Sandbanks DigitalWhat can AI actually see on your website?
Free instant scan. 30+ checks on how well Google and AI search (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) can see your site, and exactly what to fix first.
Free instant scan. We check 30+ SEO & AEO signals on your homepage.
30+ signals across SEO and AEO
Traditional search ranking plus the four pillars that decide whether AI engines surface your business.
Technical SEO
HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, titles and meta descriptions, headings, sitemap, robots.txt, Open Graph tags, image alt text and page speed.
Findable by AI
Whether AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) can reach you, plus sitemap, llms.txt and server-rendered content.
Quotable
Structured data (Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQ), a clear heading outline, FAQ/Q&A content and lists — the formats AI lifts as answers.
Understandable
Semantic HTML, a declared language, real readable copy and described images so machines can parse your pages cleanly.
Trustworthy
HTTPS, real contact details, outbound citations, reviews/testimonials, linked socials and content freshness — the signals AI uses to trust you.
A prioritised fix list
Every failed check comes with a plain-English fix, ordered by impact, so you know exactly what to do next.
SEO gets you found. AEO gets you quoted.
More and more people now get answers straight from AI — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews — instead of scrolling a page of blue links. When someone asks an AI “who's a good plumber in Poole?”, the businesses it names are the ones it can find, quote, understand and trust. That's what AEO measures.
The good news: most local sites score poorly on AEO, so a few fixes — structured data, an llms.txt, clear answerable content, real trust signals — can put you ahead quickly. Run the scan above to see where you stand, then read our local SEO guide or talk to us about our SEO service.
Can ChatGPT actually see your website?
Three separate things have to be true, and most local sites fail at the first. AI has to be allowed in: ChatGPT crawls as GPTBot and browses as OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User, Anthropic uses ClaudeBot, Perplexity uses PerplexityBot, and Google's AI training access is controlled separately through Google-Extended. A robots.txt written years ago, or a security setting switched on by a host, can be quietly turning all of them away.
Then AI has to be able to read what it finds. If your copy only appears after JavaScript runs, a crawler that does not execute it sees an empty page. And finally it has to be able to quote you, which is a different bar again: an answer engine needs a clear heading structure, real answers to real questions, and structured data telling it who you are and where you trade. Plenty of sites clear the first two and still never get named, because there is nothing quotable on the page.
That is the honest reason we score AEO separately from SEO. They share a foundation, and then they diverge: SEO wants the click, AEO wants to be the source. Our SEO service covers both.
What this scan can and can't tell you
It can tell you whether AI crawlers are blocked, whether your content exists in the HTML before JavaScript runs, whether you have structured data, an llms.txt, a sitemap, real trust signals and the technical SEO basics. Those are facts about your homepage, checked in a couple of seconds, and they are the things that most often go wrong.
It can't tell you whether ChatGPT will actually recommend you tomorrow. Nobody can: answer engines do not publish rankings, they change constantly, and what they say depends on the question asked. It also only reads your homepage, not every page, and it cannot see your real Core Web Vitals or your search rankings. Anyone selling you a guaranteed AI ranking is selling you something they cannot deliver. What we do here is remove the reasons you would be invisible, then measure what changes.
Common questions
Can ChatGPT see my website?
Only if you let it and it can read what it finds. ChatGPT's crawler is GPTBot, and browsing requests come from OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User; if your robots.txt blocks them, or your content only appears after JavaScript runs, ChatGPT has nothing to work with. The scan above checks whether each major AI crawler is allowed, whether your content is in the server-rendered HTML, and whether there is enough structure for an answer engine to quote you rather than just read you.
How do I check if AI can read my website?
Run the scan above and look at the four AEO pillars. Findable covers AI crawler access, your sitemap and llms.txt. Quotable covers structured data, headings and FAQ content, which is what an answer engine lifts. Understandable covers semantic HTML, a declared language and described images. Trustworthy covers HTTPS, real contact details, reviews and citations. A low findable score means AI cannot reach you at all, which is the one to fix first.
What is llms.txt and do I need one?
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file at the root of your site that summarises what you do and points to your key pages, in the way robots.txt describes crawling rules. It is not an official standard and no engine is obliged to read it, so treat it as cheap insurance rather than a ranking lever: it takes minutes to write and costs nothing. The scan checks whether you have one.
What is AEO?
AEO stands for answer-engine optimisation — optimising your site so AI-powered search (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) can find, quote, understand and trust it. As more people get answers from AI rather than ten blue links, AEO is becoming as important as traditional SEO.
Is AEO different from SEO?
They overlap heavily and then diverge. Both want a fast, crawlable, well-structured site. SEO then optimises to win a click from a results page; AEO optimises to be the source an answer engine quotes, which rewards clearly answerable content, structured data and verifiable trust signals over keyword placement. Doing the SEO basics well gets you most of the way; the last stretch is specific, which is why we score them separately.
Is the checker really free?
Yes. Your SEO and AEO scores, the pillar breakdown and your biggest issues are completely free and instant. To unlock the full prioritised fix list and get a copy by email, we ask for your email address.
What does it actually scan?
It fetches your homepage and runs 30+ checks across technical SEO and the four AEO pillars — findable, quotable, understandable and trustworthy — based on what's in your HTML, structured data, robots.txt, sitemap and llms.txt.
How accurate is the score?
It's a fast, honest heuristic scan of your homepage — a great health check and starting point. A full audit looks at every page, real Core Web Vitals and your search rankings, which is part of our SEO service.
Can you fix the issues for me?
Yes — that's what we do. We build fast, AI-ready websites for Dorset businesses, and we'll build you a free demo before you commit a penny. Use the report, then talk to us about putting it right.
How we score AEO
The guidance on this page is grounded in primary sources. Follow the links to read them in full.
- Google: How Google's AI features work
Google's guidance on AI Overviews and what makes content eligible to be surfaced.
- The llms.txt proposal
The emerging standard for an /llms.txt file that summarises a site for LLMs — one of our findability checks.
- Schema.org structured data
The vocabulary behind the JSON-LD checks — structured data is what makes your content quotable by AI.
- web.dev: Core Web Vitals
The performance metrics behind our speed check and a Google ranking signal.