Transparent methodology
What the AI visibility score means
An AI visibility score is a weighted, point-in-time summary of whether a public website is accessible, understandable, evidenced, technically sound, and represented accurately in optional sampled web-grounded model-family responses. It is not a search ranking or recommendation guarantee.
What does this tool measure?
It combines eight clearly separated modules: deterministic AI readiness, agent readiness, trust and evidence, Google Lighthouse performance, accessibility, best practices, technical SEO, and optional sampled AI visibility. The deterministic scan reads returned HTML plus robots.txt, sitemap.xml, llms.txt and observable interface signals. PageSpeed uses Google’s official API for mobile and desktop.
What can it not prove?
It cannot prove that an AI system will cite, rank or recommend a business; validate whether testimonials or credentials are true; infer third-party corroboration from the target site; or reproduce consumer ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini products. Results change as sites, indexes, models and providers change.
SEO, AEO, GEO and agent readiness
SEO improves discoverability and interpretation by traditional search engines. AEO structures factual, direct answers for answer engines. GEO improves the clarity and evidence that generative systems can retrieve and synthesize. Agent readiness asks whether software agents can access server-rendered content, understand controls, recover from errors and discover advertised machine interfaces. These overlap, but none substitutes for the others.
Weights, points and unavailable modules
Every applicable check shows earned points, available points and a percentage. Not-applicable checks are excluded. Module weights are: AI readiness 25%, agent readiness 15%, trust/evidence 15%, performance 15%, accessibility 7.5%, best practices 7.5%, technical SEO 5%, and sampled AI visibility 10%. Coverage always states how many of eight modules are available. If a provider is unavailable, its weight is removed and the remaining available weights are renormalized—never scored as zero or full credit.
PageSpeed lab data vs CrUX field data
Lighthouse lab scores are controlled simulations returned for mobile and desktop. They include performance, accessibility, best-practices and SEO categories plus FCP, LCP, Speed Index, Total Blocking Time and CLS. CrUX is aggregated real-user field data and may be absent when a URL or origin lacks sufficient eligible traffic. We display these separately and never label the scanner’s basic server fetch time as PageSpeed.
Sampled model methodology and reproducibility
After the user confirms a business name, the same neutral, versioned prompt is sent to OpenAI-, Anthropic- and Google-family models through OpenRouter with web search enabled. A deterministic 100-point rubric awards: correct brand 25, primary offer 20, applicable audience/location 15, target-domain citation 25, and no material factual conflict 15. The aggregate averages available families. Requested/returned model IDs, timestamp, prompt version, citations, representation, conflicts, confidence and limitations are retained in the response. Model routing, web indexes and outputs can vary, so this is a sampled point-in-time indication.
The original GEO research formalised visibility as a measurable outcome in generated answers and reported that optimisation effects vary by domain. For that reason, this tool separates technical readiness from actual sampled mentions and citations instead of presenting one opaque “AI score.”
Privacy and data handling
The scanner requests only public web resources. URLs may appear in shareable browser query strings and service logs. The free diagnosis requires no email. An email is requested only to unlock the Implementation Pack, with explicit consent to receive that report and occasional relevant Excelsior AI guidance; unsubscribe anytime. The configured webhook/CRM owns delivery and follow-up. This repository does not automatically send marketing email. Do not submit private or credential-bearing URLs.
Who operates AI Visibility Meter?
AI Visibility Meter is operated by Excelsior AI, an Australian AI implementation business. The operator relationship is disclosed throughout the product and in structured data.