What is a Search Score? (And How to Improve Yours for AI Visibility)

SearchScore is an AI visibility search score tool that measures how likely AI systems are to recommend your business in generated answers.

Every day, millions of people ask AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity for recommendations - "best accounting software for small business", "local SEO agency near me", "project management tools for startups". And these AI systems decide which businesses to mention, which to ignore, and which to trust.

Your search score is a measure of how likely those AI systems are to choose you.

Why your search score matters now

The way people find information has fundamentally changed. Rather than scrolling through a list of blue links, users now get direct answers from AI. And those answers determine which businesses enter the consideration set.

If your business does not appear in AI-generated answers, you are invisible to a growing segment of potential customers - even if you rank #1 on Google.

How a search score works

SearchScore evaluates your website across 8 key categories and over 130 individual signals that AI systems use to decide whether to recommend your business:

1. AI Readability

AI systems need to understand your content clearly. This means well-structured pages, clear headings, concise paragraphs, and content that AI can easily extract and cite. If your content is buried in complex layouts or heavy JavaScript, AI systems struggle to read it.

2. Structured Data

Schema markup tells AI systems exactly who you are, what you do, where you are located, and what products or services you offer. Without structured data, AI has to guess - and it frequently gets it wrong or skips you entirely.

3. Entity Signals

AI systems recognise entities - businesses, people, products, locations. Strong entity signals include consistent brand mentions across the web, Wikidata presence, Wikipedia articles, and clear description of what your business actually does.

4. Crawlability

Before AI can cite you, it needs access. Many websites block AI crawlers via robots.txt without realising it. Ensuring GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and other AI agents can access your content is essential.

5. Authority and Trust

AI systems favour sources that demonstrate expertise and credibility. This includes external mentions, press coverage, professional credentials, and consistent information across platforms. The more AI systems trust you, the more likely they are to recommend you.

6. Topical Authority

AI systems prefer sources that demonstrate deep expertise in their subject area. Sites with comprehensive content hubs, structured headings, and topical depth are more likely to be selected as authoritative sources for AI-generated answers.

7. Platform Optimisation

Your presence across external platforms matters. LinkedIn company pages, directory listings, social profiles, and review sites all feed into how comprehensively an AI system understands your brand.

8. AI Platform Readiness

How well prepared is your site for AI crawlers specifically? This includes llms.txt files, robots.txt permissions for AI bots like GPTBot and PerplexityBot, and clear crawl guidance.

What is a good search score?

SearchScore ranges from 0 to 100. Here is how the scoring works:

A score above 70 (Strong or AI-Ready tier) suggests your site is competitive in AI search. Scores below 50 (Invisible or Low Visibility tier) usually mean your website is unlikely to be recommended consistently.

Why your search score might be low

Most websites have low search scores for similar reasons:

• Blocking AI crawlers - Legacy robots.txt rules that block all bots also block AI agents
• Missing structured data - No JSON-LD schema markup telling AI who you are and what you do
• Weak entity signals - No Wikipedia presence, unclear brand description, inconsistent business information
• Poor content structure - Content that is difficult for AI to extract and understand
• Low authority signals - Few external mentions, weak trust signals, limited platform presence

How to improve your search score

Improving your search score involves fixing the signals AI systems actually use. Here is how to do it:

Three Steps to a Higher Search Score

1. Fix technical foundations - Add structured data, ensure AI crawler access, create an llms.txt file
2. Build entity signals - Establish Wikipedia presence, get listed in relevant directories, ensure consistent business information across the web
3. Optimise for extraction - Structure content clearly, use descriptive headers, make it easy for AI to understand and cite your pages

Five Quick Wins

• Add Organisation schema to your homepage
• Add Product or Service schema to relevant pages
• Check your robots.txt allows AI crawlers
• Create a clear, one-line description of what your business does
• Ensure your business name, address, and phone number are consistent everywhere

Most search score gains come from a few high-impact fixes. The key is understanding what AI systems actually look for - and optimising for that, not for traditional Google rankings.

Search Score vs SEO Score

It is important to understand the difference between traditional SEO and AI search visibility:

SEO gets you found. Search score gets you chosen. They are related but different - and you need both.

To learn more about improving your search score, read our guide on how to improve your search score. And to understand the key differences between traditional SEO and AI visibility, see our comparison of search score vs SEO score.