The AI visibility checklist

This is the list we'd work through for any small business that wants ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Google's AI Mode to recommend it. It's in five parts, in order: can the assistants reach your site, do they understand what you do, do other sites vouch for you, are their facts right, and how you'll know it's working.

Use it as an AI search visibility audit: go through each item, mark what's done, and start with the gaps in the first section. Most items take minutes. A few, like getting onto lists, take weeks.

Can assistants reach your site?

If an assistant's crawler can't read your site, it has less of yours to cite.

1. robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that block it won't appear in ChatGPT search answers. Blocking GPTBot, its training crawler, doesn't affect this. What OAI-SearchBot is.
2. robots.txt allows Googlebot and Bingbot. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode cite pages from Google's index, and ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers.
3. robots.txt allows Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User and PerplexityBot, if you want to show up in Claude and Perplexity.
4. Your firewall or CDN isn't blocking them. Some bot-protection settings block AI crawlers whatever robots.txt says. Check the setting, and your server logs if you can.
5. Your text is in the HTML. Open a page with JavaScript turned off. If the words disappear, crawlers may not see them either.
6. You're indexed. Your site is in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, with a sitemap submitted, and your main pages show up in both.

Do they understand what you do?

Assistants match questions to pages that answer them in plain words.

7. Your homepage says what you do, for whom and where in its first lines, not just a slogan.
8. Each service, product or use case has its own page, so there's a page to cite for each question.
9. Your prices are on the site, or at least ranges. People ask for "affordable" and "under $50", and assistants repeat prices they can find.
10. Your service area is clear, if you're local: the city, neighbourhoods and areas you cover, in words.
11. The questions customers ask you are answered on the pages where they belong.
12. Your about page says who's behind the business, how long you've been doing it, and anything that makes you trustworthy: licences, awards, notable clients.
13. You have honest comparison pages, if you sell software: you against your main competitors, and an "alternatives to" page.
14. Your basic structured data is in place: Organization or LocalBusiness, with your name, address, phone and site. It helps search engines read your details; there's no proof it changes AI answers, but it's quick.

Do other sites vouch for you?

For "best X" questions, assistants lean on pages that compare or review businesses.

15. Your Google Business Profile is complete, if you serve customers locally: categories, services, hours, photos.
16. You're listed where your trade is listed: the directories for your industry and city, or review sites like G2 and Capterra for software.
17. You've asked to be added to the "best of" lists that the assistants cite for your questions.
18. You have recent reviews from real customers. Never fake or buy them.
19. You take part in the threads people read, on Reddit and forums, as yourself and saying you're the owner.
20. Others mention you: local press, partners, associations, podcasts, newsletters.

Are their facts right?

21. Your name, address, phone and hours match everywhere: your site, your Google profile, directories and social profiles.
22. You've asked the assistants what they know about you, and fixed the pages behind anything wrong.
23. Old pages are updated or removed: past prices, services you dropped, a previous address.

How will you know it's working?

24. You have a list of 10 to 20 questions your customers really ask, and you ask each one signed out, several times, on each assistant you care about. The same question often gets different answers, so one ask tells you little.
25. You track your competitors and check again every week or two, the same way each time. Give changes a month or more before judging them.

Not on the list

• llms.txt. No major assistant has said it uses it. More on why.
• Writing for robots: keyword stuffing, hidden text, pages nobody would read.

Items 24 and 25 are what Glowsearch does for you every week (it asks Claude, on Pro, once per question), and its action plan points to the other items that matter most for your questions. For the reasoning behind the list, see how to get ChatGPT to recommend your business and how AI assistants choose sources.