Methodology

How we score your website.

We grade three things — Google search, AI answer engines, and AI search — on a simple 0 to 10 scale. Each grade points to real changes you can make on your site this week.

The short version

What we look at.

You paste in your homepage. We open the page, read it once, and pull out about seventy small clues — things like your page title, the words on the page, the labels in your code, and the rules your site sends to crawlers.

Those clues go to Claude, an AI from Anthropic. Claude grades three different things about your page: how well Google can rank it, how well AI tools can quote a clear answer from it, and how likely AI chat tools are to mention your brand at all.

Each grade is a number from 0 to 10, with one decimal point. Your overall score is the average of the three. Every grade comes with seven to eight short notes — things you can fix, written in plain English.

We deliberately ignore a few things. We do not count links from other websites. We do not look at how old your domain is. We do not measure page speed. We do not score your reputation across the wider internet. Those are real, but you cannot fix them today. Our job is to surface things you can change yourself.

Section one

SEO — Google search.

This grade answers a single question: is your homepage set up so Google can read it, understand it, and show it in normal search results?

What we check

Your page title and the short blurb Google shows under it — is it the right length, and does it tell people what your site is for?
Your main heading. Every page should have one big headline that says what the page is about.
The hidden tags that label your business info — name, address, phone, hours, logo. Google uses these to build richer search results.
The official version of your page. If the same content lives at three different web addresses, Google needs a hint to know which one is the real one.
Your security setup — does your site use https, and does it send the right safety signals to browsers?
Pictures. Every image on your page should have a short written description so Google Images can find it.
For local shops — your Google Business Profile. We check whether it exists, whether the address matches your site, and whether your reviews are healthy.

What we do not measure

Links from other websites pointing to yours. Useful, but not something you can fix on this page.
How old your website is. You cannot change that today.
How fast your page loads. A separate tool is better for that.

Score bands — Google search

9–10: Best in class. Nothing big missing.
7–8: Solid. A few small fixes left.
5–6: Average. Needs work in two or three spots.
3–4: Big gaps. Several major fixes needed.
0–2: Broken, or hidden from Google on purpose.

Section two

AEO — Answer engines.

When someone asks Google a question and Google answers it right there in the search box — that is an answer engine. Same for ChatGPT and Perplexity. This grade checks whether your page is shaped so those tools can lift a clean answer from it.

What we check

Does your page open with a clear, direct answer to the question your customers actually ask? Or does it open with a long marketing intro?
Are your section headings written like real questions — things like "how much does this cost" or "where are you based"?
Are your paragraphs short enough to scan? Long walls of text are hard for AI tools to lift a clean quote from.
Is there a list, a table, or a short FAQ section that AI tools can pull from quickly?
Can a reader see who wrote the page and when it was last updated? Both make AI tools trust the page more.
Is the reading level plain enough? Pages written at a college reading level get skipped more often than pages written at an 8th-grade level.

What we do not measure

Whether your page actually appears in a Google answer box today. That is up to Google's algorithm, not your page.
Whether ChatGPT or Claude have ever quoted your brand. We measure that separately on your Pro dashboard.
Page speed and other technical performance numbers.

Score bands — Answer engines

9–10: Easy to quote. Clear answers, dates, named author.
7–8: Solid. One or two fixable gaps.
5–6: Average. About half the rubric passes.
3–4: Hard to quote. Needs real rework.
0–2: A wall of marketing copy with no clean answer.

Section three

GEO — AI search.

When buyers ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini for the best option in your category, does your brand get mentioned? This grade looks at whether your page gives those tools enough reason to name you.

What we check

Does your page quote real people, real customers, or real experts? AI tools love content that already has quotes in it.
Does your page back its claims with numbers? Stats, percentages, dollar amounts, real data points.
Does your page link to outside sources that support your claims? Pages that cite trusted sources get cited back more often.
Does your site let AI tools read it? Some sites accidentally block ChatGPT and Perplexity from reading their pages.
Does your site need JavaScript to load its main content? Many AI tools cannot run JavaScript, so they see a blank page instead.
Is your brand on Wikipedia? Not required, but it is a strong trust signal when present.
For local businesses — are your reviews fresh and strong enough to compete with the shops AI tools are already naming?

What we do not measure

Whether ChatGPT or Claude have already mentioned your brand. That swings week to week based on training data, not on your page.
Whether Google's AI answer box names you today. That depends on Google's choice, not on your page.
Links from other websites and your reputation across the wider internet.

Score bands — AI search

9–10: Quotable. Well-sourced. AI tools have plenty to grab.
7–8: Solid. One or two missing signals away from an A.
5–6: Average. Can be cited, but not the first choice.
3–4: Reads like marketing copy with no proof.
0–2: Nothing here for AI tools to quote.

Our promise

Every score traces back to something you can fix.

We call this the glass-box rule. If we mark a score down, you should be able to point at the reason on your page and fix it. No black box. No "trust us, your site is a 6 out of 10." Every number lines up with a written note and a specific change you can make.

We used to mix in outside signals — like whether ChatGPT had already mentioned your brand this week, or whether Google had picked your page for its answer box. We pulled those out. They were interesting numbers, but you cannot change them by editing your site. Including them broke the rule. So your score now only reflects work that is in your hands.

We still show those outside numbers on your dashboard as context, because they matter. They just do not change your grade.

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