AI SEO audit · ChatGPT · Perplexity · Google AI
SiteUpward runs 81 checks on whether AI assistants can reach, read and quote your website's pages, then lists what to fix on each page, in plain English.
SiteUpward is built for website owners, marketers, SEO specialists and agencies. An audit shows what to fix on a website; no audit can guarantee that AI engines will cite it.
AI readiness report · yourwebsite.com
Capped: an AI search bot is blocked
AI engine access
ChatGPT's search crawler is blocked
robots.txt disallows OAI-SearchBot, so ChatGPT search can show at most a bare link – no summary, no quote.
Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: /
Why now
More searches now start with one generated answer instead of a list of links, and many end without a click. An AI engine can only quote a page its crawler can read.
Since July 2025 Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default on new domains, and its September 2026 defaults also block mixed search-and-training crawlers on pages with ads. Many site owners never changed a setting – their CDN did it for them.
Cloudflare, Jul 2025 & Sep 2026 (opens in a new tab)Each figure above comes from the third-party source linked below it.
What SiteUpward checks
SiteUpward first checks the robots.txt rules for 16 AI and search user agents, then reads every crawled page from its raw HTML, as most AI crawlers do. Checks with stronger published evidence generally carry more weight in the score.
An AI engine can't quote a page its crawler may not fetch. SiteUpward tests each AI search crawler separately.
An AI language model reads each page and evaluates its content – like an editor deciding what to quote.
Several AI assistants retrieve pages through classic search indexes such as Google's and Bing's, so technical SEO basics still apply.
SiteUpward checks whether a site states clearly who runs it, what it offers and how to reach the people behind it.
Much AI SEO advice has no published evidence behind it. SiteUpward grades each check by the strength of the evidence for it, generally gives checks with stronger evidence more weight and reports checks without evidence, such as llms.txt, as information that does not change the score. The score estimates how ready a site is for AI engines; it can't guarantee that an AI engine will cite the site.
Letting AI search bots in
OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic document their search crawlers. A site that blocks them can't be quoted in their search answers.
OpenAI crawler docs (opens in a new tab)Content in the raw HTML
Log analysis found none of the major AI crawlers rendering JavaScript. If your text only appears after scripts run, they see an empty page.
Vercel / MERJ (opens in a new tab)Answer first, then explain
44% of ChatGPT citations come from the first 30% of a page's text. SiteUpward scores the intro of every page.
Ahrefs, Mar 2026 (opens in a new tab)Schema markup
Useful for classic search and entity clarity, but the one large test found no effect on AI citations. SiteUpward gives it a low weight.
Search Atlas, Dec 2025 (opens in a new tab)llms.txt
97% of llms.txt files got zero requests, and no AI search engine says it uses them. SiteUpward reports llms.txt as information only; it never changes the score.
Ahrefs, Jun 2026 (opens in a new tab)How it works
Paste the website's address. The free check needs no signup, card or install. SiteUpwardBot, a clearly named crawler, sends at most 2 requests per second to a website and follows robots.txt.
SiteUpward checks the access gates for six AI engines, fetches every page without running JavaScript and has an AI model read each page for citability.
The free check of up to 25 pages shows the score, engine readiness, every site-wide issue and full fixes for up to 3 pages. A full audit covers up to 500 pages (2,000 in a large audit) and lists every issue with its page, evidence and fix, in priority order.
Sample report
Each finding in a SiteUpward report shows the affected pages, why the issue matters for AI answers and what to change.
Compare
Agency audits usually take days and cost more, free SEO checkers cover the basics, and AI-visibility trackers show whether a brand is mentioned in AI answers but not what to change on the website.
| SiteUpward | Agency audit | Free SEO checkers | AI-visibility trackers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free check, full audit from $49 | Usually hundreds of dollars or more | Free | Monthly subscription |
| Time to results | Minutes | Days to weeks | Seconds | Weeks of prompt tracking |
| Tests each AI bot's access (robots.txt + CDN/WAF) | Yes | PartlyDepends on the agency | Partlyrobots.txt at best | No |
| Reads every page for citability | YesUp to 2,000 pages | PartlySample pages | No | No |
| Page-by-page fixes | Yes | Yes | PartlyGeneric tips | No |
| Tracks your brand in AI answers over time | NoNot offered | Partly | No | Yes |
| White-label reports | Yes10-pack & Agency | No | Partly | Partly |
An AI-visibility tracker shows whether a brand is mentioned in AI answers; SiteUpward shows what to change on the website. The two can be used together.
Limits
SiteUpward audits the public pages of one website. It can't see everything that affects AI answers, and for some jobs another tool is the better choice.
A citation guarantee
The SiteUpward score estimates how ready a site is for AI engines. It can't guarantee that ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI will cite a page.
