AI Visibility is a score (0-100) measuring how often AI search engines recommend your business when users ask for services in your area.
When someone opens ChatGPT and asks "best plumber near me," the AI generates a response that may or may not include your business. Your AI Visibility score reflects how likely you are to be in that answer.
The AI search engines that matter:
Together, these AI platforms are rapidly becoming how consumers discover local services — and most local businesses are completely invisible to them.
Let those numbers sink in. Nearly half of your potential customers are now asking AI for recommendations. And when AI sends them to you, they convert at more than double the rate of Google traffic.
But here's the problem: When we scanned 6,400+ local businesses across Los Angeles, we found that 89% scored D or F on AI visibility. Individual contractors appear in less than 1% of AI responses. Meanwhile, platforms like Angi appear in 90%+ of AI responses.
"The businesses that invest in AI visibility now will dominate their local markets for the next decade. The ones that wait will wonder where their customers went." — Teehoo Martech Research, April 2026
AI search engines don't use the same ranking factors as Google. Here's what they actually look at:
| Signal | Weight | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Schema Markup | Very High | Structured data (JSON-LD) that tells AI your business name, services, rating, hours |
| AI Crawler Access | Very High | Whether your robots.txt allows GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot to read your site |
| Review Quality | High | 4.3+ stars, 50+ reviews, recent activity, owner responses |
| Google Business Profile | High | Completeness of GBP — photos, Q&A, hours, services, attributes |
| FAQ Content | High | Question-answer content AI can directly cite in responses |
| NAP Consistency | Medium | Identical name, address, phone across all directories |
| Citations | Medium | Presence on Yelp, BBB, industry directories |
| llms.txt | Medium | A file that helps AI understand your business (like robots.txt for LLMs) |
| Content Freshness | Low-Medium | Recently updated pages with "Last updated" dates |
Notice what's NOT on this list: keyword density, meta tags, page speed. The signals AI uses are fundamentally different from Google SEO — which is why businesses that rank #1 on Google can still be invisible to ChatGPT.
We built a free 14-point GEO Audit that checks every signal AI search engines use when deciding who to recommend. In 30 seconds, you'll know:
Enter your website URL. Get your 14-point AI readiness score in 30 seconds. No signup needed.
Run Free GEO Audit →Score interpretation:
| Score | Grade | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 85-100 | A | Excellent — AI regularly recommends you |
| 70-84 | B | Good — visible but room for improvement |
| 50-69 | C | Fair — AI sometimes sees you, often misses |
| 30-49 | D | Poor — mostly invisible to AI |
| 0-29 | F | Failing — AI never recommends you |
Based on scanning 6,400+ businesses, these are the 8 actions with the highest impact on AI visibility, ordered by ROI:
Schema markup is the single most direct signal you can send to AI. It tells ChatGPT your business name, services, rating, and hours in a machine-readable format. Without it, AI has to guess — and it guesses wrong. See our GEO Playbook for copy-paste templates.
FAQ content is the #1 pattern AI platforms quote back to users. Write 8-10 real questions your customers ask, with specific, data-rich answers. Include pricing ranges, service details, and your city name.
If your robots.txt blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or PerplexityBot, AI literally cannot read your website. Many WordPress themes and Cloudflare defaults block these. 5-minute fix, measurable impact.
AI search engines pull data from Google Business Profile. Complete every field: hours, services, attributes, photos, Q&A, posts. Aim for 100% completeness.
AI needs confidence to recommend you. 50+ reviews at 4.5+ stars is the threshold for top AI recommendations. Set up automated review requests after every service call.
Consistent citations on Yelp, BBB, and industry directories signal legitimacy. NAP consistency across all platforms is critical.
Write a "Cost of [Service] in [City]" article and a "[Service] vs [Alternative]" comparison. AI loves specific, data-rich content it can cite.
AI trains on Reddit and community content. Genuine participation in local subreddits and Nextdoor builds signals AI can reference.
Total potential improvement: +35-63 points — enough to go from F (invisible) to B or A (regularly recommended).
Get your personalized GEO Playbook → (shows which of the 8 actions apply to YOUR business based on your scan results)
Google rankings and AI visibility are different systems. We've found businesses ranking #1 on Google that score 20/100 on AI visibility. The signals are different.
45% adoption in 12 months is not a fad. ChatGPT has 800M weekly users. Google itself is replacing organic results with AI Overviews. This is a permanent shift.
Some businesses intentionally block GPTBot/ClaudeBot thinking it protects their content. The result: AI can't see your business at all. You become invisible.
Lead marketplaces are being disrupted by AI search. Angi's revenue is down 46%. Instead of paying $1,400 per booked job for shared leads, invest in owning your AI visibility.
AI visibility compounds over time. Schema markup takes 1-2 weeks to be crawled. Reviews take months to build. Content takes time to be indexed. There's a 12-18 month first-mover advantage window that's closing.
Start with a free GEO Audit. See your score. Get your action plan. Fix your visibility.
Free GEO Audit →AI visibility measures how often AI search engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) recommend your business. A score of 0 means AI never mentions you. 100 means always. Most local businesses score below 20.
45% of consumers now use AI to find services. AI-referred leads convert at 73% (vs 31% Google). Google clicks dropped 42% since AI Overviews. Businesses invisible to AI lose customers they never know about.
Use our free GEO Audit. Enter your URL, get a 14-point score in 30 seconds. Or run a Local GEO Scan for the full 7-dimension analysis with competitor comparison.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing for AI search. Like SEO is for Google, GEO is for ChatGPT. It focuses on Schema markup, AI crawler access, reviews, FAQ content, and business data consistency.
Quick wins (Schema, robots.txt) take 1-2 weeks. GBP optimization: 2-4 weeks. Reviews and citations: 60-90 days. Most businesses see measurable improvement in month 1, significant gains by month 3.
Free tools: GEO Audit, Local Scan. Monitoring: from $49/month. Full managed optimization: $499-$2,499/month. Compare to Angi at $500-2,500/month for shared leads — AI visibility gives better ROI.
Yes. Google is still the largest channel. But AI is the fastest-growing. Best strategy: both. Many foundations (Schema, reviews, content) help with both Google and AI search.