--- title: "How the Free B2B AI Visibility Checker Works | VertoDigital" description: "Every check the Free B2B AI Visibility Checker runs, how we score it, how we request your pages, what we never do and what this version cannot see." url: "https://vertodigital.com/b2b-ai-visibility-checker/tool/how-it-works" image: "https://vertodigital.com/images/site/og-default.png" --- Methodology # How the Free B2B AI Visibility Checker works We read your website the way AI agents do: page code only, no browser, nothing typed or submitted. Here is every check, how we score it, and what this version can't see. ## Research: website readability (35 points) When an agent researches your category, can it read and understand you? ### 1.1 AI search crawler access (7 pts) Your robots.txt rules for OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User, on your homepage and key pages. Training bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot) are reported, never scored. - Pass: None blocked - Warning: Some blocked, or key pages blocked - Fail: All blocked ### 1.2 Homepage access (7 pts) We request your homepage as a normal browser, then as ChatGPT-User, Claude-User and Perplexity-User, and compare what comes back. A block page served with a 200 counts as blocked. - Pass: Every agent gets the same page as the browser - Warning: Some agents blocked or challenged - Fail: All agents blocked while a browser gets in ### 1.3 Content without JavaScript (7 pts) Words of page content in the raw HTML of your homepage and up to 5 key pages (a product or service page, a customer story, a blog post, your about page). Navigation and footer text are not counted. - Pass: Homepage 200+ words and a typical key page 150+ - Warning: Homepage under 200, or key pages under 150 (the report says which) - Fail: Homepage under 50 words, or an empty JavaScript app shell ### 1.4 Accidentally hidden pages (4 pts) noindex in a meta robots tag or X-Robots-Tag header. - Pass: None on the homepage or key pages - Warning: On a key page - Fail: On the homepage ### 1.5 Page essentials (3 pts) Title, meta description, exactly one main heading and a canonical URL on the pages we read. - Pass: 90%+ present - Warning: 60 to 89% - Fail: Under 60% ### 1.6 Company identity (3 pts) Organization structured data (JSON-LD) on your homepage. - Pass: Name, URL and a logo or official profiles - Warning: Name only - Fail: None ### 1.7 Sitemap (2 pts) The sitemap listed in robots.txt, or /sitemap.xml. For a sitemap index, we read up to 3 of the sitemaps it lists. - Pass: Valid, linked from robots.txt, updated in the last 180 days - Warning: Not linked, stale, or one of the sitemaps we read is broken - Fail: Missing or invalid ### 1.8 Response speed (2 pts) Time until your homepage starts responding: the median of the 5 homepage requests we make, measured from the Cloudflare location running the check. - Pass: Under 800 ms - Warning: 800 to 2000 ms - Fail: Over 2000 ms or no response ### 1.9 AI guide files (+2 bonus pts) A valid llms.txt, and markdown versions of your pages linked with rel="alternate" type="text/markdown". +1 each. Bonus points never cost you points. ## Evaluate: product access, MCP and API (15 points) When an agent evaluates your product, can it try it? Only scored when your site shows product signals: developer docs, an API, an app login or an MCP server. ### 2.1 Discoverable (4 pts) MCP discovery files on your own domain: /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json and /.well-known/mcp.json. We look only where an agent arriving at your site would look. - Pass: A discovery file points to your MCP server - Warning: Your site mentions an MCP server, but nothing points agents to it - Fail: No MCP server findable from your site ### 2.2 Working (4 pts) The MCP handshake: initialize, initialized, then a request for the tool list. We never call a tool. - Pass: Valid response within 5 seconds, or a correct login request - Warning: Slow or partial - Fail: Error response ### 2.3 Understandable (3 pts) The tool list: does each tool have a real description and an input schema? If your server requires login, we read your server card instead. - Pass: 1 to 40 tools, 80%+ clearly described - Warning: Partly described - Fail: No descriptions ### 2.4 Connectable (2 pts) If your server requires login, whether it tells agents how (OAuth protected-resource metadata that we fetch and validate). Open, or login with valid metadata. Bonus points never cost you points. ### 2.5 Documented (2 pts) A