# AI Ready Check: full text for LLMs (generated by llms_full.py) Generated 2026-10-24 from the published pages of https://checkaiready.com/. Each section is one page. Text repeated across pages is shown once, on its first page. Prices and rules change. Confirm on the cited source before you rely on a figure. ## Index (llms.txt) # AI Ready Check > Free checker that shows whether AI assistants can read a website. It tests llms.txt, AI crawler access in robots.txt, JSON-LD schema, sitemap, meta description, and text readable without JavaScript. ### Pages - [Checker](https://checkaiready.com/) - [AI readiness leaderboard](https://checkaiready.com/leaderboard/): real scores for SaaS and trades software sites, data at https://checkaiready.com/leaderboard.json - [State of AI readiness](https://checkaiready.com/state-of-ai-readiness) - [llms.txt checker](https://checkaiready.com/llms-txt-checker) - [llms.txt validator](https://checkaiready.com/llms-txt-validator) - [AI crawler robots.txt checker](https://checkaiready.com/ai-crawler-robots-txt-checker) - [Free AI readiness badge](https://checkaiready.com/badge) - [Deep report and AI visibility monitor (paid)](https://checkaiready.com/pro) - [Pricing](https://checkaiready.com/pricing) - [Agency plans](https://checkaiready.com/agencies) - [llms.txt generator](https://checkaiready.com/llms-txt-generator) - [AI crawler user agents](https://checkaiready.com/ai-crawlers/) - [llms.txt for WordPress](https://checkaiready.com/llms-txt-wordpress) - [llms.txt for Shopify](https://checkaiready.com/llms-txt-shopify) - [llms.txt for Next.js](https://checkaiready.com/llms-txt-nextjs) - [llms.txt for static sites](https://checkaiready.com/llms-txt-static-site) ### Data - [State of AI readiness JSON](https://checkaiready.com/state-of-ai-readiness.json) - API: https://checkaiready.com/api/check?domain=example.com (rate limited, returns JSON) ### For AI agents - MCP server (Streamable HTTP, read-only, no auth): https://tradeswithai.com/mcp - Tools: search_trade_tools, get_trade_tool, compare_trade_tools, search_saas_vendors, get_vendor_pricing, recent_price_changes - OpenAPI (GPT Actions): https://tradeswithai.com/openapi.json - Server card: https://tradeswithai.com/mcp/server-card - Discovery: /.well-known/ai-catalog.json - Docs: https://tradeswithai.com/agents/ ### Guides (published) - [AI crawlers in robots.txt: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot rules (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-crawlers-robots-txt/): Which AI bots read robots.txt, what blocking each one costs you, and copy-paste rules to allow search but block training. Sourced from vendor docs. - [AI search monitoring tools: what they track and what they cost (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-search-monitoring-tools/): AI search monitoring tools fall into two groups: prompt trackers that log citations, and site monitors that check if AI crawlers can read you. What each does and when you need it. - [AI SEO audit checklist: 12 checks for AI search (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-seo-audit-checklist/): A 12 point AI SEO audit checklist: AI crawler rules, llms.txt, schema, sitemap, page text, and citations. Run the free check, followed by the $19 deep report. - [AI visibility audit: how to check if ChatGPT can see your site (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-audit-checklist/): An AI visibility audit in 5 tests: crawler access, raw HTML, sitemap, llms.txt and schema, plus the buyer questions. Free check, $19 deep report, $29 a month monitor. - [AI visibility for dentists: get your practice named when patients ask ChatGPT (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-dentists/): How ChatGPT picks a dentist near me, the Dentist schema a practice site needs, and what we found when we scanned 18 dental practice websites. - [AI visibility for gyms and fitness studios: get named when people ask ChatGPT (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-gyms-and-fitness-studios/): How ChatGPT picks a gym or studio, the ExerciseGym schema a site needs, which crawlers to allow, and what we found when we scanned 15 gym websites. - [AI visibility for hair salons and barbers: get named when clients ask ChatGPT (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-hair-salons-and-barbers/): How ChatGPT picks a salon or barbershop, the HairSalon schema a site needs, and what we found when we scanned 17 salon and barbershop websites. - [AI visibility for HVAC companies: how to show up when people ask ChatGPT for AC repair (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-hvac-companies/): How ChatGPT answers 'AC repair near me', the service area schema HVAC sites need, and what we found when we scanned 21 local HVAC websites. - [AI visibility for landscapers and lawn care companies: get named when people ask ChatGPT (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-landscapers/): How ChatGPT answers 'lawn care near me', the schema a lawn care site needs when schema.org has no landscaper type, and what we found on 22 local lawn care websites. - [AI visibility for law firms: get your firm named when clients ask ChatGPT (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-law-firms/): How ChatGPT finds a lawyer near me, the LegalService schema a law firm site needs, the ethics rule that covers it, and what we found on 21 small law firm websites. - [AI visibility for restaurants and cafés: get named when people ask ChatGPT where to eat (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-restaurants-and-cafes/): How ChatGPT picks a restaurant or coffee shop, the Restaurant schema with menu and hours, and what we found when we scanned 19 restaurant and café websites. - [AI visibility for roofing contractors: storm season, reviews, and the sources ChatGPT cites (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-roofing-contractors/): How ChatGPT answers 'storm damage roofer near me', how to handle reviews and schema, and what we found when we scanned 17 local roofing websites. - [Does ChatGPT recommend my plumbing business? How to check and fix it (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/does-chatgpt-recommend-my-plumbing-business/): How ChatGPT finds local plumbers, the 3 checks that decide if it can read your site, and what we found when we scanned 25 local trades websites. - [How to get cited by Claude: the 3 Anthropic bots and what to allow (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-get-cited-by-claude/): Anthropic says blocking Claude-SearchBot or Claude-User may reduce your visibility in Claude's search results. What to allow, what to skip, and what 467 software sites do. - [How to rank in AI Overviews: what Google says, in 6 checks (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-rank-in-ai-overviews/): Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews. The 6 checks that decide it, the settings that remove you, and what 467 software sites miss. - [How to rank in Gemini: get your site used in Google Gemini answers (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-rank-in-gemini/): Google says some Gemini answers are grounded on Google Search results, and Google-Extended controls that use. The 5 checks, the robots.txt rule, and how to see Gemini's sources. - [How to rank in Perplexity: what its crawler docs say, in 6 checks (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-rank-in-perplexity/): Perplexity says to allow PerplexityBot and its IP ranges if you want your site in its answers. The 6 checks, the firewall rules, and what 467 software sites do. - [How to see which Springfield, MO businesses ChatGPT recommends (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-see-which-springfield-mo-businesses-chatgpt-recommends/): A 15-minute weekly method to check which Springfield, MO plumbers, HVAC, roofing, and lawn care companies ChatGPT names, plus what we found on 14 local websites. - [How to show up in ChatGPT search results: 7 steps (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-show-up-in-chatgpt-search/): What OpenAI says decides if ChatGPT search can show your site, the robots.txt and firewall settings to check, and what 467 software sites get wrong. - [llms.txt example and format: how to write one that passes (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/llms-txt-example/): The llms.txt format, a copy-ready example, and the 5 mistakes we see most. Based on the llmstxt.org spec and checks of 49 SaaS sites. - [Schema markup for AI search: what to add and what to skip (2026)](https://checkaiready.com/guides/schema-markup-for-ai-search/): Which schema types help AI search and AI Overviews read your pages, copy-ready JSON-LD for 4 page types, and the mistakes to avoid. ### More for AI agents - [Full text for LLMs](https://checkaiready.com/llms-full.txt): main text of every indexable page --- ## Does ChatGPT recommend your business? Free check | AI Ready Check URL: https://checkaiready.com/ Free check for any local business ### When customers ask AI for a dentist , are you the answer? We ask ChatGPT the questions your customers ask. You see who it names, the sites it trusts, and the one thing to fix next. The site scan reads your website. It does not ask an AI assistant. #### Does ChatGPT name your business? We ask ChatGPT, with web search on, the question a customer would ask. Add your website and we scan what AI tools can read on it. Your answer is saved for 7 days. The ChatGPT app can answer differently. - Free, no signup - Results in under a minute - A plain fix for every problem The site scan tests your robots.txt against How it works #### Ask, see, fix. Then watch it change. - 1 Ask what customers ask Enter your business name, type and city. We ask ChatGPT the question a customer would, with web search on. ##### Ask what customers ask - 2 See who gets named Every business in the answer, in order, and the sites it read to decide. Yours is marked. ##### See who gets named - 3 Fix what is missing Plain-English fixes for your site and listings. Track 25 questions a week for $29 a month, or have us do the fixes from $499. ##### Fix what is missing What you get #### The answer ChatGPT gives, with you marked Pick a kind of business to see a sample. The businesses are fictional. ChatGPT · web search · sample Which dentist in Austin is taking new patients? - Bright Smiles Dental is open Saturdays and taking new patients. - Your business offers same-week cleanings, per its website. - Glenstone Family Dentistry is well reviewed for children. - Park Central Dental takes most major insurance. Your result 2nd of 4 named Sites it read healthgrades.com your website google.com Do this next ##### Get listed on Healthgrades Healthgrades was cited for the practice named first. Your practice has no profile there. Who AI recommends near you #### Where AI sends your customers For each question, a robot flies to every business the answer names, in order. Click the map to ask again. What we found #### AI tools could get in. Most sites didn't say what they were. On October 28, 2026 we ran the free check on 69 local business websites in six US cities and read 63 of them. Each square is one site. ##### Average site health, out of 100 By kind of business. Open one for its findings and method. - Dentists 16 sites 87.5 → - Salons and barbers 15 sites 84.3 → - Gyms and studios 15 sites 77.1 → - Restaurants and cafés 17 sites 76.5 → Sites not named. Earlier study: plumbers, HVAC, roofers and landscapers . The newsletter #### AI tips that help customers find your business A regular newsletter on how ChatGPT, Google AI and the other assistants your customers ask pick businesses: what we see in real answers, what changed, and practical tips you can act on. Free, with no jargon. - Tell AI what kind of business you are. Use Dentist, Restaurant or HairSalon in your schema, not a general type. 2 in 3 sites we checked did not. - Link your Google Business Profile from your site. AI answers lean on your listings. About half the sites we checked had no link. - Put your menu, services and prices on the page as text. A PDF or a booking widget is hard for AI tools to read. Get the next issue Free. Unsubscribe in one click. We send a confirmation link first. See the privacy policy . AI visibility monitor, $29 a month #### Know every week whether AI names you We ask the questions your customers ask, save every answer, and show who gets named. You see the trend, not a one-off guess. - 25 local buyer questions, suggested for your business and city, edited by you - Which competitors each answer names, and the sites it cites - Every saved answer, open to read - A weekly re-scan of up to 25 pages of your site answers named the practice, up 2 from last week Sample data for a fictional dental practice. Hover a square to read the question. Open the interactive demo . Fixes in plain English #### Hand the fix list to your web person, or to us Every finding comes with what we saw and the exact change: robots.txt lines, an llms.txt draft, and JSON-LD written for your type of business. - Your top fixes first, in order of what matters for AI answers - Local business checks: schema, Google Business Profile link, review profiles, phone number - The $19 deep report covers up to 25 pages, as HTML and PDF ##### Your top 3 fixes - No JSON-LD structured data on the homepage AI tools cannot read your business details from the page code. - No link to a Google Business Profile AI answers to local questions lean on these details. - No llms.txt There is no short guide to your site for AI tools. Example output for a fictional café. Pricing #### Free check, weekly monitoring, or done for you ##### Free check $0 - ChatGPT asked the question a customer would ask - Who it names, and the sites it trusted - Site health: homepage, robots.txt, llms.txt, sitemap and 8 AI crawlers - A plain fix for each finding ##### AI visibility monitor $29 a month - 25 local buyer questions asked each week - Which competitors AI names, with each saved answer - The same 25-page site checks as the $19 report, each week - Score history and change notes on a private dashboard - Answers come from an open model preview today, not live ChatGPT - Cancel any time ##### Done for you $499 one time - We fix what the scan found, on the site you have now - robots.txt, llms.txt and sitemap.xml set up - JSON-LD, titles and descriptions for up to 10 pages - A re-scan with before and after scores - A written quote first, at no cost Want one report and no subscription? Get the $19 deep report : up to 25 pages, 18 AI crawlers, ranked fixes, HTML and PDF, full refund within 14 days. **Compare every check** Check | Free | $19 report | $29/mo monitor Pages read | Homepage | Up to 25 | Up to 25, weekly AI crawlers tested | 8, homepage | 18, per path | 18, per path Schema validation | Homepage | Every page, per type | Every page, per type llms.txt | Found and format | Graded, links tested, draft written for you | Same, weekly Copy-paste fixes | Short fixes | Full snippets | Change notes PDF | No | Yes | Dashboard Sample #### What the $19 report looks like A real, unedited run on servicem8.com, a field-service software site that is not affiliated with us. Open the full sample report . #### Questions **What does the free check do?** We ask ChatGPT, with web search on, the question a customer would ask about your kind of business in your city. You see every business the answer names, in order, and the sites it read. If you add your website, we scan it for llms.txt, AI crawler access in robots.txt, JSON-LD schema, sitemap.xml, a meta description, and text readable without JavaScript. That site health score runs from 0 to 100. **Does this tell me if ChatGPT recommends my business?** It shows one real answer to one question, today. Answers change with the question, the day and the person asking, so treat it as a snapshot. The AI visibility monitor ($29 a month) asks 25 local buyer questions each week, saves every answer, and shows which answers name you and which name your competitors. Each saved answer shows which AI tool gave it. **Why can the ChatGPT app give a different answer?** We ask through OpenAI's API with web search on. The ChatGPT app can use your location and your past chats, so it can name other businesses. Both read the same kinds of sources: your website, your listings and review sites. **Is it free?** Yes. No signup. We save your answer for 7 days so you can come back to it or share it. Site scan results are cached for 6 hours. **What do you read on my site?** Your homepage, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, and llms.txt. Nothing else, and we change nothing. **Which AI crawlers do you check?** GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, and CCBot. We read your robots.txt and test each one against your homepage. Free tools: llms.txt checker · llms.txt validator · AI crawler robots.txt checker · llms.txt generator #### Find out if AI names your business Free, no signup, results in under a minute. Ask ChatGPT about my business Or scan your website --- ## Guides | AI Ready Check URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ ### Guides Each guide quotes its sources and the date we checked them. #### AI search, crawlers and schema A regular newsletter for business owners: what ChatGPT, Google AI and other assistants are doing, what we see in real answers, and practical tips to get your business found and recommended. Free. --- ## AI crawlers in robots.txt: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot rules (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-crawlers-robots-txt/ ### AI crawlers in robots.txt: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot rules AI companies send several bots to your site, and each one does a different job. One collects pages that may train a model. Another builds a search index so the assistant can cite you. A third fetches a page when a user asks about it. Your robots.txt can treat each one on its own. This guide lists the main AI user agents, what each vendor says about them, and rules you can paste. Check your live file with the AI crawler robots.txt checker . #### The user agents that matter ##### OpenAI From OpenAI's crawler docs : - GPTBot crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's generative AI foundation models. Disallowing it signals that your content should not be used for training. - OAI-SearchBot surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features. OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can appear as navigational links. - ChatGPT-User visits a page when a ChatGPT user or a Custom GPT asks for it. OpenAI says it is not used for automatic crawling, that robots.txt rules "may not apply" because a user started the action, and that it is not used to decide what appears in Search. OpenAI says each setting works on its own, and that search results can take about 24 hours to reflect a robots.txt change. ##### Anthropic From Anthropic's help article : - ClaudeBot collects web content that could contribute to model training. Blocking it signals that future content should be excluded from training datasets. - Claude-User fetches pages when a Claude user asks a question. Blocking it may reduce your visibility in user-directed web search. - Claude-SearchBot indexes content to improve Claude's search results. Blocking it may reduce your visibility and accuracy in search answers. Anthropic says its bots honor robots.txt and support the non-standard Crawl-delay rule. It asks site owners to add rules for every subdomain they want to opt out, and warns that blocking its IP addresses may not work because that stops its bots from reading your robots.txt. ##### Perplexity From Perplexity's bot docs : - PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in Perplexity search results. Perplexity says it is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. - Perplexity-User fetches pages when a user asks a question. Perplexity says that because a user requested the fetch, it "generally ignores robots.txt rules." Perplexity says changes can take up to 24 hours to take effect. ##### Google Google-Extended is a robots.txt token, not a separate crawler. Google says sites can use it to control whether their content helps train future Gemini models, and that using it "doesn't affect a site's inclusion in Search," nor is it a ranking signal ( Google crawling docs ). Googlebot rules control Google Search. ##### Common Crawl CCBot builds Common Crawl's open web archive, which many AI projects use as data. Common Crawl publishes the rule User-agent: CCBot / Disallow: / and warns that some crawlers pose as CCBot ( CCBot page ). #### Three policies you can paste ##### 1. Allow everything User-agent: * Allow: / Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml Best if you want the most AI visibility and do not object to training use. ##### 2. Allow AI search, block training User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: Claude-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: Claude-User Allow: / User-agent: PerplexityBot Allow: / User-agent: * Allow: / Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml This keeps you eligible for ChatGPT search, Claude search, and Perplexity results, while telling the training crawlers named above to stay out. It does not affect Googlebot. ##### 3. Block all listed AI bots User-agent: GPTBot User-agent: OAI-SearchBot User-agent: ChatGPT-User User-agent: ClaudeBot User-agent: Claude-User User-agent: Claude-SearchBot User-agent: PerplexityBot User-agent: Perplexity-User User-agent: Google-Extended User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / Grouping several User-agent lines over one rule is valid robots.txt syntax. Per the vendor docs above, this removes you from ChatGPT search answers and may cut your Claude search visibility. User-triggered fetchers from OpenAI and Perplexity may visit, since both vendors say robots.txt may not apply to them. #### What blocking costs you A business that wants new customers from AI answers should weigh policy 3 with care. If OAI-SearchBot cannot read your pages, OpenAI says your site will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Blocking Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User may cut your visibility in Claude. Training bots are a separate choice: blocking GPTBot does not block OAI-SearchBot. #### What big SaaS sites do On October 17, 2026 we checked robots.txt on 49 popular SaaS websites for eight AI user agents. 45 allowed all eight. Four blocked one or more: - Figma blocked GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, and CCBot. - Canva blocked GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and CCBot. - Loom blocked GPTBot. - Calendly blocked CCBot. None of the 49 blocked OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, or PerplexityBot. The full data is in the State of AI readiness report . #### Mistakes we see - A rule under the wrong group. Rules apply to the User-agent lines right above them. A Disallow placed under User-agent: * does not override a bot that has its own group. - Blocking by IP. Anthropic warns this may stop its bots from reading your robots.txt at all. - Forgetting subdomains. Each subdomain, such as docs.example.com , needs its own robots.txt. - A firewall that blocks the bot before robots.txt loads. Perplexity's docs explain how to allow its bots in Cloudflare and AWS WAF rules. #### Check your site Run the AI readiness check on your domain. It reports which of the eight AI user agents your robots.txt allows, along with llms.txt, JSON-LD, sitemap, and text readable without JavaScript. For the llms.txt side, read llms.txt example and format . #### FAQ Does blocking GPTBot remove me from ChatGPT search? No. OpenAI says GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot are separate settings. Block GPTBot for training and allow OAI-SearchBot for search. Do AI crawlers obey robots.txt? OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Google, and Common Crawl all document robots.txt controls for their crawlers. OpenAI and Perplexity say their user-triggered fetchers may not follow robots.txt. Does Google-Extended affect my Google rankings? Google says it does not affect inclusion in Search and is not a ranking signal. How long until a change takes effect? OpenAI says about 24 hours for search. Perplexity says up to 24 hours. Checked 2026-10-17. Prices and policies change. Confirm on the source before you buy. #### Sources - https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots - https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler - https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots - https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/about-crawling - https://developers.google.com/crawling - https://commoncrawl.org/ccbot - https://checkaiready.com/state-of-ai-readiness.json #### More guides - AI search monitoring tools: what they track and what they cost (2026) - AI SEO audit checklist: 12 checks for AI search (2026) - AI visibility audit: how to check if ChatGPT can see your site (2026) - AI visibility for dentists: get your practice named when patients ask ChatGPT (2026) - AI visibility for gyms and fitness studios: get named when people ask ChatGPT (2026) - AI visibility for hair salons and barbers: get named when clients ask ChatGPT (2026) --- ## AI search monitoring tools: what they track and what they cost (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-search-monitoring-tools/ ### AI search monitoring tools "AI search monitoring" covers two jobs, and most buyers need one before the other. - Prompt tracking. The tool asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews a set of prompts each day and logs which brands and pages get cited. - Site readiness monitoring. The tool checks if AI crawlers can reach and read your site, and alerts you on your dashboard when that breaks. Prompt tracking tells you where you stand. Site monitoring tells you if something on your side stops you from being cited. A prompt tracker can't fix a robots.txt rule that blocks OAI-SearchBot, and a site monitor can't tell you a competitor took your spot. #### Prompt trackers Tool | What the pricing page lists | Who it fits Peec AI | Starter with 50 prompts, Pro with 150, Advanced with 350; 3 models, daily tracking and unlimited users on each plan ( pricing ) | Marketing teams and agencies tracking a brand Profound | A free trial with 50 prompts run daily for 7 days, with custom Enterprise plans after that ( pricing ) | Larger brands with an AEO team Plan prices on these pages change and some load after the page renders, so check the vendor page for the current figure. Read the prompt count with care. Fifty prompts across 3 models is 150 answers a day. That fits one product line, not a full catalog. #### Site readiness monitors The AI Ready Check monitor costs $29 a month for one domain. Each week it re-scans up to 25 pages from your sitemap and links, tests 18 AI crawlers per path, checks structured data and llms.txt, and keeps a fix count and score history on a private dashboard. The first scan runs right after you subscribe. You can cancel any time. Each week it asks 25 buyer questions and logs which businesses the answers name: you or up to 5 competitors. The monitor plan lists the AI tools it asks today, and each saved answer shows which tool gave it. It doubles as a site monitor. It catches the changes that knock a site out of AI answers: a CMS update that rewrites robots.txt, a CDN rule that starts blocking bots, or a template change that drops schema. #### Which one first? - No idea if AI crawlers can read your site: run the free check first. It takes seconds. Fix what it finds before you pay to track prompts. - Site passes, and you want proof of citations: a prompt tracker fits. - You run sites for clients: a weekly site monitor per client domain catches breakage before the client notices. Pair it with a prompt tracker for the brands that pay for reporting. #### FAQ What is an AI visibility tracker? A tool that runs a fixed set of prompts in AI search engines on a schedule and records which brands and URLs appear in the answers. Can I get a free AI visibility tracker? Profound lists a 7 day free trial. You can track by hand: ask the same 10 buyer questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google each month and log who gets cited. The AI Ready Check site check is free. How frequent should AI search monitoring be? Weekly for site readiness, since a single deploy can block crawlers. Daily prompt tracking suits brands in fast moving categories. Monthly suits most small businesses. #### Check your site today Run the free check . If it passes and you want a weekly re-scan with a score history, start the $29 a month monitor . Checked 2026-10-23. Prices and policies change. Confirm on the source before you buy. #### Sources - https://checkaiready.com/pricing - https://www.peec.ai/pricing - https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing #### More guides - AI crawlers in robots.txt: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot rules (2026) --- ## AI SEO audit checklist: 12 checks for AI search (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-seo-audit-checklist/ ### AI SEO audit checklist: 12 checks for AI search An AI SEO audit asks one question: can AI crawlers and answer engines read your site, and do they have a reason to quote it? A normal SEO audit covers part of that. This checklist covers the rest in 12 checks you can run in an afternoon. Work top to bottom. The first checks decide if a bot can reach your pages at all. The last ones decide if it trusts what it finds. #### Access checks 1. robots.txt lets the AI crawlers you want. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. Look for rules that name GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended. A blanket Disallow: / under User-agent: * blocks all of them. Our guide to AI crawlers in robots.txt lists each bot and what it does. 2. Your firewall does not block them. Some CDN bot settings return a 403 to AI crawlers when robots.txt says yes. Ask your host which bot rules are on. 3. Pages render without JavaScript. Many AI crawlers read the raw HTML. If your product copy loads after scripts run, the bot sees an empty shell. View the page source and search for a sentence from the page. 4. A sitemap lists every page you want found. The sitemap should sit at /sitemap.xml or be named in robots.txt, and it should follow the sitemap protocol . Drop redirects and 404s from it. #### Structure checks 5. An llms.txt file sits at the root. The llms.txt format gives models a short map of your site in Markdown: a title, a one line summary, and links to your key pages. See our llms.txt example for a copy-ready file. 6. Schema matches the page. Use Organization on the home page, Product or SoftwareApplication on product pages, and FAQPage where you answer questions. Schema should describe what a reader can see on the page, not add claims. 7. Each page has one clear title and H1. Answer engines lift headings into summaries. A vague H1 such as "Welcome" gives them nothing to work with. 8. Facts sit in plain text. Prices, plan limits, hours, and service areas belong in HTML text, not in images or PDFs. #### Trust checks 9. Pages name a source for each claim. A stat with a link is easier to quote than a stat without one. 10. Your brand facts match across the web. Name, address, and what you sell should read the same on your site, your profiles, and directory listings. 11. Google Search basics pass. Google says pages need to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to show in its AI features, and that it sets no extra technical rules beyond that ( Google AI features guide ). Fix crawl errors in Search Console first. 12. You test what AI tools say about you. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google the questions your buyers ask. Note who gets cited. Our guide on how to show up in ChatGPT search covers this step. #### Free check vs a full audit Checks 1, 4, 5, and 6 take seconds with the free AI Ready Check . It reads your homepage, robots.txt, llms.txt, schema, and sitemap. A homepage check misses problems deeper in the site: a blog section blocked by robots.txt, product pages with no schema, or pages missing from the sitemap. The $19 deep report crawls up to 25 pages from your sitemap and links, tests 18 AI crawlers, and lists copy-paste fixes in the order to make them. It is a one-time payment for one domain, and pricing lists a $29 a month monitor that re-runs it each week. #### FAQ What is an AI SEO audit? A review of whether AI crawlers can reach your pages and whether answer engines can read and quote them. It covers robots.txt, firewall rules, rendering, sitemaps, llms.txt, schema, and how facts are written. Can I get a free AI SEO audit tool? Yes. The AI Ready Check homepage tool is free and checks llms.txt, AI crawler rules, schema, and your sitemap. When should I run an AI SEO audit? After each site redesign, CMS change, or CDN change, since those are when crawler rules and rendering break. Monthly is a good default for a busy site. Does schema help with AI search? Schema helps machines read what a page is about. It does not guarantee a citation. Keep it accurate and matched to visible text. #### Run your audit Start with the free check . If it flags problems, or you want all 25 pages checked, get the $19 deep report . It runs in about a minute and comes with a full refund within 14 days. #### Sources - https://llmstxt.org/ - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features - https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html --- ## AI visibility audit: how to check if ChatGPT can see your site (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-audit-checklist/ ### AI visibility audit: can ChatGPT see your site? An AI visibility audit answers two questions. Can AI search tools fetch and read your pages? And when a buyer asks a question you can answer, does your site show up as a source? The first question is technical and you can test it in minutes. The second takes a list of buyer questions and some patience. This guide covers both. For the full 12 point technical list, see our AI SEO audit checklist . #### Test 1: are the search crawlers allowed? OpenAI documents separate crawlers for separate jobs ( OpenAI crawler docs ). OAI-SearchBot finds pages to show in ChatGPT search. GPTBot collects data for model training. ChatGPT-User fetches a page when a user asks ChatGPT to open it. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. If OAI-SearchBot is blocked, your pages can't appear as ChatGPT search results. You can block GPTBot and allow OAI-SearchBot at the same time. Our guide to AI crawlers in robots.txt lists the main bots and their user agents. Next, ask your host or CDN if a bot firewall is on. A firewall can block a crawler that robots.txt allows. #### Test 2: is your main text in the HTML? View the page source of your home page and one product or service page. Search for a sentence you can see on the page. If it is missing from the source, the text loads with JavaScript, and a crawler that does not run scripts sees a blank page. #### Test 3: can the crawler find every page? Your sitemap should list each page you want found, with no redirects or 404s. Name it in robots.txt so crawlers do not have to guess. #### Test 4: llms.txt and schema An llms.txt file gives models a short Markdown map of your site. Schema (Organization, Product, FAQPage) tells machines what a page is about. Neither guarantees a citation, but both cost little. See our llms.txt example . #### Test 5: ask the questions your buyers ask Write down 10 questions a buyer types before they pick a vendor like you. Ask each one in ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google. Note who gets cited. For Google, its AI features use the same index as Search, and Google says a page needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to show in AI features ( Google AI features guide ). Repeat the same 10 questions each month. A change in who gets cited tells you more than any single score. #### What the free check covers, and what it doesn't The free AI Ready Check runs tests 1, 3 and 4 on your home page in seconds. It tests 8 AI crawlers and does not need a signup. A home page check misses problems deeper in the site, such as a blocked blog folder or product pages with no schema. The $19 deep report reads up to 25 pages, tests 18 AI crawlers per path and ranks the fixes. If you want the audit to repeat each week, the $29 a month monitor re-scans up to 25 pages and keeps a score history. #### FAQ What is an AI visibility audit? A check of whether AI search tools can reach and read your pages, plus a test of whether they cite you for the questions your buyers ask. How do I check if ChatGPT can see my site? Make sure robots.txt and your firewall allow OAI-SearchBot, confirm your main text is in the HTML, and ask ChatGPT search a question your site answers and see if it cites you. Can I get a free AI visibility audit tool? Yes. The AI Ready Check home page tool is free and checks AI crawler rules, llms.txt, schema and your sitemap. Does blocking GPTBot hide me from ChatGPT search? No. OpenAI lists GPTBot for training and OAI-SearchBot for search as separate crawlers, each with its own robots.txt rule. #### Start your audit Run the free check on your home page. If it finds problems, get the $19 deep report for the full site. --- ## AI visibility for dentists: get your practice named when patients ask ChatGPT (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-dentists/ ### AI visibility for dentists A new family moves to town and asks ChatGPT which dentist near them is taking new patients. Someone with a cracked tooth on a Sunday asks it for an emergency dentist. A parent asks which practice is good with kids. Each of those questions can end in a booked exam. This guide covers how ChatGPT finds a dentist, the schema a practice site needs, and six fixes. It uses what we found when we scanned 18 dental practice websites on October 28, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name your practice. