Is my website invisible to AI search engines?
A website is not simply visible or invisible to every AI search engine. Test whether each system can access the relevant pages, describe the business accurately, and cite those pages for suitable buyer questions; these are separate checks with different remedies.
What does “invisible” actually mean?
A missing brand mention can mean several things. The system may not have searched, may have selected a competing source, or may have lacked enough information to match the business to the request. An automated readiness score cannot resolve all of those possibilities. Use it as a technical and content checklist, then collect observations from the search products your buyers use.
Which pages should you inspect?
Start with the homepage, one main service page, an evidence page, and the assessment landing page. Read their initial HTML. Check that the business name, audience, service, and destination links are present as text. Confirm that each useful URL returns successfully without a login or challenge. Inspect robots rules and canonical URLs. OpenAI and Anthropic document separate crawler roles; do not treat every bot with “AI” in its name as the same access decision.
How can you distinguish access from understanding?
Use paired tests. First ask what your company does, with search enabled. Then ask an unbranded question that matches your service. If the branded answer is correct but you are missing from the unbranded answer, investigate relevance and evidence before assuming a crawler block. If the description is wrong, compare public profiles and your own pages for contradictory service names, locations, or target audiences.
What does a useful audit deliver?
The output should name a page, show the observed defect, state its impact, and propose a verifiable fix. “Improve authority” is not an actionable finding. “The reporting service page does not identify its intended customer or provide an example output” is. Our Free GEO/AEO Assessment is a starting point for readiness review; a score is not a measured citation rate, an endorsement from a search provider, or a forecast of traffic.
What should you put on your working checklist?
| Layer | Pass evidence |
|---|---|
| Access | Relevant public page retrieved successfully |
| Understanding | Business description matches the actual offer |
| Citation | Answer links to your specific page |
| Conversion | A real visitor becomes a confirmed new subscriber |
Which related questions should you explore?
Who is behind this guidance?
Which sources can you check?
What else should you know?
Can an audit prove I will be cited?
No. Readiness checks identify conditions you can improve; search systems still choose sources independently.
Is a bot visit the same as a citation?
No. A server log shows a request, not how content appeared in an answer.
Should I test only my homepage?
No. Test the service and evidence pages that should support the buyer’s question.
Exploring AI too?
Have an interesting experience or a question? Feel free to get in touch. I am always happy to exchange perspectives on practical uses of AI.
hello@mikloskovacs.io
