How to check and improve your website's AI friendliness score

When we ran BuiltWith’s AI Index on real client websites, some scored very low. The reasons were the same each time: AI crawlers were blocked, there was no llms.txt file, and there was no structured data. All three are quick to fix, and fixing them is the first step to AI assistants reading and citing your site.

What does an AI friendliness score measure?

An AI friendliness score shows how easily AI systems can read and understand your website: whether their crawlers are allowed in, whether the content arrives as clean HTML, and whether the page’s structure makes its meaning clear. A low score means AI assistants may struggle to use your content, even if it ranks well in ordinary search.

How does AI friendliness differ from AI visibility?

They measure different things. AI friendliness is readiness: can the machines read you? AI visibility measures the result: when people ask AI assistants questions in your field, does your site get mentioned or cited? A site can be perfectly readable and still never be cited if its content does not directly answer the questions people ask. Think of friendliness as the foundation and visibility as the outcome.

How do I check my current score?

Run your domain through BuiltWith’s AI Index or a similar tool. It will show which AI crawlers can reach your site and what structured data it finds. Look first for three things: crawlers blocked in robots.txt, a missing llms.txt, and no JSON-LD markup.

For visibility, test by hand as well. Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity a question your customers would ask and see whether your site appears. Keep the questions the same each month so the results are comparable.

What are the three fastest fixes?

1. Stop blocking AI crawlers. Many sites block AI user agents such as GPTBot by accident, often through a blanket rule. Check your robots.txt and decide deliberately which crawlers to allow. Our guide to checking whether robots.txt blocks AI crawlers walks through it.
2. Add an llms.txt file. It is a plain-text summary at the root of your site that points AI assistants to your most important pages and describes what you do. See what llms.txt is and how to write one.
3. Add JSON-LD structured data. Start with schema.org markup for your business and your articles, so machines can read who you are, where you are and what each page is. Our guide to schema markup for AI has a working example.

Each takes minutes. Rescan afterwards to confirm the tool now sees them.

How do I improve my AI visibility once the site is readable?

Visibility comes from content that answers questions cleanly. Use headings that ask the question a reader has, then answer it in the first sentence or two beneath. Keep each section to one idea, so an assistant can lift a single paragraph without needing the rest of the page. Include clear definitions and specifics. A plumber’s page built around “how do I fix a leaking tap?” with a step-by-step answer gives an assistant exactly what it needs to quote.

Two technical points matter here too. Serve your content as HTML rather than relying on JavaScript to render it, because many AI crawlers do not run scripts well. And link related pages to each other, so crawlers find more of your site.

How do I track improvement over time?

Set a baseline today: note which questions surface your site and on which assistants. Repeat monthly. After a change, give it at least two weeks before rechecking, because AI systems do not recrawl every site daily. In your analytics, watch referral visits from sources such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. A rising trend means the work is paying off. The goal is steady improvement, not a perfect score.

Common questions

What is a good AI friendliness score?

There is no universal benchmark, and each tool scores differently. Compare your own score over time, and fix the blockers above first.

How is an AI visibility score calculated?

Tools run a fixed set of questions across AI assistants and record whether your site is mentioned or cited in the answers. Methods vary: some count brand mentions, others only citations with a link, so read what your tool is measuring.

Can I check AI visibility for free?

Yes. Free checkers exist, and a manual test works: ask the questions your customers ask and note whether you appear. Keep the same questions each month.

Does AI visibility affect SEO?

It brings referral traffic in its own right. Whether being cited by AI helps ordinary search rankings is not proven, so treat it as a separate channel.

How long does it take to improve?

Allow two to four weeks after a change before expecting to see a difference, then check monthly.

Want to know how your site scores? Get in touch and we will run the check with you.