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers "dentist near me" ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location and rewrite the question into a search. "Dentist near me taking new patients" becomes something like "dentist accepting new patients Kansas City MO." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them. Those pages may be your site, a review site, or a dental directory. OpenAI says "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives a practice three jobs: - Let ChatGPT's crawler read your site. - Say what you treat (cleanings, crowns, implants, emergency visits, children) in plain text. - Say where you are, when you are open, and whether you take new patients, in plain text and in schema. #### The schema a dental practice needs Schema.org has a type for this. Dentist sits under LocalBusiness and under MedicalOrganization, so it takes the local fields (address, phone, hours) and the medical ones. Google's local business guide says to "use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible." For a practice, that is Dentist. Give the Dentist block the fields that tell a machine who you are: - name, url, telephone, and the full office address - openingHoursSpecification with your real hours, including early or Saturday slots - isAcceptingNewPatients , set to true or false, and keep it current - sameAs links to your Google Business Profile and review pages Match every field to what the page says. A machine that finds two phone numbers or two sets of hours has to guess. #### What we found on 18 dental practice websites On October 28, 2026 we ran our free check on 18 dental practice websites. They came from public search results for family and general dentists in Kansas City and Columbus. We are not naming them. Finding | Sites | Share Our checker hit a bot challenge page | 2 of 18 | 11% No llms.txt | 8 of 16 | 50% Uses the Dentist schema type | 9 of 16 | 56% A general business type, not Dentist | 4 of 16 | 25% No business schema type at all | 3 of 16 | 19% No JSON-LD at all | 2 of 16 | 13% No sitemap | 2 of 16 | 13% No link to review or listing profiles | 4 of 16 | 25% Server took over a second to respond | 4 of 16 | 25% robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot | 0 of 16 | 0% The 16 sites we could read scored 87.5 out of 100 on average. The median was 90. The low was 55. Dental sites scored well. Every one we read let ChatGPT's search crawler in, and every one put a phone number in the homepage text. More than half used the Dentist type. The gaps were smaller and fixable: half had no llms.txt, and one in four gave a general business type where Dentist fits. ##### A real scan, name removed One Kansas City practice scored 55. Its homepage had 3,097 characters of readable text, and every AI crawler was allowed. But it had no JSON-LD, no sitemap, no robots.txt, no llms.txt, and four H1 headings. A patient could read the page. A machine had no structured record of the practice name, address, hours, or services. #### What to fix this month - Run the free check. It asks ChatGPT the question a patient would ask, shows who it names, and reads your site the way AI crawlers do. - Use the Dentist type. Replace a plain LocalBusiness or Organization block with one Dentist block that has your name, phone, address, and hours. - Say whether you take new patients. Put it in the page text and in isAcceptingNewPatients. It is one of the first things people ask. - Write one page per treatment that people ask for by name. Emergency visits, implants, Invisalign, children's dentistry. Put the treatment and the city in the H1. - Link your Google Business Profile and review pages. Add the links to the site and to sameAs. Keep the name, address, and phone the same everywhere. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yourpractice.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. List your treatments, office, hours, insurance plans, and key pages. See our llms.txt example . OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." If your host or firewall runs a bot challenge, ask it to allow OAI-SearchBot. Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents. #### When to hire it out If your site runs on a builder you can't edit, or the check shows a firewall problem, you can pay us to do it. Fix it for me is $499 one time to fix the issues your scan found, or $1,500 to rebuild the site. If you want to track what AI says when patients ask for a dentist in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 patient questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### Other guides - Schema markup for AI search - How to show up in ChatGPT search - AI visibility for law firms - AI visibility for hair salons and barbers #### Check your site Check your practice free . It takes under a minute and needs no signup. #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend dentists? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. It cites the pages it reads. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should a dental practice use? Dentist. It sits under LocalBusiness and MedicalOrganization. Google says to use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type you can. How do I tell AI tools I take new patients? Say it in the page text, and set isAcceptingNewPatients to true in your Dentist schema. Change both when you stop taking new patients. Do I need llms.txt for a dental site? It is optional. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It takes ten minutes to write. 8 of the 16 dental sites we read did not have one. What score should my practice site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The dental sites we read averaged 87.5. Checked 2026-10-28. Prices and policies change. Confirm on the source before you buy. #### Sources - https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-chatgpt-search - https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots - https://schema.org/Dentist - https://schema.org/isAcceptingNewPatients - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business - https://checkaiready.com/pro - https://checkaiready.com/fix --- ## AI visibility for gyms and fitness studios: get named when people ask ChatGPT (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-gyms-and-fitness-studios/ ### AI visibility for gyms and fitness studios Someone starting out asks ChatGPT for a gym that is good for beginners. A runner asks for a strength coach near the office. A new parent asks which studio has classes before 6 a.m. and childcare. Each of those questions can end in a membership. This guide covers how ChatGPT finds a gym, the schema a gym site needs, the crawlers to allow, and six fixes. It uses what we found when we scanned 15 gym and fitness studio websites on October 28, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name you. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers "gym near me" ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location and rewrite the question into a search. "Gym near me for beginners" becomes something like "beginner friendly gym Nashville TN." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them. Those pages may be your site, a class booking app, or a review site. OpenAI says "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives a gym or studio three jobs: - Let ChatGPT's search crawler read your site. - Say what you offer in plain text: open gym, classes, personal training, CrossFit, yoga, day passes, childcare. - Say where you are, your hours, and what a membership or first class costs, in plain text and in schema. #### The schema a gym or studio needs Schema.org has ExerciseGym , which sits under SportsActivityLocation and LocalBusiness. Schema.org has HealthClub for clubs with a spa or wellness side. Google's local business guide says to "use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible," and names HealthClub as an example. Give the block the fields a new member asks about: - name, url, telephone, and the full street address - openingHoursSpecification with your real hours, including early mornings and weekends - priceRange, and a page with membership and drop-in prices as text - sameAs links to your Google Business Profile, class booking app, and review pages #### Search crawlers and training crawlers are not the same OpenAI runs two crawlers that matter here. Its crawler docs say GPTBot collects content that may be used to train models, and OAI-SearchBot finds pages to show in ChatGPT search. Sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." You can block GPTBot and allow OAI-SearchBot. Two of the gym sites we scanned blocked four training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, and CCBot). Neither blocked a search crawler, so ChatGPT search could read them. If you edit robots.txt, keep OAI-SearchBot allowed. Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents. #### What we found on 15 gym and fitness studio websites On October 28, 2026 we ran our free check on 15 gym and fitness studio websites. They came from public search results in Nashville, Kansas City, and Columbus. We are not naming them. No link to a Google Business Profile | 12 of 15 | 80% No llms.txt | 12 of 15 | 80% No business schema type at all | 9 of 15 | 60% No link to review or listing profiles | 8 of 15 | 53% No phone number in the homepage text | 7 of 15 | 47% No JSON-LD at all | 4 of 15 | 27% Uses a specific type (ExerciseGym or HealthClub) | 3 of 15 | 20% A general business type, not a gym type | 3 of 15 | 20% JSON-LD with errors | 2 of 15 | 13% No sitemap | 2 of 15 | 13% robots.txt blocks training crawlers | 2 of 15 | 13% robots.txt blocks a search crawler | 0 of 15 | 0% The 15 sites scored 77.1 out of 100 on average. The median was 75. The low was 63 and the high was 100. Gyms had the weakest local signals of any group we scanned. More than half had no business type in their schema, and 7 of 15 had no phone number a crawler could find on the homepage. Those are the facts ChatGPT needs to place a gym in a city and answer "near me." ##### A real scan, name removed One Nashville gym scored 63. It used the HealthClub type, which is a good start. But it had no sitemap, no llms.txt, no link to its Google profile, and a 191-character meta description that search results cut short. Its robots.txt blocked four training crawlers. It allowed the search crawlers, so the block did not keep it out of ChatGPT search. #### What to fix this month - Run the free check. It asks ChatGPT the question a new member would ask, shows who it names, and reads your site the way AI crawlers do. - Use the ExerciseGym type. Add one ExerciseGym (or HealthClub) block with your name, phone, address, hours, and priceRange. Test it in Google's Rich Results Test until it shows no errors. - Put the phone number, address, and hours in the page text. Use the footer if you need to. Seven of the sites we read had no phone number in the homepage text. - Write a page for each thing people ask for by name. Personal training, beginner classes, CrossFit, yoga, day passes. Put the class and the city in the H1, and list prices or a first-class offer as text. - Link your Google Business Profile and review pages. Add the links to the site and to sameAs. Keep the name, address, and phone the same on the site, the class app, and Google. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yourgym.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. List your classes, coaches, hours, prices, and location. See our llms.txt example . #### When to hire it out If your site runs on a builder you can't edit, you can pay us to do it. Fix it for me is $499 one time to fix the issues your scan found, or $1,500 to rebuild the site. If you want to track what AI says when people ask for a gym in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 member questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### Other guides - AI crawlers and robots.txt - AI visibility for restaurants and cafés #### Check your site Check your gym free . It takes under a minute and needs no signup. #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend gyms? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. It cites the pages it reads. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should a gym use? ExerciseGym. Use HealthClub if you run a club with a spa or wellness side. Google says to use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type you can. If I block GPTBot, will ChatGPT stop showing my gym? No. GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler. ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot. Keep OAI-SearchBot allowed in robots.txt and your firewall. Do I need llms.txt for a gym site? It is optional. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It takes ten minutes to write. 12 of the 15 gym sites we read did not have one. What score should my gym site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The gym sites we read averaged 77.1. #### Sources - https://schema.org/ExerciseGym - https://schema.org/HealthClub --- ## AI visibility for hair salons and barbers: get named when clients ask ChatGPT (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-hair-salons-and-barbers/ ### AI visibility for hair salons and barbers Someone new to town asks ChatGPT for a salon that does good balayage. A dad asks for a barbershop that takes walk-ins on Saturday. A bride asks who does wedding hair near her venue. Each of those questions can end in a booked chair. This guide covers how ChatGPT finds a salon or barber, the schema a salon site needs, and six fixes. It uses what we found when we scanned 17 salon and barbershop websites on October 28, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name you. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers "salon near me" ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location and rewrite the question into a search. "Barber near me that takes walk-ins" becomes something like "barbershop walk-ins Saturday Kansas City MO." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them. Those pages may be your site, a booking app, or a review site. OpenAI says "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives a salon or barbershop three jobs: - Name your services in plain text: cuts, color, balayage, extensions, fades, beard trims, walk-ins. - Say where you are, when you are open, and how to book, in plain text and in schema. #### The schema a salon or barbershop needs Schema.org has HairSalon under HealthAndBeautyBusiness , which sits under LocalBusiness. Its siblings are BeautySalon, DaySpa, NailSalon, and TattooParlor. Schema.org has no barber type, so a barbershop uses HairSalon. Google's local business guide says to "use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible." Give the block the fields a client asks about: - openingHoursSpecification with your real hours, per day - priceRange, so "affordable" questions have something to match - a link to your booking page on the site, with the services listed as text - sameAs links to your Google Business Profile, booking app, and review pages #### What we found on 17 salon and barbershop websites On October 28, 2026 we ran our free check on 17 salon and barbershop websites. They came from public search results in Denver and Kansas City. We are not naming them. Could not be read (one was down, one redirected to another site) | 2 of 17 | 12% No llms.txt | 10 of 15 | 67% No link to a Google Business Profile | 10 of 15 | 67% Uses a specific type (HairSalon or HealthAndBeautyBusiness) | 3 of 15 | 20% A general business type, not a salon type | 6 of 15 | 40% No business schema type at all | 6 of 15 | 40% JSON-LD with errors | 5 of 15 | 33% No JSON-LD at all | 1 of 15 | 7% No phone number in the homepage text | 4 of 15 | 27% No link to review or listing profiles | 4 of 15 | 27% The 15 sites we could read scored 84.3 out of 100 on average. The median was 85. The low was 65 and the high was 100. Salon sites were readable. 14 of 15 had JSON-LD and let AI crawlers in. The gaps were in what the schema said: 3 of 15 told a machine they were a salon, and two in three had no link to the Google profile where most reviews live. ##### Two real scans, names removed A Denver salon scored 65. It had a sitemap and 2,207 characters of text, but no JSON-LD, no llms.txt, no robots.txt, and no link to its Google profile. A Kansas City barbershop got the same score. Its homepage had eight H1 headings and no meta description, and its schema said LocalBusiness, not HairSalon. In both cases a person could book a cut. A machine had little to tell it what kind of business it was. #### What to fix this month - Run the free check. It asks ChatGPT the question a client would ask, shows who it names, and reads your site the way AI crawlers do. - Use the HairSalon type. Replace a plain LocalBusiness block with HairSalon (or NailSalon, BeautySalon, or DaySpa if that fits better), with your name, phone, address, hours, and priceRange. Test it in Google's Rich Results Test until it shows no errors. - List your services on the site as text. Booking apps hold the menu inside a widget a crawler may not read. Add a services page with each service, a line on it, and a starting price. - Put the phone number and address in the page text. Four of the sites we read had no phone number a crawler could find. - Link your Google Business Profile and review pages. Add the links to the site and to sameAs. Keep the name, address, and phone the same on the site, the booking app, and Google. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yoursalon.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. List your services, stylists, hours, location, and booking page. See our llms.txt example . OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents to allow. #### When to hire it out If you want to track what AI says when clients ask for a salon or barber in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 client questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### Other guides - AI visibility for gyms and fitness studios #### Check your site Check your salon free . It takes under a minute and needs no signup. #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend hair salons and barbers? