Does the answer engine know you exist?
Run a free Answer Authority audit. We score the three things that decide whether AI assistants and search actually surface your business: what your site tells machines, where you are cited, and how quotable you are.
- Technical AEO signals, read directly from your live site
- Your citation footprint across directories and review platforms
- How visible you are for the questions your customers actually ask
The method
Three signals decide who gets named, and who gets skipped.
40% of the score
Technical AEO signals
What machines can actually read on your own site.
- Structured data and entity type
- Profile links that corroborate your identity
- AI crawler access in robots.txt
- llms.txt and sitemap coverage
- Titles, descriptions and extractable text depth
30% of the score
Live citation footprint
Where your business is listed and confirmed by someone else.
- Listing platforms and review sites
- Industry and association directories
- Local and trade references
- Name, address and phone consistency
- Third-party mentions and press
30% of the score
Answer-engine visibility
Whether an assistant has anything quotable to say about you.
- The category questions you should appear in
- Which sources answer engines draw on in your niche
- The content formats they prefer to cite
- Who is being cited in your place
Straight about the limits
This audit scores observable signals, not a licensed citation index. The technical checks are measured directly from your live site and are exact. The citation and answer-engine scores are AI-assessed from live web results: directional and honest, not a precise measurement of any private dataset. That is the same starting read an answer engine gets, which makes it the useful one.
Sample report
What you get back.
This is an illustrative example for a fictional dental practice, so you can see the shape of a report before you run your own. A real audit uses your live site and current search results.
Answer Authority Score
Willow & Oak Dental
Developing · visible in places, but not reliably sourced
Your practice is easy to find by name but rarely surfaced as an answer. The site gives machines very little structured context, and your citations thin out quickly beyond the two largest directories.
Technical AEO signals
What machines can read on your own site
Live citation footprint
Where your business is listed and corroborated
Answer-engine visibility
How likely assistants are to cite you
What stood out
No structured data on the homepage
We found no Organization or LocalBusiness markup, so answer engines have to guess your entity type, location and service area.
Citations stop at the big two
Strong presence on the main review platforms, with no corroboration from industry directories, local press or association pages.
Thin answer-ready content
Only one page answers a real patient question directly. Answer engines quote pages that answer a question in the first paragraph.
Fastest lift
Add LocalBusiness structured data to your homepage with address, hours and profile links. It is the fastest single lift on the technical side of the score.
What we measured
Every check below was read directly from your live site.
- Pass
HTTPS and reachable
Homepage responded 200 over a secure connection.
- Pass
Page title
58 characters, includes the practice name and city.
- Missing
Meta description
No meta description found.
- Improve
Primary heading
One H1 found, but it is the practice name with no service or location context.
- Missing
Structured data
No JSON-LD blocks detected on the homepage.
- Missing
Entity links
No profile links tie the site to your listing platforms.
- Pass
AI crawler access
robots.txt does not block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended.
- Improve
Sitemap
sitemap.xml found with 14 URLs, not declared in robots.txt.
- Missing
llms.txt
No llms.txt file, so assistants have no curated summary of your site.
- Improve
Extractable text depth
Around 380 words on the homepage. Answer engines prefer 600+ of clear, question-shaped copy.
- Missing
Question and answer content
No FAQ or Q&A structure detected.
- Pass
Canonical tag
Self-referencing canonical present.
Where you are cited
Found on 3 of 7 sources we checked.
Google Business Profile
Verified listing with hours and 61 reviews.
Yelp
Claimed listing, 18 reviews, photos present.
Bing Places
Listing found but no photos or service detail.
Apple Business Connect
No listing matched your practice name.
Healthgrades
No provider profile found.
State dental association directory
No member directory entry located.
Local press mentions
No recent editorial mentions found.
Your name appears as "Willow & Oak Dental" on two listings and "Willow and Oak Dental Studio" on a third. Pick one and standardise it.
Phone number matches everywhere we could check; the suite number is missing from one listing.
How answer engines see you
Estimated citation likelihood · moderate
Assistants can confirm the practice exists, but the sources they lean on for recommendations are third-party roundups and directory pages where you do not appear. With no structured data and almost no question-shaped content on your own site, there is very little for an assistant to quote.
What moves this score
Directory roundups and "best of" lists rank for the top questions, and the practice is absent from all of them.
Confirmed on Google and Yelp only; no industry directory or editorial corroboration found.
The homepage describes the practice but answers no customer question directly.
61 Google reviews at 4.8, but only 18 on Yelp and none on health platforms.
The question test
- best family dentist in Austin for kids
Not cited
A "top 10 dentists in Austin" roundup on a local blog.
- emergency dentist Austin same day
Sometimes mentioned
A national dental directory page filtered to Austin.
- dentist near South Congress
Not cited
Google Business Profile map results for the neighbourhood.
Who gets cited instead
- Two neighbouring practices appear consistently in the directory roundups you are absent from.
Your fix list, in order
Work top to bottom. Each item moves the score more than the one below it.
- 01
Publish LocalBusiness structured data
It is how an assistant confirms what you are, where you are and what you do.
Add a JSON-LD block to the homepage with name, address, phone, opening hours, price range and links to every listing you own.
- 02
Standardise your name, address and phone
Mismatched listings split your identity across sources, which weakens every citation.
Choose one name and address format, then correct every listing to match within 30 days.
- 03
Add three answer-first pages
A directory listing gets you found. Your own pages get you quoted.
Write one page per high-intent question, each answering it in the first two sentences, with FAQ structured data on top.
- 04
Claim the missing directories
Corroboration from independent sources is what moves you from "exists" to "recommended".
Claim Apple Business Connect, Healthgrades and your state association directory, then link them from the site.
- 05
Publish an llms.txt file
It gives assistants a curated map of your practice and services.
Add a plain-text llms.txt listing your key pages, services and contact details.