Free AI readiness grader

Is your site ready for AI search?

Our free tool grades how well your page is built for AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to read, understand, and trust. You’ll get a score, an overall page grade, and a fix for the gaps found.

Grade my site ↓
Instant score Free, no signup Fix for every gap
Built for AI search
Senior-led review
35+ years of strategic work
Featured in Forbes

Can AI read your page?

It checks crawl access, structured data, and clarity, then scores the page in about fifteen seconds, free.

Run the grader

Check your site now

Enter a URL and we’ll grade the page and your homepage, then email you the full report. You’ll get a score, an overall page grade, and a fix for the gaps found.

Enter a valid website address.
Enter a valid email.

This grades the page at the URL you enter and your homepage. There’s no login and nothing to install.

Built for AI search
Senior-led review
Report yours to keep
Grading your site
Reaching your site…
0
Your AI readiness score
 

This is half the picture

This grades how well your site is built for AI to read and trust, the on-site half. The other half is how the AI engines actually describe and recommend your brand when a buyer asks. We measure that by hand, and it’s where the real positioning work happens.

Want to talk through your results?

I’m Brian, Let’s Canoe’s lead strategist. Grab a free 20 minutes with me and I’ll walk through what this turned up and where the next gains are. I’d rather have a simple conversation about what’s working and what isn’t than pitch you.

Pick a time →

We couldn’t fully read that site

Some sites block automated checks or load entirely in JavaScript, which our quick scan can’t see. Ironically, that’s also a sign AI engines may struggle to read it, and it’s worth a closer look by hand.

Book a free 20-minute call →

The order matters, because the early items cap everything below them. Work top to bottom.

  1. Make the page crawlable and server-rendered. Allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, OAI-SearchBot, and Google-Extended in robots.txt, and make sure the main content is in the raw HTML, since most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript.
  2. Confirm the page is indexable. A stray noindex tag keeps the page out of every index, so it can never appear in an AI answer.
  3. Restructure answer-first. Lead each section with the question as a heading, then a short, self-contained answer the engine can lift, and elaborate after.
  4. Add structured data. Organization, FAQPage, and Article schema give engines clean facts and tie your pages to a real brand entity.
  5. Add trust signals. A clear brand identity, contact details, named authors, and current dates raise how much an engine trusts the page.
  6. Build off-site mentions. AI recommends entities it recognizes, and most AI brand mentions come from third-party sites, so reviews, listings, and earned coverage matter as much as your own pages.
Brian Murnion, director of strategy at Let's Canoe, at a whiteboard

From the person you’d be talking to

AI search is new, but the reasons sites fail tend to be the same old, fixable things, such as a blocked crawler, a page that only loads in JavaScript, or no structured data. The grader finds those first. The harder half is whether AI actually recommends you when a buyer asks, and that comes down to how clearly your brand is positioned and recognized across the web.

Run the grader, then book a call and we’ll go through your results together, including where the off-site work would matter most. If you don’t, the report is yours either way.

More strategy, less marketing.

Brian Murnion, Founder & Chief Strategist

It takes about fifteen seconds to grade your site.

You’ll see where AI can and can’t read you, with a fix for every gap.

Grade my site ↑

Questions about AI readiness, AEO, and how AI engines read a site. We’re a brand agency, so the answers lean strategy-first. If yours isn’t here, the fastest way to get it answered is to book a free fit call.

AEO and AI search basics

What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
AEO is the work of getting AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews to read your site, trust it, and use it when they answer a question. It is the AI-era counterpart to SEO. Where SEO competes for a ranked link, AEO competes to be the answer itself.
What is generative engine optimization (GEO), and is it the same as AEO?
In practice they describe the same work: optimizing to be cited inside AI-generated answers. AEO is the term most people search, partly because GEO collides with geography and geo-targeting in results. We use AEO and treat GEO as a synonym.
What’s the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO earns a ranked link a person clicks. AEO earns a mention or citation inside an AI answer, often with no click at all. They share the same foundation, a crawlable, well-structured site, and AEO adds an answer-first, citation-friendly layer on top.
Do I still need SEO if I focus on AEO?
Yes. The two run on the same foundation, and Google’s AI Overviews still pull from the search index, so classic SEO feeds AI visibility. AEO is an added layer, not a replacement. Our free SEO audit covers the search side, and this grader covers the AI side.
What is AI search?
AI search is when someone asks a question and an AI engine writes a direct answer instead of returning a list of links. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Google’s AI Overviews all do it, usually citing the sources they drew from.
What are answer engines?
Answer engines are AI tools that respond to a question with a synthesized answer rather than a page of links, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews. AEO is about being one of the sources they pull from.

