What is AI search readiness?
Can AI search use your site?
Pay $19 after you see the score.
Last reviewed: August 14, 2026
AI search readiness is how well a website is set up for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude to find it, understand it correctly, and cite it. It is a measurable condition, not a ranking. Answer Patch scores that condition across six pillars. The $19 Fix Report is the deliverable.
Six pillars
AI search readiness is scored across six pillars. The methodology page shows how each one is scored.
Business Clarity
Title, meta, H1, and alt text that name who you are and what you do, in language a model can parse.
Answer Readiness
Passages an assistant can quote as a direct answer, including a visible FAQ when the page has one.
Technical Access
Whether AI crawlers can reach the page. The Fix Report checks robots.txt, sitemap, llms.txt, and live fetch.
Structured Data
JSON-LD that confirms what the page already says, not a contradicting extra layer.
Trust Signals
Credential wording, numbered reviews, and featured-on links the HTML actually shows.
Competitive Visibility
How your public pages compare to competitor URLs you add: citability, FAQ, schema, and proof.
SEO, GEO, and AEO
SEO, GEO, and AEO are practices. AI search readiness is the condition of the site: can ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude find it, parse it, and quote it. See the GEO glossary entry. AEO is the older name for extractable passages. Google's May 2026 AI optimization guide still treats AI Overviews as SEO, and Google Search does not use llms.txt.
| Term | Aims at | Versus readiness |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | A ranked list of blue links in classic search. | A site can rank well and still be unusable to AI search. |
| GEO | Citation inside a synthesized AI answer. | GEO names the practice. Readiness is the condition of the site. |
| AEO | A direct, extractable reply for snippets, voice, and assistants. | AEO overlaps Answer Readiness. It is not the full six-pillar score. |
Frequently asked questions
How is AI search readiness different from SEO?
SEO optimizes for a ranked list of blue links. AI search readiness asks whether an assistant can find the site, parse what the business does, and quote a specific passage. A site can rank well in classic search and still score poorly here.
Is AI search readiness the same as GEO or AEO?
No. GEO and AEO are practices. AI search readiness is the condition of a site: whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude can find it, understand it, and cite it. The Fix Report scores that condition across six pillars.
Does a high score mean ChatGPT will cite my site?
No. Answer Patch does not control how any search engine or AI system ranks, cites, or summarizes a site, and makes no ranking, traffic, or citation promise.
What the Fix Report costs
The free scan is a homepage score. The $19 Fix Report scores the six pillars and returns copy-ready edits.