developer docs link on your homepage, and an OpenAPI spec we can fetch and validate (from your api-catalog or a homepage link). - Pass: Both - Warning: One - Fail: Neither ## Reach out: agent conversion (50 points) When an agent is ready to act for its buyer, can it reach your sales team? ### 3A Find the way in (8 pts) A contact, demo or trial page linked from your homepage, or found in your sitemap or at a common address like /contact. - Pass: Linked from the homepage - Warning: Exists, but not linked from the homepage - Fail: None found ### 3B Let in (10 pts) Your contact page requested as a browser and as the three AI agents, plus your robots.txt rules for that page. - Pass: Every agent gets the page - Warning: Some agents blocked or challenged - Fail: All agents blocked, or no contact page at all ### 3C See the form (12 pts) A real contact form in the page code. Newsletter, search and footer forms do not count. We name the form tool when the form is loaded by a script (HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Typeform, Jotform). - Pass: Contact form in the page code - Warning: Form inside an embedded frame whose page has a real form: browser agents can use it, page-code readers can't - Fail: Form only built by JavaScript (on the page or inside the frame), or no form ### 3D Understand the form (5 pts) Field labels and the number of required fields. - Pass: All labelled, 7 or fewer required - Warning: Some unlabelled, or 8 to 10 required - Fail: Mostly unlabelled, over 10 required, or no visible form ### 3F Agent-friendly route (+3 bonus pts) A visible email address, ContactPoint structured data, and contact details in llms.txt or a contact tool on your MCP server. +1 each. Bonus points never cost you points. ### 3G Readable proof (5 pts) A customer story or case study page with 300+ words of page content. - Pass: Readable case study - Warning: Thin, image or PDF only, or behind a form - Fail: None found ### 3H Self-serve path (3 pts) Only if your homepage offers a free trial or sign-up: whether an agent can reach and read the sign-up page. - Pass: Reachable, with a form or clear page - Warning: Loads only with JavaScript - Fail: Blocked ## How we score - Pass earns full points, a warning earns half, a fail earns none. - Each step scores the points earned out of the points that applied, weighted Research 35, Evaluate 15, Reach out 50. - If your site shows no product signals, Evaluate is not scored and its weight moves to the other two steps (about 41 and 59). - Checks that don't apply, and checks we couldn't complete because of an error on our side, are left out. They never cost you points. - Bonus points add up to 5. The score is rounded and capped at 100. - 80 to 100 is Shortlist-ready, 50 to 79 is At risk, 0 to 49 is Off the shortlist. - If an agent can't reach your sales team at all (no contact page and no email, all agents blocked from your contact page, or no visible form and no other route), the score can't go above 79. - If we can't reach your homepage, or fewer than 60% of checks complete, we don't give a score. ## How we request your pages - Our own user agent: `VertoDigital-AIVisibilityChecker/1.0 (+https://vertodigital.com/b2b-ai-visibility-checker/tool/how-it-works)`. It follows your robots.txt. - For the access tests only (your homepage and contact page), single requests with the user agents the AI companies publish for ChatGPT-User, Claude-User and Perplexity-User. - At most 30 requests to your site per check, one at a time, 10 seconds per request, 60 seconds in total. - Requests go through the public internet like any visitor's, so your firewall and bot rules apply. ## What we never do - Submit a form or type into a field. - Call a tool on your MCP server or log in anywhere. - Run a browser or execute your JavaScript. - Use AI to decide a result. The same site gives the same result. ## What this version can't see - Content that only appears after JavaScript runs. Agents that drive a real browser may see it. - What happens when a form is submitted, including bot checks that only run on submit. ## Public reports, private comparisons and removals - Each company gets one report page, updated when it is checked again. Reports are not indexed by search engines. - Comparisons with a competitor live on a private link, are never published and are deleted after 12 months. - [Request an update or removal](https://vertodigital.com/b2b-ai-visibility-checker/tool/request-update) at any time. Methodology version 2026-10-07.1