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. It cites the pages it reads. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should a barbershop use? HairSalon. Schema.org has no barber type, and HairSalon covers cuts for anyone. Nail studios use NailSalon and spas use DaySpa. My booking app lists my services. Is that enough? Put them on your own site as text. Many booking widgets load in the browser, where a crawler may not see them. Do I need llms.txt for a salon site? It is optional. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It takes ten minutes to write. 10 of the 15 salon sites we read did not have one. What score should my salon site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The salon and barbershop sites we read averaged 84.3. #### Sources - https://schema.org/HairSalon - https://schema.org/HealthAndBeautyBusiness --- ## AI visibility for HVAC companies: how to show up when people ask ChatGPT for AC repair (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-hvac-companies/ ### AI visibility for HVAC companies The first hot week of summer, a homeowner's AC quits. They open ChatGPT and type "AC repair near me." The first cold snap, it's "furnace repair near me." Those two weeks bring a big share of your calls. You want your company in that answer. This guide covers how ChatGPT answers a seasonal HVAC question, the service area schema an HVAC site needs, and five fixes you can make before the next season. It uses what we found when we scanned 21 local HVAC websites on October 23, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name you. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers "AC repair near me" ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location from your IP address and rewrite the question into a search. Their example turns "good restaurants near me" into "top restaurants San Francisco." So "AC repair near me" becomes something like "AC repair Tampa." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them as sources. OpenAI says it may use partners for "nearby business listings," and that "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives an HVAC company three jobs: - Let ChatGPT's crawler read your site, in peak season and off season. - Say what you fix (AC, furnace, heat pump) in plain text. - Say where you work, in plain text and in schema. #### The service area problem Most HVAC companies work out of one shop and drive to 10 or 20 towns. A homeowner in a suburb asks for "AC repair in [suburb]." If your site names your shop's city and no other town, you give ChatGPT no reason to match you to that suburb. Schema fixes part of this. Schema.org has an HVACBusiness type : "A business that provides Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning services." It has an areaServed property : "The geographic area where a service or offered item is provided." Google's local business guide lists the fields it reads for name, address, phone, and hours. ##### Service area schema example This short example is for a made-up company. Put it in a script tag of type application/ld+json on your home page. Change every value to match your own page. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "HVACBusiness", "name": "Example Heating and Air", "url": "https://example-hvac.example/", "telephone": "+1-555-010-0199", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "100 Main St", "addressLocality": "Tampa", "addressRegion": "FL", "postalCode": "33601", "addressCountry": "US" }, "areaServed": [ {"@type": "City", "name": "Tampa"}, {"@type": "City", "name": "Brandon"}, {"@type": "City", "name": "Riverview"} ], "openingHours": "Mo-Su 00:00-23:59", "makesOffer": [ {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "AC repair"}}, {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Furnace repair"}} ] } Schema is a hint, not a ranking switch. Match it to what your page says in plain text. A service area page that lists each town, with a line on what you fix in each, does the same job for readers and for AI. #### What we found on 21 local HVAC websites On October 23, 2026 we ran our free check on 21 HVAC company websites. They came from public search results in six US metros: Kansas City, Tampa, Austin, Raleigh, Columbus, and Sacramento. We are not naming them. Our checker could not read the homepage (403 or bot challenge page) | 4 of 21 | 19% No llms.txt | 14 of 17 | 82% No LocalBusiness or trade schema type | 7 of 17 | 41% Schema with errors, or none | 6 of 17 | 35% Used the HVACBusiness type | 10 of 17 | 59% Server took over 2.5 seconds to respond | 1 of 17 | 6% No sitemap found | 1 of 17 | 6% robots.txt blocks an AI crawler | 0 of 17 | 0% The 17 sites we could read scored 83 out of 100 on average. The median was 85. One scored 100. Four scored under 80. The low was 55. Robots.txt was not the problem. No site blocked OAI-SearchBot. The two big gaps were bot shields and llms.txt. Three of the four sites we could not read sent a bot challenge page from Cloudflare or SiteGround. The fourth returned 403. A homeowner sees those sites fine. Our checker got a challenge page with no content. AI crawlers may get the same wall. And 14 of the 17 readable sites had no llms.txt file. ##### A real scan, name removed One HVAC company in North Carolina scored 55. The page had 5,448 characters of readable text, and every AI crawler was allowed. But it had no robots.txt, no llms.txt, no JSON-LD schema, and no sitemap. Its first H1 heading was its phone number. A crawler could read the words but had no clean record of the business type, the towns it serves, or its hours. Each of those is a one-time fix. #### What to fix before the next season - Run the free scan. It tests OAI-SearchBot and seven other AI crawlers, and tells you when a challenge page blocks the checker. - Check your bot shield. If the scan can't read your homepage, ask your host to allow OpenAI's published IP ranges. OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents. - Add HVACBusiness schema with areaServed. Use the example above. List the towns you drive to, your phone, and your hours. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It takes ten minutes. See our llms.txt example . - Write your seasonal services in plain text. "We repair AC units and heat pumps in Tampa, Brandon, and Riverview, 7 days a week." Put it in page text, not in an image or a banner. That matches the search ChatGPT runs. OpenAI's crawler docs say robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to show in search. Make these fixes in the off season, before the rush. Our ChatGPT search guide covers the full crawler setup. #### When to hire it out If your site runs on a builder you can't edit, or the scan shows a firewall problem, you can pay us to do it. Fix it for me is $499 one time to fix the issues your scan found, or $1,500 to rebuild the site. If you want to know each month what ChatGPT says when people ask for AC or furnace repair in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 buyer questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### Other trades - Does ChatGPT recommend my plumbing business? - AI visibility for roofing contractors - AI visibility for landscapers and lawn care - How to see which Springfield, MO businesses ChatGPT recommends #### Check your site Scan your site free . It takes under a minute and needs no signup. #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend HVAC companies? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should an HVAC company use? Use HVACBusiness from schema.org. Add your name, phone, address, hours, and an areaServed list of the towns you serve. What is areaServed? A schema.org property for "the geographic area where a service or offered item is provided." For an HVAC company, that is the list of towns or counties you drive to. Why can't the checker read my HVAC site? Most of the time a bot shield (Cloudflare, SiteGround, or a host firewall) sends a challenge page to automated readers. Ask your host to allow OpenAI's published IP ranges for OAI-SearchBot. When should I make these fixes? Before your busy season. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search. New schema and text show up after the next crawl of your site. What score should my HVAC site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 85 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The HVAC sites we scanned averaged 83. #### Sources - https://schema.org/HVACBusiness - https://schema.org/areaServed #### More guides Related (other Fieldnote Labs sites) - AI tools for HVAC businesses on Trades With AI - Free HVAC van wrap mockup on WrapMockup --- ## AI visibility for landscapers and lawn care companies: get named when people ask ChatGPT (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-landscapers/ ### AI visibility for landscapers and lawn care The first warm weekend in spring, the grass starts to grow. A homeowner who let the lawn go last year opens ChatGPT and types "lawn care near me prices." Another asks for "lawn mowing near me today." A third asks ChatGPT for landscaping ideas for a sloped backyard. Next, that person wants someone to build it. All of those phrases are on Google's autocomplete list. Each one can turn into a mowing route or a design job. This guide covers how ChatGPT finds lawn care companies, the schema problem landscapers have, and five fixes. It uses what we found when we scanned 22 local landscaping and lawn care websites on October 23, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name you. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers "lawn care near me" ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location from your IP address and rewrite the question into a search. "Lawn care near me prices" becomes something like "lawn care prices Kansas City." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them. Those pages may be your site, a directory, or a review site. OpenAI says "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives a lawn care company three jobs: - Say what you do (mowing, fertilizing, aeration, design, hardscape) in plain text. - Say where you work and when you are open, in plain text and in schema. #### The schema problem for landscapers Plumbers have a Plumber type in schema.org. Roofers have RoofingContractor. HVAC has HVACBusiness. Landscapers have none. We checked: schema.org has no Landscaper or LawnCare type. So pick the closest fit. HomeAndConstructionBusiness is a LocalBusiness type for services around homes and buildings. Use it, or use LocalBusiness. Add the fields that tell a machine who you are: - name, url, telephone, and a full address - areaServed with each town you mow in - openingHoursSpecification with your office hours - a short description that names your services Google's local business guide lists the name, address, phone, and hours fields it reads. Our HVAC guide has a copy-ready example with areaServed. Swap the type to HomeAndConstructionBusiness and list your services. #### What we found on 22 local lawn care websites On October 23, 2026 we ran our free check on 22 landscaping and lawn care websites. They came from public search results in six US metros: Springfield MO, Kansas City, Charlotte, Columbus, Raleigh, and Austin. We are not naming them. Our checker could not read the homepage (403 or host error) | 3 of 22 | 14% No llms.txt | 13 of 19 | 68% No LocalBusiness or trade schema type | 9 of 19 | 47% Schema with errors, or none | 8 of 19 | 42% No JSON-LD at all | 3 of 19 | 16% LocalBusiness schema with no opening hours | 8 of 19 | 42% Server took over 2.5 seconds to respond | 2 of 19 | 11% No sitemap | 3 of 19 | 16% robots.txt blocks an AI crawler | 0 of 19 | 0% The 19 sites we could read scored 81 out of 100 on average. The median was 85. Five scored 100. Eight scored under 80. The low was 55. Lawn care sites scored lower than the roofing sites (90 average) and close to the HVAC sites (83) we scanned the same day. No site blocked an AI crawler. The gaps were in what the site tells a machine. Two in three had no llms.txt. Close to half gave no business type at all. And of the sites that used LocalBusiness schema, most left out their hours. ##### A real scan, name removed One lawn and landscape company in North Carolina scored 55. Its homepage had 7,340 characters of readable text, and every AI crawler was allowed. But it had no robots.txt, no llms.txt, no sitemap, and no JSON-LD. Its title ran 116 characters and named three towns. The words worked for a person. A machine had no structured facts to go on. #### What to fix before spring - Run the free scan. It tests OAI-SearchBot and seven other AI crawlers, checks your server time, and tells you when a firewall blocks the checker. - Add HomeAndConstructionBusiness schema. Include name, phone, address, areaServed, and openingHoursSpecification. Match it to what the page says. - Write one service area page. List each town. Under each, say which services you run in that town (weekly mowing, fertilizing, aeration, cleanups). ChatGPT rewrites "near me" into a town name. Give it a page that names the town. - Answer the price question. "Lawn care near me prices" is on the autocomplete list. Put a starting price or a price range on your site in plain text. If you quote per yard, say what changes the price. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. List your services, towns, and your service area page. See our llms.txt example . OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents. #### Answer the phone Spring calls come in while your crews are on mowers. A missed call is a lost lawn. Our sister site lists AI tools for landscaping and lawn care businesses , including AI receptionists that pick up and book jobs. For prices and what to test on a call, see the AI receptionist for lawn care guide . #### When to hire it out If you want to track what AI says when people ask for lawn care in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 buyer questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### Other trades - AI visibility for HVAC companies #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend lawn care companies? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. It cites the pages it reads. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should a landscaping company use? Schema.org has no landscaper type. Use HomeAndConstructionBusiness or LocalBusiness, with name, phone, address, hours, and an areaServed list of your towns. Do I need llms.txt for a lawn care site? It is optional. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It takes ten minutes to write. 13 of the 19 lawn care sites we read did not have one. Should I put prices on my lawn care website? People search for "lawn care near me prices." A starting price or range in plain text gives AI tools and people a direct answer. Does a slow website hurt my chances? A slow server can make a crawler give up. 2 of the 19 lawn care sites we read took over 2.5 seconds to respond. What score should my lawn care site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The lawn care sites we read averaged 81. #### Sources - https://schema.org/HomeAndConstructionBusiness - https://schema.org/LocalBusiness - https://schema.org/openingHoursSpecification - https://tradeswithai.com/trades/landscaping/ - https://tradeswithai.com/guides/ai-receptionist-for-lawn-care/ #### More guides - Free landscaping van wrap mockup on WrapMockup --- ## AI visibility for law firms: get your firm named when clients ask ChatGPT (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-law-firms/ ### AI visibility for law firms A person gets hurt in a crash on a Friday night. On Saturday they open ChatGPT and ask for a personal injury lawyer near them. A parent in the middle of a divorce asks it what a family lawyer costs in Denver. A son asks it who can help with his mother's will. Each of those questions can end in a signed client. This guide covers how ChatGPT finds law firms, the schema a firm site needs, the ethics rule that still applies, and six fixes. It uses what we found when we scanned 21 small law firm websites on October 24, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name your firm. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers "lawyer near me" ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location from your IP address and rewrite the question into a search. "Divorce lawyer near me" becomes something like "divorce lawyer Denver CO." