AI Visibility Checklist

ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity and Google each send their own crawlers. If your robots.txt blocks them, they can't read your pages, so they can't quote or recommend them.

Security services can block AI crawlers even when robots.txt allows them. Cloudflare, for example, has settings that block AI bots, and on some accounts they're switched on by default.

GPTBot, ClaudeBot and the Google-Extended token control whether your content is used to train AI models. Blocking them is a fair business choice, and the companies document them separately from their search crawlers.

A sitemap tells search engines which pages exist and when they changed, so new services, products and posts get discovered sooner.

Google's index feeds both its normal results and AI Overviews. Search Console shows which pages Google has indexed, which it hasn't, and why.

Bing's index powers Bing search and Microsoft Copilot, and other search and AI products have been reported to use Bing results too. It's a few minutes of setup for a second major index.

A page that isn't in Google's index can't appear in results or AI Overviews. Service, product and location pages are sometimes left out without any warning.

Settings used while a site is being built are often left on at launch. They hide the whole site from search engines and AI crawlers.

Prices, opening hours and service lists inside images, PDFs or scripts are hard for crawlers to read, and many AI crawlers read a page's HTML without running JavaScript.

Slogans like "Quality you can trust" don't tell anyone, human or AI, what you sell. A plain first sentence is what gets repeated when someone asks what your business does.

An AI answer to "emergency boiler repair in Leeds" needs a page that's clearly about that. One services page with a dozen bullet points gives it little to work with.

Your About page is where people, and the systems that summarise businesses, look for who you are, where you're based and how long you've been doing it.

Structured data states your business name, logo, address, phone, hours and profiles in a format machines read reliably. It won't guarantee a recommendation, but it removes guesswork about the basic facts.

Search engines and AI tools cross-check details from your site, your Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles. Conflicting details make it harder to tell they're all the same business.

Linking your site to your social and directory profiles, and linking back from them, helps connect them as one business instead of several similar-looking ones.

Titles are one of the strongest clues to what a page covers, and they're what people see in search results. Vague titles like "Home" or "Products" waste that.

AI answers often lift a sentence or two that directly answers a question. Pages that lead with the answer and then explain are easier to quote accurately.

llms.txt is a proposed standard: a short Markdown file that summarises your site for AI tools. Major AI companies haven't confirmed they use it for search, so treat it as a cheap extra, not a priority.

For local searches, Google's results and AI features draw on Business Profile details like categories, hours, reviews and photos. An incomplete profile is an easy reason to be left out.

Your review count, rating and what reviewers actually say are among the clearest trust signals a local business has, for customers and for AI summaries alike.

AI assistants often summarise what independent sites say about a business. Reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Houzz or an industry directory give them a view beyond your own site.

When someone asks an AI for the best dog groomer in Austin or the best eco-friendly sneakers, answers frequently draw on articles that list and compare options. If you're missing from those lists, you're easier to leave out.

Forum threads regularly appear in Google results and AI answers, and both Google and OpenAI have content partnerships with Reddit. Real recommendations in those threads carry weight.

Named owners, staff and authors with real experience signal a real business. Google's guidance on helpful content encourages making clear who created a page and why they know the subject.

Bing Places feeds Bing and Microsoft's local results, and Apple Business Connect controls how you appear in Apple Maps and Siri. Both are free and often forgotten.

A real address or service area, a phone number and an email address are basic signs of a legitimate business. Hidden contact details are common on low-quality sites.

The questions customers ask you on the phone are the same ones they type into ChatGPT and Google. Knowing them shows exactly which answers your site is missing.

When someone asks an AI a similar question, a page that answers it clearly is something it can cite. Google now shows FAQ rich results for only a few kinds of sites, so do this for readers and AI, not for special search listings.

"How much does it cost?" is one of the first things buyers ask. If your site doesn't say, AI answers may quote a competitor's prices or a vague average instead.

"X vs Y" and "which is better for me" questions are very common in AI chats. A fair comparison that helps people decide is the kind of page that gets read and cited.

People ask AI for recommendations with conditions like "for a small office", "for sensitive skin" or "open on Sundays". Saying who you serve best helps match you to those questions.

Local questions name places. A page for each main town or area you cover can help, as long as each one has real local detail and isn't a copy with the town name swapped.

Questions like "how to choose a wedding photographer" or "what size rug for a living room" come before someone picks a business. Good guides put you in the conversation early.

Old prices, hours, staff or product details lead to wrong answers, and many AI search tools favour recent information for questions that change over time.

Manufacturer copy appears on dozens of stores, so it gives no reason to pick yours. Specific details like materials, sizing, use cases and care make a product easy to recommend for a particular need.

Google uses Product structured data to show price, stock and ratings, and it's a clean, machine-readable description of what you sell. Most themes add basic product schema, but details like reviews are often missing.

Reviews add the real-world detail that shoppers, and AI summaries of products, lean on: how it fits, how it lasts and what it's good for.

Your product feed powers free listings on Google and feeds Google's Shopping Graph, which Google uses across its shopping features. Without it, Google knows less about your prices and stock.

Collections are often your best pages for broad searches like "linen summer dresses". A grid of products with no text gives search engines and AI little to understand or quote.

Alt text describes an image for screen readers and for crawlers that can't see the picture. It's good accessibility practice as well as good for search.

Delivery cost, delivery time and the return window are among the first things shoppers ask about. Clear policies answer those questions and signal a store worth trusting.

Shopify generates robots.txt for you, and it can only be changed through a robots.txt.liquid template or an app. Custom edits, sometimes left by old SEO apps, can block crawlers you want.

Guides like "how to choose running shoes" or "what size rug do I need" match the questions shoppers ask AI before they buy. Your store's built-in blog is a free place to answer them.

You can't improve what you don't check. Asking AI assistants your customers' questions shows whether you're recommended, who is instead, and which sources they rely on.

Search Console shows the searches you appear for, the clicks you get and any indexing problems. Google has said visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted within its overall web search numbers.

Bing reports its own search performance and crawl issues, which can differ from Google's. Problems there can affect Bing and Copilot even when Google looks fine.

Some people click through from AI answers to your site. Seeing those visits grow is one of the few direct signs that AI is sending you customers.

Plenty of people read an AI recommendation and then search your name or call you directly, which analytics can't see. Asking is the simplest way to find out.

Sites drift: new pages go live without titles, apps change robots.txt and prices go stale. A quarterly pass catches problems before they cost you.