AI search and falling traffic

Why is my organic search traffic dropping?
For many sites the biggest new cause is AI search. When Google’s AI Overviews or a chatbot answers the question on the spot, the searcher gets what they needed without clicking, so your impressions can hold steady while clicks fall. Informational and top-of-funnel queries are hit first. Algorithm updates and seasonality still play a part, but the zero-click shift is the trend behind most of the recent drops we see.
Why did my clicks fall even though my rankings held?
Because ranking first no longer guarantees the click. An AI Overview or featured answer often sits above your result and resolves the query, so you keep the position and lose the visit. The number to watch now is clicks and AI citations, not rank alone. Steady rankings with falling traffic is the signature of AI search taking the click.
Is AI search killing SEO?
It’s changing SEO, not ending it. Informational, top-of-funnel queries are eroding fastest, while commercial, comparison, local, and branded queries still send clicks. SEO is shifting from earning the click to also being the source the AI answer cites, which is what AEO addresses.
Why are my Google Ads and paid search results down?
Two things are compressing paid search. Fewer people are running the searches at all, because AI chat now handles more of that research, and AI Overviews push the ads further down the page, which lowers impressions and clicks. Buyers also research in a chatbot and convert later through another path, which can make paid attribution look worse than the underlying demand. Check assisted conversions and branded search before you cut budget.
Why are my Google Shopping ads underperforming?
The same shift hits Shopping. Product research is moving into AI chat and AI Overviews, which summarize options and make recommendations before a shopper reaches the Shopping carousel, so impressions and click-through soften. The response is to make sure AI can read and recommend your products and brand, and to lean on branded and high-intent queries that still convert.
How do I recover traffic and revenue lost to AI search?
There’s no quick fix, because the change is in how buyers behave, not a passing algorithm update. The durable moves are to get cited inside the AI answers buyers now see, which is AEO, to build enough brand and direct demand that people search and buy you by name, and to focus paid spend on the commercial and branded queries that still click. Start by checking whether AI can even read your site with the grader above, then book a fit call if you want to map it to your numbers.

Your AI readiness and the grader

Is my website AI ready?
Run the grader above to find out. It scores the page you enter and your homepage across crawl access, structured data, content clarity, trust signals, and technical hygiene, then gives you a fix for every gap. A high score means AI can read and trust the page; a low score usually means a few fixable things are blocking it.
How does the AI readiness grader work?
Enter a URL and the grader fetches that page and your homepage, then checks the on-site signals AI engines rely on, such as crawler access, rendering, schema, content clarity, trust signals, and the technical basics. It returns a score out of 100, a grade, and a specific fix for each gap.
Is the grader free, and do I need to give an email?
It’s free, and the results show on the page. You enter an email so we can send the full report. There’s no account to create, no software to install, and no charge.
What does the grader check?
The grader covers five areas, AI crawl access, structured data, content clarity, trust and identity signals, and technical hygiene. Each holds specific checks, weighted by how much they affect whether AI can read and trust the page.
How is the AI readiness score calculated?
Each check is graded pass, needs work, or fix, and weighted by impact, whether high, medium, or low. The weighted results roll up to a score out of 100 and a grade, either AI-ready, needs work, or hard for AI to read.
How do I improve my AI readiness score?
Start with crawl access and rendering, confirm the page is indexable, then restructure the content answer-first, add schema, and strengthen your trust signals. The grader lists the highest-impact fixes first. If you want help working through them, book a free fit call and we’ll walk through your results together.

AI crawlers and access

Can ChatGPT crawl my website?
Only if you allow its crawlers and your content is in the HTML. ChatGPT reads sites through GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, and ChatGPT-User. If your robots.txt blocks them, or your pages render entirely in JavaScript, ChatGPT sees little or nothing. The grader checks both.
Can AI read my website?
It can read what’s in your raw HTML and not blocked. If AI crawlers are allowed and your content loads server-side, AI can read the page. If robots.txt blocks the bots or the page renders in JavaScript only, AI sees little. The grader tells you which.
Do AI crawlers read JavaScript?
Mostly no. The main answer-engine crawlers read the raw HTML and do not run JavaScript the way Google does. If your content only appears after scripts load, those engines read a near-empty page. Server-side rendering or static HTML fixes it.
Which AI crawlers should I know about?
The ones that matter for being read and cited are GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, and ChatGPT-User from OpenAI, ClaudeBot from Anthropic, PerplexityBot from Perplexity, Google-Extended for Gemini, and Googlebot, which also feeds AI Overviews.
Should I block GPTBot?
Not if you want to be cited. Blocking GPTBot and the other answer bots keeps your pages out of the engines that recommend businesses to buyers. There are reasons some publishers block training-only crawlers, but for a business that wants AI visibility, allowing the answer bots is the right call.
How do I allow AI crawlers in robots.txt?
Make sure robots.txt has no blanket Disallow that catches those user agents. You can add explicit Allow rules for GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended, or simply leave them undisallowed. The grader flags any that are currently blocked.
Does blocking AI crawlers hurt my AI visibility?
Yes, for the answer bots. If GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or PerplexityBot can’t reach your pages, those engines can’t read or cite you. Blocking training-only crawlers is a separate choice, but blocking the search and answer bots removes you from AI results.

