without it, you're invisible to citation engines.
E-E-A-T trust signals
Scores author bylines, publication dates, organization identity, and sameAs links. AI models weight trusted sources heavily; anonymous undated content rarely gets cited.
Content citability
Detects original data, statistics, and quotable facts — the strongest predictor of AI citations per 2026 research. Generic content with no data gets skipped.
AI-readable metadata
Checks Open Graph tags, canonical URLs, sitemap health, and meta descriptions — the plumbing that lets AI systems correctly identify and link your pages.
Why it matters
Buyers start in ChatGPT now
Over half of product research now starts in an AI assistant, not Google. If ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini can't find and cite your site, you're invisible at the exact moment buyers decide. Prompt-tracking tools tell you where you rank — but if the answer is "nowhere," you need to know why. That's what a technical audit finds: the broken llms.txt, the blocked crawler, the missing schema that silently disqualifies you from every AI answer.
Instant grade
A–F score in seconds, with each check explained in plain language.
Prioritized fixes
Failing checks ranked by impact, so you fix what moves the needle first.
Re-scan free
Fix, re-run, confirm. Iterate until every check passes.
How AI citations work
Why AI cites some sites and ignores others
When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question, the AI doesn't browse the live web like you do. It retrieves from its training data, its search index, or (for Perplexity and AI Overviews) a real-time crawl — then decides which sources to cite. That decision happens in milliseconds, and it's driven by technical signals most site owners have never checked.
Crawlability first. If your robots.txt disallows GPTBot, PerplexityBot, or ClaudeBot — or if you have no llms.txt telling AI what your site contains — you're invisible before the content competition even starts. Our research found a surprising number of sites accidentally block the very crawlers that feed AI answers, often via overly broad Disallow: / rules copied from staging configs.
Then parsability. AI systems extract facts from structured data — Organization, Article, FAQPage schema — far more reliably than from prose. A page with clean schema and clear headings gets cited; the same content as a JavaScript-rendered blob gets skipped.
Then trust and citability. 2026 research on AI citations is consistent: models prefer sources with named authors, publication dates, verifiable organization identity — and above all, original data. A page with unique statistics gets quoted. A page that rephrases Wikipedia gets ignored. This is why the audit scores E-E-A-T signals and content citability, not just technical plumbing.
What the audit reveals
The 6 layers, and what failing each one costs you
- llms.txt — Missing or malformed. Cost: AI crawlers have no machine-readable summary of your site; you're harder to index and easier to misrepresent. Fix: publish a valid llms.txt at your root (we have a free generator).
- AI crawler policies — robots.txt blocking GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, or Google-Extended. Cost: the crawlers that feed AI answers can't reach your content at all. Fix: audit robots.txt and allowlist AI crawlers explicitly.
- Structured data — Missing or invalid Organization/Article/FAQ schema. Cost: AI can't reliably attribute facts to you, so it cites competitors who mark up properly. Fix: add JSON-LD schema with real organization details.
- E-E-A-T signals — No author bylines, no dates, no verifiable organization identity. Cost: models deprioritize anonymous undated content for citations. Fix: named authors, publication dates, about page with real details.
- Content citability — No original data, statistics, or quotable facts. Cost: even perfectly optimized pages get skipped if there's nothing worth quoting. Fix: publish original research, benchmarks, or data — the strongest citation predictor.
- AI-readable metadata — Broken canonicals, missing Open Graph, unhealthy sitemap. Cost: AI attributes your content to the wrong URL or can't find it. Fix: clean canonicals, complete OG tags, valid sitemap.
FAQ
Common questions
What is an AI visibility audit?
An AI visibility audit tests the technical signals that determine whether AI systems — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews — can find, understand, and cite your website. It checks your llms.txt file, robots.txt AI-crawler rules, structured data, E-E-A-T signals, and content citability.
How is this different from aiclicks.io's audit?
aiclicks.io tracks prompt-level visibility — WHERE you appear. Our audit checks the technical foundation — WHY you appear (or don't). They're complementary: monitor with prompt tracking, fix root causes with a technical audit. Ours is free with no signup.
Why doesn't ChatGPT cite my website?
Most common reasons: no llms.txt, robots.txt blocking AI crawlers, missing structured data, weak E-E-A-T signals, and content with no original data. This audit checks all of them in seconds.
Is it really free?
Yes — no signup, no credit card, no trial. Enter any public URL for an instant A–F grade with fix recommendations.
What do I do after the audit?
Fix failing checks in priority order: add llms.txt, unblock AI crawlers, add Organization schema, add author bylines with dates. Then re-run to confirm.
Does it test actual AI responses?
No — this is a technical audit (are you citable?), not prompt tracking (what does AI say?). Run the audit first: no point tracking mentions if your site blocks the crawlers.
How often should I run it?
After every major site change and quarterly as a health check. AI crawler rules evolve fast — it's free and takes seconds.
Ready to see what AI thinks of your site?
Free audit, no signup, results in seconds.
Run the free AI visibility audit