Methodology · 2026-09-18.2
Trust the evidence. Question the score.
We separate technical observations, expert judgment, and business outcomes. A checklist is a decision aid—not a search engine's ranking formula.
What the free scan actually does
It fetches one public page, robots.txt, one same-origin declared or default sitemap, and optional llms.txt. It inspects bounded HTTP responses and static HTML. It does not execute JavaScript, crawl every page, query answer engines, read Search Console, or edit your site.
How results are classified
Pass means a narrow condition was observed. Needs review means a potential improvement or ambiguity. Blocker means the measured condition prevents that intended page from meeting a basic eligibility requirement. Not measured means the evidence is unavailable. Not scored means an optional or preference-based control should not count against the site.
Why there is no universal AI score
The counts describe check coverage, not ranking probability. The audit does not give extra points for allowing training crawlers, publishing llms.txt, adding unnecessary markup, or hitting an arbitrary word count. An engine can choose not to index, cite, or recommend a technically eligible page.
How managed changes are accepted
A change needs an approved scope, authorized resource access, an implementation receipt, and a separate recheck. A draft is not a deployment. A successful deployment is not an indexing event. The operating record should retain the original evidence and the rollback path.
How business value is measured
Agree on a useful customer action before the work starts. Keep search exposure, observed AI citations, visits, qualified leads, purchases, and contribution separate. Use comparable periods and denominators. A before/after movement alone does not establish causation.
Privacy and safety
Do not submit credentials, private links, or sensitive query parameters. The scanner blocks private and reserved network targets and bounds redirects, time, and response size. Public-response content is untrusted data, not instructions. The anonymous scan is returned to your browser; it is not automatically a customer record or an email subscription.
Primary source guidance
Start with the free audit, explore the checklist, or review the managed-service scopes.