Live AI answers
SiteUpward does not send questions to AI engines and does not track whether a brand appears in their answers over time.
Off-site signals
Reviews, YouTube videos, forum threads and mentions on other websites can't be measured from a site's own pages. The report lists 4 off-site steps for the type of business as an unscored checklist.
Pages behind a login
SiteUpwardBot does not log in or submit forms, and it skips pages that robots.txt closes to it. Those pages are not audited.
JavaScript on every page
SiteUpward reads every page from its raw HTML. A real browser renders only a sample for comparison: up to 5 pages in a full audit and up to 3 in a free check.
Certainty on every AI finding
When the AI model is not confident about a finding, the report marks it “Review” and counts it at half weight in the score.
Tracking brand mentions in AI answers
An AI-visibility tracker measures mentions over time. SiteUpward audits the website, not the answers.
Someone to make the changes
SiteUpward lists what to fix and on which pages, but it does not edit the website or change its settings.
Auditing a private site
SiteUpwardBot only fetches public pages, so a staging site behind a password or an intranet can't be audited.
Keyword research or backlink analysis
SiteUpward does not check keywords or backlinks. Classic SEO tools cover both.
Pricing
No subscription required. A full audit is a one-time purchase with a free re-scan to confirm your fixes worked.
See where you stand with AI search in a few minutes.
$0
Every page, every fix, for sites with up to 500 pages.
$49one-time
Large audit: $99 – All pages up to 2,000
For freelancers and owners of several sites. For agencies reselling audits to clients.
$149$29.80 per audit
Buy 5 credits$249$24.90 per audit
Buy 10 creditsKeep the sites you've fully audited up to date: re-audit credits every billing period. A new site starts with a one-time audit. Cancel anytime.
Every week we re-run the whole free check of one website and e-mail you what changed. First month free.
$19/month
First month free for first-time subscribers – card required, cancel before the trial ends and pay nothing
Start free monthFor marketers and consultants keeping several audited sites current.
$49/month
5 re-audit credits per month for sites you've fully audited
Start ProKeep your clients' audited sites up to date, under your brand.
$149/month
25 re-audit credits per month for sites you've fully audited
Start AgencyUnused credits refundable within 14 days– failed audits never cost credits, and one-off full audits come with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Prices exclude tax: VAT, GST or sales tax is added at checkout where applicable, based on your location. Businesses can enter a VAT or other tax ID at checkout. SiteUpward charges in USD or EUR with the same numbers. Payment runs on the payment processor's secure checkout; SiteUpward never receives full card details. Read the refund policy
FAQ
Each answer below starts with the direct answer in its first sentence.
AI SEO (also called GEO or generative engine optimization) is making your website easy for AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to find, read and quote. It builds on classic SEO: the crawlers must be allowed in, the content must be readable without JavaScript, and each page must state clear, specific answers.
Often not fully – and the free check tells you in a few minutes. Common blockers are robots.txt rules, CDN bot protection such as Cloudflare's AI-bot blocking, and content that only appears after JavaScript runs, which most AI crawlers don't execute.
The free check scans up to 25 pages and shows your AI readiness score, grade, category scores, the readiness matrix for six AI engines, every site-wide issue, and full fixes for three pages. Fixes for the other pages are in the full audit. No signup and no card are needed.
A normal SEO audit checks whether Google can rank a page; SiteUpward also checks whether AI assistants can access, understand and quote it. SiteUpward tests each AI crawler separately, compares the raw HTML with the browser-rendered version of a sample of pages, and has an AI model judge every page for answer-first structure, specificity and quotable statements.
A specialised AI evaluation model reads each page and evaluates its content. Its results are combined with rule-based checks, and checks with stronger published evidence generally carry more weight in the score.
No. An Ahrefs study found 97% of llms.txt files received zero requests, and no AI search engine documents using them. SiteUpward reports whether a site has one as information only, and it does not affect the score.
No one can honestly guarantee AI citations. Fixing access and content issues removes common reasons AI engines can't or won't quote a site. Off-site signals such as reviews and brand mentions also matter; SiteUpward can't measure them from the website, so the report gives a checklist for them instead.
Most full audits finish in a few minutes; large sites of up to 2,000 pages can take longer. You can close the tab: SiteUpward sends an email when the report is ready.
One credit is one full audit of a site with up to 500 pages; sites with up to 2,000 pages use two credits. Credits from packs never expire, and every full audit includes one free re-scan within 30 days.
Monthly plans keep sites you've already fully audited up to date: each billing period adds re-audit credits for those sites. The first full audit of a new site is a one-time purchase – a single audit or a pack.
The free check scans up to 25 pages. Results usually in 1–3 minutes.