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them. Those pages may be your site, a lawyer directory, or a review site. OpenAI says "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives a firm three jobs: - Say what you practice (personal injury, family law, estate planning, criminal defense) in plain text. - Say where you practice, where your office is, and when you are open, in plain text and in schema. #### The schema a law firm needs Schema.org has a type built for firms. LegalService is "a business that provides legally-oriented services, advice and representation, e.g. law firms." It sits under LocalBusiness, so it takes the same fields as any local business. There is also an Attorney type. Schema.org marks it deprecated: "LegalService is more inclusive and less ambiguous." If your site uses Attorney alone, switch the firm block to LegalService. Give the LegalService block the fields that tell a machine who you are: - areaServed with the counties or cities you take cases in - a short description that names your practice areas Google's local business guide lists the name, address, phone, and hours fields it reads. Our HVAC guide has a copy-ready example with areaServed. Swap the type to LegalService and list your practice areas. #### The ethics rule still applies Schema, llms.txt, and FAQ answers are communications about your services. ABA Model Rule 7.1 says: "A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services." Your state's version of the rule is the one that binds you. So write machine copy the way you write a web page. State facts you can back up. Skip "best" claims and results you can't stand behind. An AI tool may quote a line from your llms.txt word for word. #### What we found on 21 small law firm websites On October 24, 2026 we ran our free check on 21 small law firm websites. They came from public search results in four US metros and four practice areas: personal injury in St. Louis, family law in Denver, estate planning in Columbus, and criminal defense in Charlotte. We are not naming them. Our checker could not read the homepage (bot challenge or host error) | 4 of 21 | 19% No llms.txt | 12 of 17 | 71% No LegalService or Attorney schema type | 6 of 17 | 35% No business schema type at all | 5 of 17 | 29% Attorney type only (deprecated), no LegalService | 2 of 17 | 12% Offer in schema with no price | 3 of 17 | 18% No JSON-LD at all | 1 of 17 | 6% robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot | 0 of 17 | 0% robots.txt blocks GPTBot (training only) | 1 of 17 | 6% No sitemap | 0 of 17 | 0% The 17 sites we could read scored 84.5 out of 100 on average. The median was 85. Four scored 100. Five scored under 80. The low was 55. Law firm sites scored higher than the lawn care sites (81 average) and HVAC sites (83) we scanned on October 23. They scored lower than the roofing sites (90). Every site had a sitemap, and none blocked ChatGPT search. The gaps were in what the site tells a machine. Seven in ten had no llms.txt. One in three gave no legal business type. Two of the four we could not read sat behind a bot challenge page. A crawler that hits that wall may see nothing at all. ##### A real scan, name removed One family law firm in Denver scored 55. Its homepage had 6,435 characters of readable text, a sitemap with 50 URLs, and every AI crawler was allowed. But it had no llms.txt, no JSON-LD, no meta description, and no Open Graph tags. Its three H1 headings read "Trust," "Expertise," and "Compassion." None named a practice area or a city. A person could tell what the firm does. A machine had few structured facts to go on. #### What to fix this month - Run the free scan. It tests OAI-SearchBot and seven other AI crawlers, checks your server time, and tells you when a firewall or bot challenge blocks the checker. - Add one LegalService block. Include name, phone, address, areaServed, and openingHoursSpecification. Replace a lone Attorney block. Match every field to what the page says. - Fix or drop broken Offer blocks. Three firms listed an Offer with no price. An Offer needs price and priceCurrency. If it is free, set price to 0 and priceCurrency to USD. If you can't state a price, remove the Offer. - Write one page per practice area and city. Put the practice area and the city in the H1. ChatGPT rewrites "near me" into a place name. Give it a page that names the place. - Answer the cost question. People ask what a lawyer costs. State your fee model in plain text: contingency, flat fee, or hourly, and what a first consult costs. Keep it true under Rule 7.1. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. List your practice areas, office, counties, and your key pages. See our llms.txt example . #### When to hire it out If you want to track what AI says when people ask for a lawyer in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 buyer questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### Other guides - AI visibility audit checklist #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend law firms? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. It cites the pages it reads. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should a law firm use? LegalService. Schema.org names law firms as the example for it. The Attorney type is deprecated in favor of LegalService. Do ethics rules apply to schema and llms.txt? They are communications about your services. ABA Model Rule 7.1 bars false or misleading communications. Check your state's version of the rule. Do I need llms.txt for a law firm site? It is optional. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It takes ten minutes to write. 12 of the 17 law firm sites we read did not have one. Can a bot challenge page hurt my firm's AI visibility? It can. If a firewall shows a challenge page to automated readers, an AI crawler may get the same wall. 2 of the 21 firm sites we tried showed one to our checker. What score should my law firm site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The law firm sites we read averaged 84.5. Checked 2026-10-24. Prices and policies change. Confirm on the source before you buy. #### Sources - https://schema.org/LegalService - https://schema.org/Attorney - https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_7_1_communication_concerning_a_lawyer_s_services/ --- ## AI visibility for restaurants and cafés: get named when people ask ChatGPT where to eat (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-restaurants-and-cafes/ ### AI visibility for restaurants and cafés Someone visiting for the weekend asks ChatGPT for a good brunch spot downtown. A remote worker asks for a coffee shop with Wi-Fi that opens at 7. A couple asks where to book an anniversary dinner. Each of those questions ends at a table. This guide covers how ChatGPT finds a place to eat, the schema a restaurant or café site needs, and six fixes. It uses what we found when we scanned 19 restaurant and café websites on October 28, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name you. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers "where should I eat" ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location and rewrite the question into a search. "Coffee shop near me that opens early" becomes something like "coffee shop open 7am downtown Raleigh." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them. Those pages may be your site, a review site, or a food blog's list. OpenAI says "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives a restaurant or café three jobs: - Put the menu, cuisine, and hours on the page as text, not as a photo or a PDF alone. - Say where you are, whether you take reservations, and how to order, in plain text and in schema. #### The schema a restaurant or café needs Schema.org groups places to eat under FoodEstablishment . Its sub-types include Restaurant , CafeOrCoffeeShop , Bakery, BarOrPub, FastFoodRestaurant, IceCreamShop, and Brewery. Google's local business guide says to "use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible," and names Restaurant as an example. Give the block the fields a diner asks about: - servesCuisine, such as "Italian" or "Coffee" - hasMenu, pointing to a menu page with the dishes as text - acceptsReservations, set to true, false, or a booking link - priceRange, and sameAs links to your Google Business Profile and review pages For a coffee shop, use "CafeOrCoffeeShop" as the type. Match every field to what the page says. A machine that finds two sets of hours has to guess, and holiday hours left up after the holiday are a common cause. #### What we found on 19 restaurant and café websites On October 28, 2026 we ran our free check on 19 restaurant and café websites. They came from public search results in Raleigh, Sacramento, and Columbus. We are not naming them. A Cloudflare challenge blocked our checker | 2 of 19 | 11% No link to a Google Business Profile | 7 of 17 | 41% Uses a specific type (Restaurant, CafeOrCoffeeShop and so on) | 6 of 17 | 35% A general business type, not a food type | 5 of 17 | 29% No business schema type at all | 6 of 17 | 35% No JSON-LD at all | 5 of 17 | 29% JSON-LD with errors | 5 of 17 | 29% No link to review or listing profiles | 5 of 17 | 29% No phone number in the homepage text | 2 of 17 | 12% The 17 sites we could read scored 76.5 out of 100 on average. The median was 75. The low was 55 and the high was 100. Restaurants and cafés scored lower than the dental practices (87.5) and salons (84.3) we scanned the same day. The gap came from schema. About one in three used a food type, and five of the JSON-LD blocks we found had errors a machine could not read past. ##### A real scan, name removed One Raleigh café scored 55. Without JavaScript its homepage showed 65 characters of text. The title was four characters long, the page loaded 33 scripts, and the schema said LocalBusiness, not CafeOrCoffeeShop. There was no phone number in the text and no link to its Google profile. A person with a browser saw a full site. A crawler that does not run JavaScript saw a name and little else. #### What to fix this month - Run the free check. It asks ChatGPT the question a diner would ask, shows who it names, and reads your site the way AI crawlers do. - Use a food type. Replace a plain LocalBusiness block with Restaurant, CafeOrCoffeeShop, Bakery, or BarOrPub, with your name, phone, address, hours, servesCuisine, and hasMenu. Test it in Google's Rich Results Test until it shows no errors. - Put the menu on the page as text. Keep the PDF if you like, and add an HTML menu page with dish names, a line on each, and prices. - Make the homepage readable without JavaScript. If your site builder draws the page in the browser, add the address, hours, phone, cuisine, and a short description to the HTML. - Link your Google Business Profile and review pages. Add the links to the site and to sameAs. Keep the name, address, phone, and hours the same everywhere. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yourrestaurant.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. List your cuisine, hours, location, reservations, and menu page. See our llms.txt example . OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." Two of the sites we tried showed our checker a Cloudflare challenge. If you use Cloudflare or another firewall, check that it allows OAI-SearchBot. Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents. #### When to hire it out If you want to track what AI says when people ask where to eat in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 diner questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### Other guides - AI visibility for dentists #### Check your site Check your restaurant free . It takes under a minute and needs no signup. #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend restaurants? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. It cites the pages it reads. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should a restaurant or coffee shop use? The most specific FoodEstablishment type that fits: Restaurant, CafeOrCoffeeShop, Bakery, BarOrPub, and so on. Add servesCuisine, hasMenu, and your hours. Does a PDF menu work for AI search? A PDF is harder for a crawler to read than a page. Keep it for printing, and put the same menu on an HTML page. Do I need llms.txt for a restaurant site? It is optional. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It takes ten minutes to write. 14 of the 17 restaurant and café sites we read did not have one. What score should my restaurant site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The restaurant and café sites we read averaged 76.5. #### Sources - https://schema.org/Restaurant - https://schema.org/CafeOrCoffeeShop - https://schema.org/FoodEstablishment --- ## AI visibility for roofing contractors: storm season, reviews, and the sources ChatGPT cites (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/ai-visibility-for-roofing-contractors/ ### AI visibility for roofing contractors A hail storm rolls through at 4 p.m. By 6 p.m. half the street is on a ladder looking at shingles. Some of them open ChatGPT and type "storm damage roofer near me." Others ask "does insurance cover storm damage to my roof?" Both questions are on Google's autocomplete list today. Each one can turn into a roof job. This guide covers how ChatGPT picks the roofers it names, how to handle reviews, and five fixes. It uses what we found when we scanned 17 local roofing websites on October 23, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name you. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT answers a storm question ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location and rewrite the question into a search. "Storm damage roofer near me" becomes something like "storm damage roofer Denver." The answer comes with citations: links to the pages ChatGPT read. Those may be your site, a directory, a review site, or a local news story about the storm. OpenAI says "Search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect," and that "Placement is not guaranteed." You can't control the news. You can control two things: whether your own site is easy to read and cite, and whether your listings and reviews match it. #### Storm season is a traffic spike A storm sends a wave of people to the same searches on the same night. Three things matter that night. - Your server has to answer. A page that takes 4 seconds to start loading loses people standing in a wet kitchen. - Your bot shield can't block crawlers. A homeowner gets past a bot check. An AI crawler may get a challenge page with no content. - You need a storm damage page. One page that answers the autocomplete questions in plain text: what counts as storm damage, how an insurance claim works with you, how fast you can inspect, and which towns you cover. #### Reviews: what to put on your site Roofing is a trust buy. People want reviews, and ChatGPT answers can mention them. Google's own rules on review markup matter. Google's review snippet guide says that if a business controls the reviews about itself, its LocalBusiness pages are not eligible for star ratings. That includes reviews pulled in through a widget. It says "Don't aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites." So put your reviews on Google, Yelp, the BBB, and other sites you don't control. On your own site, quote a few real reviews in plain text with the reviewer's first name, town, and the source. Don't count on star markup to do the work. #### What we found on 17 local roofing websites On October 23, 2026 we ran our free check on 17 roofing company websites. They came from public search results in four US metros: Nashville, Denver, Tampa, and Columbus. We are not naming them. Our checker could not read the homepage (bot challenge page) | 4 of 17 | 24% No llms.txt | 5 of 13 | 38% No LocalBusiness or trade schema type | 3 of 13 | 23% Used the RoofingContractor type | 9 of 13 | 69% Schema with errors, or none | 5 of 13 | 38% Service schema with no areaServed | 5 of 13 | 38% Rating markup on the homepage | 2 of 13 | 15% Server took over 2.5 seconds to respond | 1 of 13 | 8% robots.txt blocks an AI crawler | 0 of 13 | 0% The 13 sites we could read scored 90 out of 100 on average. The median was 90. Four scored 100. Two scored under 80. The low was 75. Roofers did better than the HVAC sites we scanned (83 average). The gaps were narrow but real. One in four sites sent our checker a Cloudflare or SiteGround challenge page in place of the homepage. And the most common schema error was a Service block with no areaServed. That is the one field that tells a machine which towns you roof in. ##### A real scan, name removed One roofing company in Tennessee scored 75. The page had 10,750 characters of readable text, and every AI crawler was allowed. But the server took 4.6 seconds to respond. The site had no llms.txt and no sitemap. It had four H1 headings, one of them "Financing Options Available!" On a storm night, the slow server is the first thing to fix. #### What to fix before the next storm - Run the free scan. It tests OAI-SearchBot and seven other AI crawlers, checks your server time, and tells you when a challenge page blocks the checker. - Check your bot shield and your host. If the scan can't read your homepage, ask your host to allow OpenAI's published IP ranges. OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." If your server takes over 2.5 seconds, ask about caching. Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents. - Use RoofingContractor schema with areaServed. Schema.org has a RoofingContractor type . Add areaServed with each town you cover. Google's local business guide lists the name, address, phone, and hours fields. Our HVAC guide has a copy-ready example. Swap the type. - Write one storm damage page. Answer the four autocomplete questions in plain text. Name your towns. Say how a claim works with you. Link it from your home page. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. List your services, towns, and your storm damage page. See our llms.txt example . OpenAI's crawler docs say robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to show in search. Make the fixes before storm season. Our ChatGPT search guide covers the full crawler setup. #### When to hire it out If you want to know each month what ChatGPT says when people ask for a roofer in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 buyer questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend roofing contractors? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. It cites the pages it reads. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. What schema type should a roofing company use? Use RoofingContractor from schema.org. Add your name, phone, address, hours, and an areaServed list of the towns you cover. Should I put star ratings in my schema? Google says a business that controls its own reviews can't get star ratings on its LocalBusiness pages. Put reviews on third-party sites and quote a few in plain text on yours. What sources does ChatGPT cite for roofers? It cites the pages it read for the answer. That can be your site, a directory, a review site, or local news. OpenAI says citations can be incomplete or outdated. How do I get found after a storm? Keep your server fast, make sure your bot shield lets crawlers through, and publish a storm damage page that names your towns and explains claims. What score should my roofing site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The roofing sites we scanned averaged 90. #### Sources - https://schema.org/RoofingContractor - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/review-snippet #### More guides - AI tools for roofing businesses on Trades With AI - Free roofing van wrap mockup on WrapMockup --- ## Does ChatGPT recommend my plumbing business? How to check and fix it (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/does-chatgpt-recommend-my-plumbing-business/ ### Does ChatGPT recommend my plumbing business? A customer calls and says, "ChatGPT gave me your name." Or a customer says ChatGPT gave them a competitor. Either way, you want to know what it sees when someone asks for a plumber in your town. This guide covers how ChatGPT finds local businesses, the three checks that decide if it can read your site, and five fixes you can make this week. It uses what we found when we scanned 25 local trades websites on October 23, 2026. No one can promise ChatGPT will name you. These checks remove the reasons it can't. #### How ChatGPT picks local businesses ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search explains what happens with a "near me" question. ChatGPT uses your approximate location from your IP address and rewrites the question into a search. Their example turns "good restaurants near me" into "top restaurants San Francisco." So "plumber near me" turns into something like "plumber Kansas City." The pages that best answer that search are the pages ChatGPT reads and cites. OpenAI says it may pull in "nearby business listings" from partners, and that "Placement is not guaranteed." That gives you two jobs: - Make your site say, in plain text and in code, who you are, what you fix, and where you work. #### The 3 checks ##### Check 1: crawler access OpenAI's search crawler is called OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." The help page says to allow OAI-SearchBot and to confirm your host or CDN "allows traffic from OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses." Two things block it. A robots.txt rule, or a firewall or bot shield that answers with a challenge page. The second one is easy to miss. Your site looks fine in your browser, but a crawler gets a bot challenge page with none of your content. ##### Check 2: llms.txt An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt. It lists your key pages with one line on each. It is a proposed standard. OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. It costs ten minutes and gives any AI tool a clean summary of your business. See our llms.txt example for the format. ##### Check 3: LocalBusiness schema Schema is a block of code (JSON-LD) that tells machines your business name, phone, address, hours, and service area. Schema.org has a Plumber type for this. Google's local business guide lists the fields it reads. Without it, a crawler has to guess your city and phone from page text. #### What we found on 25 local trades websites On October 23, 2026 we ran our free check on 25 websites of local plumbers, HVAC companies, roofers, and landscapers. They came from public search results in eight US metros: Kansas City, Denver, Tampa, Columbus, Sacramento, Nashville, Raleigh, and Austin. We are not naming them. Our checker could not read the homepage at all | 5 of 25 | 20% No llms.txt | 12 of 20 | 60% No LocalBusiness or trade schema type | 7 of 20 | 35% Schema with errors, or none | 10 of 20 | 50% Server took over 2.5 seconds to respond | 4 of 20 | 20% No sitemap found | 3 of 20 | 15% robots.txt blocks an AI crawler | 0 of 20 | 0% The 20 sites we could read scored 83 out of 100 on average. Five scored 100. Eight scored under 80. Robots.txt was not the problem. Not one site blocked OAI-SearchBot. The problems were the five sites we could not read (three returned 403, one had an SSL error, one would not connect), the missing llms.txt files, and schema that was missing or broken. Two sites had a schema block that was not valid JSON, so parsers skip it. ##### A real scan, name removed One plumbing company in Florida scored 45. Its robots.txt allowed every AI crawler, and the page had 2,820 characters of readable text. But it had no llms.txt, no JSON-LD schema, no meta description, and no sitemap. A crawler could read the words but had no clean record of the business name, phone, or service area. Each of those is a one-time fix. #### What to fix this week - Ask your web host about bot shields. If the scan can't read your homepage, ask your host to allow OpenAI's published IP ranges. Our AI crawlers guide lists the user agents. - Add LocalBusiness schema. Use the Plumber type. Include your business name, phone, address or service area, and hours. Match what your page says. - Add an llms.txt file. List your home page, service pages, service area page, and contact page. - Put your city and services in plain text. Write "We fix water heaters and drains in Kansas City and Overland Park" on the page itself, not in an image. That matches the search ChatGPT runs. Give it a day. OpenAI's crawler docs say robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to show in search. Our ChatGPT search guide covers the full crawler setup. #### When to hire it out If you want to know each month what ChatGPT says when people ask for a plumber in your area, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 buyer questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. #### FAQ Does ChatGPT recommend local plumbers? Yes. ChatGPT can search the web and use your approximate location to find local results. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. How do I get my plumbing business on ChatGPT? Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt, make sure your firewall lets OpenAI's crawler through, add LocalBusiness schema, and state your city and services in plain text on your site. Can I pay ChatGPT to recommend my business? OpenAI's search docs describe no paid placement in search answers. They say placement is not guaranteed. Does my Google Business Profile matter for ChatGPT? OpenAI says ChatGPT may use partners for "nearby business listings." It does not name which listings. Keep your Google, Bing, and Yelp listings correct and matched to your website. How long do fixes take to show up? OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search. New schema and text show up after the next crawl of your site. What score should my site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 85 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The local trades sites we scanned averaged 83. #### Sources - https://schema.org/Plumber #### More guides - AI tools for plumbing businesses on Trades With AI - Free plumbing van wrap mockup on WrapMockup --- ## How to get cited by Claude: the 3 Anthropic bots and what to allow (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-get-cited-by-claude/ ### How to get cited by Claude: what Anthropic says, in 6 checks To get cited by Claude, let Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User reach your pages. Anthropic's crawler help page says disabling either one "may reduce your site's visibility" in Claude's search results. ClaudeBot, the third bot, collects content for training and is a separate choice. No one can promise a citation from Claude. These checks remove the reasons it can't use your pages. Type your domain to see where you stand first: #### What Anthropic says decides it Anthropic runs three bots, each with its own robots.txt token: Bot | What Anthropic says it does | If you block it Claude-SearchBot | "Navigates the web to improve search result quality for users." | "Prevents our system from indexing your content for search optimization, which may reduce your site's visibility and accuracy in user search results." Claude-User | Visits sites "when individuals ask questions to Claude." | "Prevents our system from retrieving your content in response to a user query, which may reduce your site's visibility for user-directed web search." ClaudeBot | Collects web content that may feed model training, per Anthropic. | Signals "that the site's future materials should be excluded from our AI model training datasets." When Claude searches the web, Anthropic's web search help page says it uses "content from the live web" and that "every response includes citations." Those citations are the links you want. #### The 6 checks - Allow Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User in robots.txt. - Add the rules on every subdomain. - Don't put a CAPTCHA or bot challenge in front of them. - Use robots.txt, not IP blocks, to set your rules. - Decide on ClaudeBot as a separate choice. - Put your main text in the HTML and give crawlers a sitemap and structured data. #### Step 1: allow Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User Open yoursite.com/robots.txt . Look for groups that name Claude-SearchBot or Claude-User with Disallow: / , and for a blanket User-agent: * with Disallow: / . To allow both bots in plain terms: User-agent: Claude-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: Claude-User Allow: / In our scan of 500 software homepages on October 18, 2026, 0 of 467 scored sites blocked Claude-SearchBot. See the Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User pages for the details, and test your file with the AI crawler robots.txt checker . #### Step 2: cover every subdomain robots.txt works per host. Anthropic's opt-out instructions say to add the rules "for every subdomain that you wish to opt out from." The same logic runs the other way: if your docs, blog, or shop sit on their own subdomain, check the robots.txt file on each one. #### Step 3: don't wall them off with a challenge page Anthropic says its bots "respect anti-circumvention technologies (e.g., we will not attempt to bypass CAPTCHAs for the sites we crawl.)" A bot challenge from your CDN stops Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User at the door, whatever robots.txt says. In our October 18 scan, 20 of 500 homepages showed our checker a bot challenge page in place of the site: 16 from Cloudflare, 2 from Vercel, 1 from Akamai, and 1 we could not name. Our checker is not an Anthropic bot, so this does not prove Claude was blocked. It shows how common these walls are. If you use a bot shield, check what it does to AI search crawlers. #### Step 4: use robots.txt, not IP blocks Anthropic says blocking its IP addresses may not give a lasting opt-out, because a block stops its bots from reading your robots.txt file. Its bots honor robots.txt, so that file is the place to set your rules, whether you allow or block. If crawl load worries you, Anthropic supports the Crawl-delay line: User-agent: ClaudeBot Crawl-delay: 1 #### Step 5: decide on ClaudeBot as a separate choice ClaudeBot is the training bot. Anthropic describes it apart from the two search bots, so you can block training and keep search: User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: Claude-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: Claude-User Allow: / In our scan, 3 of 467 scored sites blocked ClaudeBot: figma.com, bardeen.ai, and june.so. All 3 left Claude-SearchBot allowed. The ClaudeBot page has the user agent details. #### Step 6: make your pages easy to read Anthropic's help pages do not list page format rules. The standard ways to help any crawler apply: serve your main text in the HTML, list your pages in a sitemap, write a plain meta description, and add JSON-LD. In our scan, 10 of 467 scored homepages had little or no text without JavaScript, 23 had no sitemap we could find, and 101 (22%) had no JSON-LD. Our AI SEO audit checklist walks through each one. #### How to check if Claude cites you Turn on web search in Claude and ask the questions your buyers ask. Anthropic's help page says to click the "+" button in the lower left of the chat and pick "Web search." It adds: "If you have the new Claude experience, there's no web search toggle. Claude searches the web when it helps." Look at the cited links in each answer. Anthropic's help page names Bing as the source for image results. It does not name a provider for text results, so the steps above are the parts you control. #### The other AI answer engines - How to show up in ChatGPT search : OAI-SearchBot and OpenAI's IP ranges. - How to rank in Perplexity : PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, and firewall rules. - How to rank in Gemini : the Google Search index and Google-Extended. - AI crawlers in robots.txt : rules for every major AI bot in one file. #### Check your site Run the free check on your domain. It tests ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, and six other AI user agents in robots.txt, text without JavaScript, JSON-LD, sitemap, meta description, and llms.txt, and tells you when a challenge page blocks it. The $19 deep report crawls 25 pages and tests 18 AI crawlers, Claude-User included. #### FAQ How do I get my website cited by Claude? Allow Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User in robots.txt and don't block them with a CAPTCHA or bot challenge. Anthropic says disabling either bot may reduce your site's visibility in Claude's search results. Does blocking ClaudeBot remove me from Claude's answers? Anthropic says restricting ClaudeBot signals that your future content should be excluded from training. It describes search visibility under Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User, which are separate bots. Does Claude follow robots.txt? Anthropic says its bots "respect 'do not crawl' signals by honoring industry standard directives in robots.txt." Does Claude cite its sources? Anthropic says that when Claude searches the web, "every response includes citations." Should I block Anthropic by IP address? Anthropic says IP blocks may not work as an opt-out, because they stop its bots from reading your robots.txt. Use robots.txt rules. #### Sources - https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10684626-enable-and-use-web-search - https://checkaiready.com/leaderboard.json --- ## How to rank in AI Overviews: what Google says, in 6 checks (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-rank-in-ai-overviews/ ### How to rank in AI Overviews: what Google says, in 6 checks AI Overviews sit at the top of many Google results and link to the pages they draw from. Plenty of tools sell "AI Overview optimization." Google's own guide for site owners says something simpler. This guide quotes what Google says decides it, turns that into six checks, lists the settings that take you out, and shows what we found when we scanned 500 software company homepages on October 18, 2026. No one can promise a spot in an AI Overview. These checks remove the reasons Google can't use your page. #### What Google says decides it Google's page on AI features and your website says: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." And on eligibility: "To be eligible to be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet" So the path into an AI Overview is the same path into regular Google results. A page that can't rank as a normal result with a snippet can't be a supporting link. Google says AI Overviews appear when its systems decide they add something to classic Search, "and as such, often don't trigger." Many of your target queries may not show one. #### The 6 checks ##### 1. Googlebot can crawl the page Google's technical requirements list three things: "Googlebot isn't blocked. The page works, meaning that Google receives an HTTP 200 (success) status code. The page has indexable content." Check robots.txt for any rule that blocks Googlebot from the page. Then check your CDN or firewall. Google's AI features page asks you to make sure crawling "is allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure." A bot challenge that blocks Googlebot blocks AI Overviews as well as regular results. The Googlebot page lists its user agent. Our deep report tests Googlebot and 17 other crawlers against your rules on up to 25 pages. ##### 2. The page is indexed Open the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console and check the page is on Google. If it isn't, fix that first. Make sure the page returns 200, carries no noindex tag, and appears in your sitemap. ##### 3. The page can show a snippet A noindex tag or a nosnippet rule takes a page out of the snippet pool. Google lists four controls that limit what Search shows from your pages: nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, and noindex. Search your templates for these. A site-wide nosnippet left over from an old test keeps every page out of AI Overviews. Google's snippet docs explain each one. ##### 4. Key content is in text Google asks site owners to make sure "important content is available in textual form." If your answer sits in an image, a video, or a script that loads after the page, add it to the page in plain HTML text. Our free check tests whether your homepage has readable text without JavaScript. ##### 5. Internal links reach the page Google asks you to make content findable "through internal links on your website." A page with no links from the rest of your site is hard to crawl and hard to rank. Link to your answer pages from your navigation, hubs, and related posts. ##### 6. Structured data matches the page Google says there is "no special schema.org structured data that you need to add" for AI features. If you use structured data, it must match the visible text on the page. For local businesses and stores, Google adds one more item: keep your Business Profile and Merchant Center details up to date. #### What you don't need Google's guide says: "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features." - llms.txt. Google does not need it for AI Overviews. Other AI tools may read it. See our llms.txt example if you want one for them. - Google-Extended. Google's crawler docs say: "Google-Extended does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search." Blocking it does not remove you from AI Overviews. Google's AI features page names Googlebot rules in robots.txt as the control for Search crawling. More in our AI crawlers robots.txt guide . #### What 467 software sites miss On October 18, 2026, we scanned 500 software company homepages and scored 467. The full data is free under CC BY 4.0 at leaderboard.json , with rankings on the leaderboard . Check on the homepage | Sites missing it | Share of 467 Meta description | 10 | 2.1% Readable text without JavaScript | 10 | 2.1% Sitemap | 23 | 4.9% JSON-LD | 101 | 21.6% llms.txt | 206 | 44.1% Three sites block Google-Extended in robots.txt: chatgpt.com, figma.com, and bardeen.ai. Per Google's docs, that choice does not affect their Search or AI Overview eligibility. The basics that matter for AI Overviews (text, a sitemap, a meta description) are in place on most of these sites. The gaps that remain are files Google says it doesn't need. #### How to track AI Overview traffic Google counts AI Overview links in the Search Console Performance report, within the "Web" search type. There is no separate AI Overview filter. Compare clicks and impressions for the queries you target, before and after a change. #### Check your site Run the free AI readiness check on your domain. It tests 8 AI crawlers against your robots.txt (Google-Extended among them), text without JavaScript, JSON-LD, sitemap, and meta description, and tells you when a challenge page blocks it. The deep report crawls 25 pages, adds Googlebot and Bingbot to the crawler tests, and lists fixes in order. To test one file, use the AI crawler robots.txt checker . #### FAQ How do I get my website in Google AI Overviews? Google says there are no extra requirements. The page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet. Allow Googlebot, return a 200 status, keep content in text, and avoid nosnippet and noindex on pages you want shown. Do I need schema markup to appear in AI Overviews? No. Google says there is no special schema.org structured data you need to add. Any structured data you use should match the visible text on the page. Does llms.txt