Structured data and content

Does structured data (schema) help with AI search?
Yes. Google and Microsoft have both confirmed schema helps their AI understand a page, and clean JSON-LD gives every engine extractable facts about your business. It doesn’t guarantee a citation, but it removes ambiguity about what your page is and who you are.
What schema types matter most for AEO?
Organization with sameAs links to your real profiles, FAQPage, Article or BlogPosting with an author and dates, and Breadcrumb. Organization ties your name to a real entity AI can recommend, and FAQPage feeds engines the exact question-and-answer text they quote.
Does FAQ schema still help if Google removed FAQ rich results?
Yes. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in normal search, but the markup still hands AI engines clean question-and-answer pairs to pull from. For AEO, FAQPage schema is still worth adding.
How should I structure content for AI search?
Answer-first. Lead each section with the real question as a heading, give a short, self-contained answer in the first few sentences, then elaborate. Add specific facts, a statistic with a source, and a named author. AI engines lift the clean answer at the top of a section.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed text file that lists your most important pages for AI models, like a guided map of the site. The idea is reasonable, but no major engine reliably reads it yet.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
It’s low priority. No major AI engine reliably reads llms.txt yet, adoption is small, and it should never come before crawler access, structured data, and content. Publishing a clean one is harmless for the future, but it is not what gets you read or recommended today.

Getting found and cited by AI

Why isn’t my business showing up in ChatGPT?
Usually one of three things. The AI crawlers are blocked, the content only loads in JavaScript, or the brand has thin trust and entity signals across the web. The first two are on-site and the grader flags them. The third is off-site, and it is the part we work through by hand.
How do I get my business mentioned or cited by AI?
Two halves. On-site, make the pages readable and well-structured so engines can use them. Off-site, build the third-party mentions, reviews, and listings AI leans on, since most AI brand mentions come from sites other than your own. The grader handles the on-site half.
How do I show up in Google AI Overviews?
AI Overviews pull from Google’s search index, so the classic SEO foundation matters: be crawlable, indexable, and genuinely useful for the query. Answer-first content and clear schema raise your odds of being one of the cited sources.
How do I get cited by Perplexity?
Allow PerplexityBot, keep your answer in the raw HTML, and write it answer-first with facts Perplexity can attribute. Perplexity leans on clear, citable sources and on third-party corroboration, so off-site mentions help too.
Does my site need to rank on Google to show up in AI answers?
Not always. The standalone chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity use their own crawlers and sources, so you can be cited without a top Google rank. Google’s AI Overviews are the exception, since they draw on Google’s index.
How long does it take to show up in AI search?
The on-site fixes like crawler access, rendering, and schema can take effect within weeks once engines recrawl. The off-site entity and mention work that drives consistent citations takes months, the same way authority does in SEO.
How do I track whether AI mentions my brand?
By running prompts across the engines and watching for mentions and citations, which paid tools automate. The free starting point is this grader for the on-site half, and the off-site tracking is part of the work we do by hand.

Strategy and working with us

Can a small or local business show up in AI search?
Yes. A focused local or niche business can be cited for the questions it genuinely answers, often more easily than a big generic brand. Clear pages, LocalBusiness schema, consistent contact details, and real reviews carry a lot of weight.
Is AEO worth the investment?
If buyers in your category are starting their research in AI, yes. The on-site fixes are cheap and durable, and being one of the few cited sources in a new channel is worth more early than late. If almost none of your buyers use AI search yet, it can wait.
How does Let’s Canoe help with AEO?
We start with the on-site fixes this grader surfaces, then do the off-site work that gets you cited, such as entity and positioning, structured data, content, and the third-party signals AI trusts. We’re a brand agency that leads with brand strategy, so it ties back to how clearly your brand is defined.
let's canoe logo

406-998-7901
team@letscanoe.com
119 N 29th St
Billings, MT 59101

Brand Strategy
Studios
Free tools
SEO Audit
Brand Audit
Growth Gap Calculator
AI Readiness Grader
ABOUT LET’S CANOE
Our Work
About us
Contact us
as seen in
Forbes logo

Let’s Canoe is a brand-led marketing agency in Billings, Montana. We start with brand strategy and build the marketing around it. The Let’s Canoe Framework™ guides every engagement we run.