help with AI Overviews? Google says you don't need AI text files to appear in its AI features. Other AI tools may read llms.txt. Does blocking Google-Extended remove me from AI Overviews? No. Google says Google-Extended does not affect inclusion in Google Search and is not a ranking signal there. Googlebot rules in robots.txt control Search crawling. How can I see AI Overview clicks in Search Console? They are part of the Performance report under the "Web" search type, mixed with your other Google Search clicks. How do I keep a page out of AI Overviews? Google lists nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, and noindex as the controls. Noindex removes the page from regular results as well. #### Sources - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/technical - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/google-common-crawlers - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet --- ## How to rank in Gemini: get your site used in Google Gemini answers (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-rank-in-gemini/ ### How to rank in Gemini: 5 checks from Google's own docs To show up in Gemini answers, your pages need to be in Google Search, and your robots.txt must not block Google-Extended. Google says "some Gemini responses are grounded on Search results," and its crawler docs say Google-Extended manages whether your content may be used for grounding in Gemini Apps, which means "providing content from the Google Search index to the model at prompt time." No one can promise that Gemini cites your site. These checks remove the reasons it can't. Type your domain to see where you stand first: #### What Google says about Gemini and your site Four Google help pages cover how the Gemini app uses the web: - The Gemini Apps Privacy Hub says: "some Gemini responses are grounded on Search results." - The Connected Apps page says Gemini can use public information from Google Search in every case, with Keep Activity on or off and with the user signed in or out. It lists Google Maps among the services Gemini draws public information from, with Keep Activity on. - The crawler docs say Google-Extended is the token that manages training and grounding use in Gemini Apps, and that it "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search." - The sources page says Gemini may link to "public websites" in a Sources panel, and that "not all responses include related links or sources." Google does not publish a ranking guide for the Gemini app. What it does publish points to one path: be in the Search index, and don't opt out of grounding. #### Gemini app vs AI Overviews AI Overviews and AI Mode are features of Google Search. The Gemini app at gemini.google.com is a separate product. The same robots.txt lines affect them in different ways: Setting | Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode | Gemini app grounding Googlebot blocked or page set to noindex | Page can't appear | Grounding draws from the Search index, so the page has nothing to give Google-Extended blocked | No effect, per Google | Google says this token manages grounding use in Gemini Apps Both allowed, page indexed | Eligible | Eligible For the Search side, see our guide on how to rank in AI Overviews . #### The 5 checks - Make sure Googlebot can crawl and index your key pages. - Leave Google-Extended allowed if you want Gemini answers to use your pages. - If you serve local customers, claim your Google Business Profile. - Follow standard SEO basics: clear text, a sitemap, a meta description, and structured data. - Ask Gemini the questions your buyers ask and open the Sources panel. #### Step 1: get indexed in Google Search Grounding uses content "from the Google Search index," so a page Google has not indexed can't feed a Gemini answer. Check that robots.txt does not block Googlebot, that your key pages have no noindex tag, and that they return a 200 status. URL Inspection in Search Console shows if a given page is indexed. Google's AI features page says "the best practices for SEO remain relevant" for its AI features. #### Step 2: don't block Google-Extended A robots.txt group like this opts your site out of training and grounding in Gemini Apps: User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / If you want Gemini answers to draw on your pages, remove that group or change it to Allow: / . Google says Google-Extended "doesn't have a separate HTTP request user agent string," so you will not find it in your logs. Google crawls with its normal user agents and reads the token as a control. See the Google-Extended page for the details. In our scan of 500 software homepages on October 18, 2026, 3 of 467 scored sites blocked Google-Extended: chatgpt.com, figma.com, and bardeen.ai. Blocking training is a fair choice. Know that the same token covers grounding. #### Step 3: claim your Google Business Profile Gemini draws public information from Google Maps, per Google's Connected Apps page. For a local business, the Maps listing is your Business Profile. Google's Business Profile help says: "When you add and verify your Business Profile, customers can find your business on Search and Maps," and "You can add or claim your business at no charge." Keep the name, hours, phone, and categories current. #### Step 4: cover the SEO basics Put your main text in the HTML, list your pages in a sitemap, write a plain meta description, and add JSON-LD for your organization and products. In our scan, 23 of 467 sites had no sitemap we could find, 10 had no meta description, and 101 (22%) had no JSON-LD. Our schema markup for AI search guide covers what to add. #### Step 5: check what Gemini shows Ask Gemini the questions a buyer would ask, such as "best [your service] in [your city]." When Gemini links sources, the Sources button sits at the bottom of the answer or in line with it, and opens a side panel with the links. If no Sources button appears, Google says "Gemini Apps didn't provide any links for that particular response." #### The other AI answer engines - How to get cited by Claude : Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, and ClaudeBot. #### Check your site Run the free check on your domain. It tests Google-Extended and seven other AI user agents in robots.txt, text without JavaScript, JSON-LD, sitemap, meta description, and llms.txt. The $19 deep report crawls 25 pages and lists fixes in order. #### FAQ How do I get my website to show up in Gemini? Get your pages indexed in Google Search and don't block Google-Extended in robots.txt. Google says some Gemini responses are grounded on Search results, and Google-Extended manages grounding use in Gemini Apps. Does blocking Google-Extended remove me from Google Search? No. Google says Google-Extended "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search." Is ranking in Gemini the same as ranking in AI Overviews? No. AI Overviews is part of Google Search. Google says AI Overviews has no extra requirements, and Google-Extended does not affect it. The Gemini app is a separate product, and Google-Extended applies to grounding in it. How do I get my business on Gemini? Make sure your site is indexed in Google Search and claim your Google Business Profile. Gemini draws public information from Google Search and Google Maps. Can I see Google-Extended in my server logs? No. Google says it has no separate user agent string. It is a robots.txt token that Google reads as a control. #### Sources - https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961 - https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13695044 - https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/14143489 - https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778 --- ## How to rank in Perplexity: what its crawler docs say, in 6 checks (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-rank-in-perplexity/ ### How to rank in Perplexity: 6 checks from Perplexity's own docs To show up in Perplexity answers, allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt and let Perplexity's published IP ranges through your firewall. Perplexity's crawler docs say PerplexityBot "is designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity," and recommend both settings "to ensure your site appears in search results." No one can promise a citation in Perplexity. These checks remove the reasons it can't use your pages. Type your domain to see where you stand first: #### What Perplexity says decides it Perplexity lists two agents. Each one has its own robots.txt token and its own IP list. Agent | What Perplexity says it does | robots.txt PerplexityBot | Crawls to "surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity." "It is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models." | Controls it Perplexity-User | Visits a page when a person asks Perplexity a question, and may "include a link to the page in its response." | Perplexity says it ignores robots.txt rules as a general rule The docs say each setting works on its own, and changes may take up to 24 hours to apply. #### The 6 checks - Allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt. - Let Perplexity's IP ranges through your firewall or CDN. - Treat Perplexity-User as a separate agent. - Put your main text in the HTML, not in JavaScript alone. - Give crawlers a sitemap, a meta description, and structured data. - Wait 24 hours and check your server logs. #### Step 1: allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt Open yoursite.com/robots.txt . A group that says User-agent: PerplexityBot with Disallow: / tells PerplexityBot not to crawl your site, which goes against Perplexity's advice for sites that want to appear in its results. A blanket User-agent: * with Disallow: / does the same. To allow it in plain terms, give it a group of its own: User-agent: PerplexityBot Allow: / In our scan of 500 software homepages on October 18, 2026, 1 of 467 scored sites blocked PerplexityBot: chatgpt.com. See the PerplexityBot page for the user agent details, and test your file with the AI crawler robots.txt checker . #### Step 2: let Perplexity's IP ranges through your firewall A robots.txt rule does nothing if a firewall blocks the bot first. Perplexity publishes its IP ranges at perplexitybot.json and perplexity-user.json , and says to use them as "the source of truth for your WAF configurations." For Cloudflare, Perplexity's docs give these steps: - In the Cloudflare dashboard, open Security and pick WAF. - Create a custom rule. - Match User Agent contains PerplexityBot or Perplexity-User , and IP Source Address is in the published ranges. - Set the action to Allow. For AWS WAF, the docs say to create IP sets from the same lists, add string match conditions for the two user agents, and give the allow rules a higher priority than your block rules. Perplexity says the lists change, so set up a job that fetches them on a schedule. In our October 18 scan, 20 of 500 homepages showed our checker a bot challenge page in place of the site: 16 from Cloudflare, 2 from Vercel, 1 from Akamai, and 1 we could not name. Our checker is not PerplexityBot, so this does not prove Perplexity was blocked. It shows how common these walls are. #### Step 3: treat Perplexity-User as a separate agent Perplexity-User fetches a page because a person asked about it. Perplexity says this fetcher ignores robots.txt rules as a general rule, so a robots.txt line does not control it the way it controls PerplexityBot. Its IP list is separate, so if your firewall allows PerplexityBot by IP, add the Perplexity-User list to the same rule. The Perplexity-User page has the user agent string. #### Step 4: put your main text in the HTML Perplexity's docs do not say whether PerplexityBot runs JavaScript. The safe choice is to serve your main text, headings, and prices in the HTML. In our scan, 10 of 467 scored homepages had little or no text without JavaScript. To test your own page, view the page source (not the inspector) and search for a sentence from your homepage. #### Step 5: give crawlers a map and a summary Perplexity's crawler docs do not list a sitemap, a meta description, or structured data as requirements. They are the standard ways to help any crawler find your pages and describe them. In our scan, 23 of 467 sites had no sitemap we could find, 10 had no meta description, and 101 (22%) had no JSON-LD. Our schema markup for AI search guide covers what to add. #### Step 6: wait and check your logs Perplexity says changes can take "up to 24 hours." After a day, search your server or CDN logs for PerplexityBot . Its full user agent is: Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot) Anyone can fake a user agent. Perplexity's own advice is to combine "User-Agent string matching and IP address verification," so match the IP against perplexitybot.json. If the bot gets a 200 response from your pages, the access side is done. What Perplexity picks to cite after that depends on its own systems, which its crawler docs do not describe. #### What Perplexity's docs don't cover The crawler docs do not describe ranking factors, a way to submit pages, or llms.txt. Tools that sell "Perplexity SEO" can't point to an official list beyond the access rules above. If you want an llms.txt file for other AI tools, see our llms.txt example . #### The other AI answer engines Each AI company runs its own bots, and each one has separate rules: - How to rank in AI Overviews : what Google says about its Search features. #### Check your site Run the free check on your domain. It tests PerplexityBot and seven other AI user agents in robots.txt, text without JavaScript, JSON-LD, sitemap, meta description, and llms.txt, and tells you when a challenge page blocks it. The $19 deep report crawls 25 pages and lists fixes in order. #### FAQ How do I get my website to show up in Perplexity? Allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt and let Perplexity's published IP ranges through your firewall. Perplexity recommends both settings to make sure your site appears in its search results. Does Perplexity use my site to train AI models? Perplexity says PerplexityBot "is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models." It says the same of Perplexity-User. Does Perplexity-User follow robots.txt? Perplexity says Perplexity-User ignores robots.txt rules as a general rule, because a person asked for the page. How long does a robots.txt change take to work in Perplexity? Perplexity says up to 24 hours. Does Perplexity read llms.txt? Perplexity's crawler docs do not mention llms.txt. #### Sources - https://www.perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json - https://www.perplexity.com/perplexity-user.json --- ## How to see which Springfield, MO businesses ChatGPT recommends (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-see-which-springfield-mo-businesses-chatgpt-recommends/ ### How to see which Springfield, MO businesses ChatGPT recommends People in Springfield type "springfield mo plumbers" and "springfield mo ac repair" into Google. Those phrases sit on Google's autocomplete list. Some of those people ask ChatGPT the same thing. If you run a trade business in Springfield, you want to know whose name ChatGPT gives. This guide gives you a 15-minute weekly method to check. It shows what we found when we scanned 14 Springfield trades websites on October 23, 2026. We did not make up any ChatGPT answers for this page. You run the questions and see for yourself. #### How ChatGPT picks a Springfield business ChatGPT can search the web when a question needs current facts. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it can use your approximate location from your IP address and rewrite the question into a search. A person in Springfield who asks for "AC repair near me" may get results for "AC repair Springfield MO." ChatGPT reads the pages that answer that search and cites them. It shows its sources. OpenAI says "Placement is not guaranteed." Two people can get different answers. The answer can change from one week to the next. That is why one check tells you little. A weekly log tells you more. #### The weekly check, step by step - Pick five questions. Use the words people type. From Google autocomplete for Springfield we found these: - springfield mo plumbers - springfield mo ac repair - springfield mo heating and air - springfield mo lawn care - springfield mo roofing companies Add one for your own trade, such as "best roofer in Springfield MO for hail damage." - Open a new chat each time. That keeps each check the same. Turn on search, or use a question that needs current facts. - Write down the names. List each business ChatGPT names, in order. Note if your business is one of them. - Write down the sources. Click the citations. Is it a company website, a directory, a review site, or a news story? If a directory names your competitor and not you, fix your listing on that site. - Repeat each week on the same day. Keep a simple sheet: date, question, names, sources. After four weeks you will see who shows up the most. #### What we found on 14 Springfield trades websites On October 23, 2026 we ran our free check on 14 Springfield, MO trades websites from public search results: 5 lawn care, 4 plumbing, 3 HVAC, and 2 roofing. We are not naming them. Our checker could not read the homepage (403) | 2 of 14 | 14% No llms.txt | 6 of 12 | 50% No LocalBusiness or trade schema type | 7 of 12 | 58% Schema with errors, or none | 4 of 12 | 33% No sitemap | 1 of 12 | 8% Server took over 2.5 seconds to respond | 0 of 12 | 0% robots.txt blocks an AI crawler | 0 of 12 | 0% The 12 sites we could read scored 87 out of 100 on average. The median was 87.5. Five scored 100. Four scored under 80. The low was 55. Springfield sites were fast, and none blocked an AI crawler. The gap was in what the site says about the business. More than half did not tell a machine what kind of business it was or where it works. Two sent our checker an error page in place of the homepage. If a checker can't read your homepage, a crawler may not read it either. ##### A real scan, name removed One Springfield roofer scored 55. Its server was fast and every AI crawler was allowed. But it had no robots.txt, no llms.txt, no sitemap, no canonical link, no Open Graph tags, and no JSON-LD. Nothing on the site told a machine "this is a roofing company in Springfield, Missouri." #### What to fix - Run the free scan. It tests OAI-SearchBot and seven other AI crawlers and tells you when a firewall blocks the checker. - Say your trade and your city in schema. Use your trade type (Plumber, HVACBusiness, RoofingContractor) or LocalBusiness . Add name, phone, address, hours, and areaServed. Google's local business guide lists the fields. - Name the towns you serve. For example: Springfield, Nixa, Ozark, Republic, Battlefield. Put them in plain text on a service area page. - Fix the listings ChatGPT cites. Your weekly log shows which directories and review sites it reads. Make sure your name, phone, and hours match on each one. - Add an llms.txt file. An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt. It is a proposed standard, and OpenAI does not say ChatGPT uses it. Half the Springfield sites we read had none. See our llms.txt example . #### Let a tool run the questions The weekly check takes 15 minutes. If you want it done for you, the Monitor is $29 a month. It asks 25 buyer questions each week and shows who AI names: you or up to 5 competitors. Each saved answer shows which AI tool gave it. The weekly check in this guide stays free. If the scan finds problems you can't fix, Fix it for me is $499 one time, or $1,500 to rebuild the site. #### FAQ How do I see which businesses ChatGPT recommends in my city? Ask ChatGPT the questions people in your city type, such as "springfield mo plumbers." Use a new chat each time. Write down the names and sources. Repeat each week. Why does ChatGPT give different answers to the same question? ChatGPT rewrites your question into a search and reads the results. Your location, the wording, and the sources it finds can change. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. Does the Monitor check ChatGPT? The Monitor page lists the AI tools it asks today. Each saved answer shows which tool gave it. Will you do this for other cities? Springfield, MO is our first city. If local businesses use this page, we will add more. What score should a Springfield trades site get on the AI Ready Check? Aim for 90 or higher with no failed crawler checks. The Springfield sites we read averaged 87. --- ## How to show up in ChatGPT search results: 7 steps (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/how-to-show-up-in-chatgpt-search/ ### How to show up in ChatGPT search results: 7 steps ChatGPT can search the web and cite pages in its answers. Whether your site can be one of those pages starts with two settings: one line in robots.txt and one rule in your firewall. This guide covers what OpenAI's own crawler docs say, the seven settings to check, and what we found when we scanned 500 software company homepages on October 18, 2026. No one can promise a citation. These steps remove the reasons ChatGPT can't use your pages. #### What OpenAI says decides it OpenAI runs a crawler called OAI-SearchBot for search. Its crawler docs say: "OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features. Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links." The same page recommends "allowing OAI-SearchBot in your site's robots.txt file and allowing requests from our published IP ranges." Those two settings are the base. The rest of this guide helps any crawler read and describe your pages. #### The 7 steps - Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt. - Let OpenAI's published IP ranges through your firewall or CDN. - Decide on GPTBot (training) as a separate choice. - Know what ChatGPT-User does and doesn't control. - Wait about 24 hours and check your server logs. #### Step 1: allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt Open yoursite.com/robots.txt . If you see User-agent: OAI-SearchBot followed by Disallow: / , ChatGPT search can't show your pages in answers. A blanket rule can do the same thing: User-agent: * Disallow: / That blocks every crawler that obeys robots.txt, OAI-SearchBot included. To allow it in plain terms, add a group of its own: User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: / Rules apply to the User-agent lines right above them, so a bot with its own group follows that group. Check your file with the AI crawler robots.txt checker , and see the OAI-SearchBot page for the user agent details. #### Step 2: let OpenAI's IP ranges through your firewall A robots.txt rule does nothing if your firewall blocks the bot before it reaches the page. OpenAI publishes the IP ranges for OAI-SearchBot at openai.com/searchbot.json and recommends allowing requests from them. If you use Cloudflare, Vercel, Akamai, or another bot shield, look for an "AI bot" or "bot fight" setting and check what it does to verified search crawlers. In our scan, 20 of 500 homepages showed our checker a bot challenge page in place of the site: 16 from Cloudflare, 2 from Vercel, 1 from Akamai, and 1 we could not name. Our checker is not OAI-SearchBot, so this does not prove OpenAI was blocked. It does show how common these walls are. #### Step 3: treat GPTBot as a separate choice GPTBot collects pages that may train OpenAI's models. OAI-SearchBot is for search. OpenAI says "each setting is independent of the others," so you can block training and keep search: User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: / In our scan, 7 of 467 scored sites blocked GPTBot: Loom, Moosend, Vidyard, Figma, Kolide, Bardeen, and June. All 7 left OAI-SearchBot allowed. Our AI crawlers in robots.txt guide has rules for the other AI companies. #### Step 4: know what ChatGPT-User does ChatGPT-User is the agent that visits a page when a person asks ChatGPT about it. OpenAI says it "is not used to determine whether content may appear in Search" and that, because a person starts these visits, "robots.txt rules may not apply." Blocking ChatGPT-User does not keep you out of search, and allowing it does not put you in. Two of the 467 sites in our scan blocked it: Moosend and June. #### Step 5: put your main text in the HTML Some sites send an empty page and build the text with JavaScript in the browser. A crawler that does not run JavaScript sees little or no text. OpenAI's docs do not say whether OAI-SearchBot runs JavaScript, so the safe choice is to serve your main text, headings, and prices in the HTML. Our checker tests this on every scan. 10 of 467 scored homepages had little or no text without JavaScript, among them PostHog, Bubble, and OneLogin. To test your own page, view the page source (not the inspector) and search for a sentence from your homepage. #### Step 6: give crawlers a map and a summary OpenAI's crawler docs do not list a sitemap, a meta description, or structured data as requirements. They are the standard ways to help any search crawler find your pages and describe them: - Sitemap. List your pages in sitemap.xml and point to it from robots.txt with a Sitemap: line. 23 of 467 sites had none we could find. - Meta description. One or two plain sentences on what the page offers. 10 of 467 homepages had none. - JSON-LD structured data. Mark up your organization, products, and FAQs. 101 of 467 homepages (22%) had no JSON-LD. 351 of 467 sites (75%) passed all five of these checks: OAI-SearchBot allowed, text in the HTML, a sitemap, a meta description, and JSON-LD. #### Step 7: wait and check your logs OpenAI says it "can take ~24 hours from a site's robots.txt update for our systems to adjust." After a day, search your server or CDN logs for OAI-SearchBot . Its user agent ends in compatible; OAI-SearchBot/1.4; +https://openai.com/searchbot (OpenAI notes the version number may change), and requests for robots.txt can carry an extra robots.txt marker. Anyone can fake a user agent, so match the IP address against searchbot.json. If the bot reaches your pages and gets a 200 response, the access side is done. What ChatGPT picks to cite after that depends on its own systems, which OpenAI does not publish. #### Does llms.txt help with ChatGPT search? OpenAI's crawler docs do not mention llms.txt. It is a proposed file that gives AI tools a short map of your site. In our scan, 261 of 467 sites (56%) had one. It costs little to add, but it does not replace the steps above. See llms.txt example and format if you want one. #### What 467 software sites get right and wrong From the AI readiness leaderboard scan on October 18, 2026 (500 homepages tried, 467 scored): Check | Sites that fail | Share OAI-SearchBot blocked in robots.txt | 0 | 0% GPTBot blocked (training bot) | 7 | 1.5% Little or no text without JavaScript | 10 | 2.1% No meta description | 10 | 2.1% No sitemap found | 23 | 4.9% No JSON-LD | 101 | 21.6% No llms.txt | 206 | 44.1% Robots.txt is not the problem for these sites. The common gaps are missing llms.txt and JSON-LD, plus the 20 homepages that put a bot challenge in front of our checker. The full data is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 at leaderboard.json . #### The other AI answer engines ChatGPT is one of several AI tools that cite web pages. Each company runs its own bots with separate rules: - How to rank in Perplexity : PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, and the firewall rules Perplexity publishes. - How to rank in Gemini : the Google Search index and the Google-Extended token. #### Check your site Run the free AI readiness check on your domain. It tests OAI-SearchBot and seven other AI user agents in robots.txt, text without JavaScript, JSON-LD, sitemap, meta description, and llms.txt, and tells you when a challenge page blocks it. The deep report crawls 25 pages and lists fixes in order. #### FAQ How do I get my website to show up in ChatGPT search? Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and let OpenAI's published IP ranges through your firewall. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Does blocking GPTBot remove me from ChatGPT search? No. OpenAI says GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot are separate settings. You can block GPTBot for training and allow OAI-SearchBot for search. How long does a robots.txt change take to work in ChatGPT search? OpenAI says about 24 hours. Can I pay to appear in ChatGPT search results? OpenAI's crawler docs describe no paid inclusion for search answers. They describe OAI-AdsBot, which checks pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT. That is a separate ad product. Can ChatGPT link to my site if I block OAI-SearchBot? OpenAI says opted-out sites "can still appear as navigational links." Your content will not be used in its search answers. Checked 2026-10-18. Prices and policies change. Confirm on the source before you buy. #### Sources - https://openai.com/searchbot.json --- ## llms.txt example and format: how to write one that passes (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/llms-txt-example/ ### llms.txt example and format: how to write one that passes An llms.txt file is a short Markdown file at the root of your site that tells AI assistants what your site is and where the useful pages are. Jeremy Howard proposed it on September 3, 2024, and published version 2 of the proposal on August 10, 2026 at llmstxt.org . This guide shows the format, a copy-ready example, and the mistakes our llms.txt checker catches most. #### What llms.txt is for Web pages are built for people. Navigation, ads, and JavaScript make them hard for an AI agent to read. The llms.txt proposal gives agents one place to find concise information and links to clean versions of your key pages. The v2 proposal says thousands of sites publish an llms.txt file, that documentation platforms generate one, and that Chrome's Lighthouse audits sites for one as part of its agentic browsing checks. It names OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini as publishers of llms.txt files for their own developer docs. llms.txt does not replace robots.txt or your sitemap: - robots.txt says which crawlers may access which paths. See our AI crawler robots.txt guide . - sitemap.xml lists every indexable page for search engines. - llms.txt is a curated overview that an agent reads on demand when it helps a user. #### Where the file goes Put it at /llms.txt on your site, for example https://example.com/llms.txt . The v2 spec allows a file at a subpath, besides the root one. A file such as /docs/llms.txt covers the pages under /docs/ . When more than one file applies, agents should use the most specific one. #### The format, in order The spec lists these sections, in this order: - An optional byte-order mark. - An H1 with the name of the site or project. This is the one required section. - A blockquote with a short summary that holds the key facts needed to understand the rest of the file. - Zero or more Markdown sections of any type except headings (paragraphs, lists) with more detail. - Zero or more sections under H2 headings, each a "file list" of links. Each list item is a Markdown link [name](url) , followed by an optional colon and notes. By convention, an H2 named Optional holds secondary links an agent can skip when it needs a shorter context. #### A copy-ready example This file is for a made-up plumbing company. Swap in your own details. # Riverside Plumbing > Licensed plumbing company serving Springfield, IL and nearby towns since 2009. We fix leaks, clear drains, and install water heaters. 24/7 emergency service. Call (555) 010-0199. Service area: Springfield, Chatham, Rochester, and Sherman. We do not serve commercial high-rises. ## Services - [Water heater installation](https://riversideplumbing.example/water-heaters): Tank and tankless, same-week installs - [Drain cleaning](https://riversideplumbing.example/drains): Snaking and camera inspection - [Emergency plumbing](https://riversideplumbing.example/emergency): What to do before we arrive ## Company - [Pricing](https://riversideplumbing.example/pricing): Trip fee and common job prices - [Reviews](https://riversideplumbing.example/reviews) ## Optional - [Blog](https://riversideplumbing.example/blog) That file has the required H1, a summary with the facts an assistant needs to answer "who is this and where do they work," and short notes on each link. #### Markdown versions of your pages The proposal goes one step further. It suggests that pages agents might need offer a clean Markdown copy at the same URL with .md added, such as page.html.md , or with the extension replaced, such as page.md . URLs without a file name would use index.html.md or index.md . To help agents find these files, v2 recommends standard link relations: rel="alternate" type="text/markdown" for the Markdown copy, and rel="describedby" for the llms.txt file that covers the page. You can send these as HTML tags or as an HTTP Link: header. This part is optional. A plain llms.txt with good links helps on its own. #### Five mistakes to avoid - No H1. The H1 is the one required element. A file that opens with a paragraph or an H2 fails the format. - Headings inside the detail block. Between the summary and the first H2, the spec allows any Markdown except headings. An H3 in that block breaks the structure. - Bare URLs in file lists. Each list item should be a Markdown link with a name, not a raw URL. - Wrong place or wrong type. The file must load at /llms.txt over HTTPS with no login. A redirect to your homepage, or an HTML error page served with a 200 status, does not count. - A dump of every page. The spec says the file should stay small to fit in an AI's context. Put the 10 to 30 pages that matter, not your whole sitemap. Paste your file into our llms.txt validator to check the format line by line. #### How common is llms.txt? On October 17, 2026 we checked 49 popular SaaS websites. 35 of them served an llms.txt file. The 14 that did not included Salesforce, Trello, Airtable, GitLab, Figma, Canva, Zoom, and DocuSign. The full table is in the State of AI readiness report and as JSON . #### Test your file - Publish the file at /llms.txt . - Run the AI readiness check on your domain. It tests llms.txt along with AI crawler access, JSON-LD, sitemap, meta description, and text readable without JavaScript. - Follow the spec's own advice: ask an AI assistant questions about your business, giving it your llms.txt as the starting point, and judge the answers. - Add the AI readiness badge to your site after you pass. #### FAQ Is llms.txt an official standard? It is a proposal, published at llmstxt.org, that is open for community input. It is not an IETF or W3C standard. Does llms.txt help Google rankings? The proposal is about helping AI agents read your site. It makes no claim about search rankings. What is llms-full.txt? Some sites publish a second file with the full text of their docs in one place. The llmstxt.org page centers on llms.txt and Markdown page copies. Do I need llms.txt if I block AI crawlers? llms.txt helps agents that are allowed to read your site. If robots.txt blocks them, fix that first with the AI crawler robots.txt checker . --- ## Schema markup for AI search: what to add and what to skip (2026) URL: https://checkaiready.com/guides/schema-markup-for-ai-search/ ### Schema markup for AI search: what to add and what to skip Schema markup is a block of JSON-LD that tells machines what a page is: a business, a product, an article, a set of answers. Search engines have used it for years. AI search tools read the same HTML, so clean schema helps them read your pages. Set your hopes right. Google says it has no special schema rules for its AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that the same Search basics apply ( Google AI features guide ). Schema will not force a citation. It removes guesswork about who you are and what the page says. #### The 4 types that matter most Pick types from schema.org that match each page. These four cover most small business and SaaS sites. ##### 1. Organization on the home page { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "name": "Example Co", "url": "https://example.com/", "logo": "https://example.com/logo.png", "sameAs": ["https://www.linkedin.com/company/example"] } Use LocalBusiness or a subtype such as Plumber if you serve a local area. Add the address and phone that appear on the page. ##### 2. Product or SoftwareApplication on product pages { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "SoftwareApplication", "name": "Example App", "applicationCategory": "BusinessApplication", "offers": {"@type": "Offer", "price": "19", "priceCurrency": "USD"} } The price in the markup must match the price on the page. ##### 3. Article on guides and blog posts Include headline , datePublished , dateModified , and author . Dates help answer engines judge if a page is current. ##### 4. FAQPage where the page answers questions Mark up the questions and answers a reader can see on the page, and no others. Google's structured data policies say markup must represent the visible content. #### What to skip - Markup for content that is not on the page. Hidden FAQs and fake reviews break Google's policies and can cost you rich results. - Every type you can find. Ten types on one page do not beat two accurate ones. - Schema as a fix for thin pages. If the page does not answer the question, markup will not make it quotable. #### How to add it - Put the JSON-LD in a