Understanding Your AI Readiness Report
AI readiness involves technical concepts that most business owners haven't encountered before. This glossary explains every term used in our reports in plain English — what it is, and why it matters for your business's visibility to AI agents like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI, and Siri.
Crawlability & Access
JSON-LD
Machine-readable business data embedded in your website's code. It describes your business name, address, phone, hours, services, and more in a format that AI agents can instantly understand — without having to guess from your page text.
Why it matters: Without JSON-LD, AI agents have to extract your business details from raw page content, which is error-prone and often fails entirely.
Structured Data
The general term for machine-readable descriptions of your business embedded in your website. JSON-LD is the most common format. Think of it as a "data sheet" for your business that AI can read instantly.
Why it matters: Structured data is the #1 factor in whether AI agents can accurately describe your business to potential customers.
robots.txt
A small file on your website that tells search engines and AI crawlers which pages they're allowed to access. It's like a bouncer at the door — it can let everyone in, block specific bots, or shut the door entirely.
Why it matters: If your robots.txt accidentally blocks AI crawlers like GPTBot or ClaudeBot, those AI systems can't read your site at all.
sitemap.xml
A file that lists all the important pages on your website. It helps search engines and AI crawlers find your content efficiently instead of wandering your site hoping to discover pages.
Why it matters: Pages not in your sitemap may never be discovered by AI crawlers, meaning they can't be included in AI-generated answers.
llms.txt
A newer standard — a file that tells AI agents specifically how to understand and summarize your website. It's like a cover letter for AI: "Here's who we are, what we do, and which pages matter most."
Why it matters: As AI agents become the primary way people find businesses, having a curated llms.txt gives you direct control over how AI describes you.
X-Robots-Tag
An invisible instruction sent by your web server (in HTTP headers) that can tell AI crawlers not to index your content. Unlike meta robots tags which are in your HTML, this one is set at the server level — often by your hosting provider without your knowledge.
Why it matters: If this is set to "noindex" or "nofollow," AI systems are being told to ignore your entire site, even if everything else is perfect.
HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security)
A security header that tells browsers and AI crawlers to always use encrypted (HTTPS) connections to your site. It's a trust signal that indicates your site takes security seriously.
Why it matters: AI systems factor security into their trust calculations. HSTS is a positive signal that can contribute to being cited more reliably.
Canonical URL
A tag that tells search engines and AI, "This is the official version of this page." When the same content exists at multiple URLs (common with tracking parameters or www vs non-www), the canonical tag prevents confusion.
Why it matters: If AI encounters conflicting versions of your page, it may skip you entirely rather than risk citing the wrong version.
Entity & Schema
Schema.org
The vocabulary standard used for structured data. Created by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex, it defines hundreds of types (Organization, LocalBusiness, Restaurant, Attorney, etc.) with specific fields for each. It's the language AI agents use to understand business data.
Why it matters: Using the right Schema.org type for your business (e.g., "Dentist" instead of generic "Organization") helps AI match you to relevant queries.
Organization Schema
Structured data that identifies your business as an entity — including name, logo, URL, contact information, and social profiles. It's the foundational "who are you?" data that AI needs.
Why it matters: Without Organization schema, AI agents may not even recognize your website as belonging to a real business.
LocalBusiness Schema
A more specific type of Organization schema for businesses with physical locations. Includes address, phone, hours, service area, and price range — everything a customer needs to visit or contact you.
Why it matters: "Near me" queries are the most common AI search pattern. LocalBusiness schema is how AI knows WHERE you are and WHEN you're open.
sameAs
Links in your structured data that connect your website to your profiles on other platforms — Yelp, Google Business Profile, BBB, industry directories, social media. It tells AI, "This is the same business on all these platforms."
Why it matters: AI cross-references your business across multiple sources. sameAs links to authoritative directories (Yelp, BBB, Avvo) dramatically increase AI's confidence that your business is legitimate.
potentialAction
Structured data that tells AI what actions users can take on your site — book an appointment, make a reservation, search for content, contact you. It's the bridge between "finding" your business and "doing something" with it.
Why it matters: AI agents are evolving from just answering questions to completing tasks. potentialAction makes your business actionable, not just findable.
FAQPage Schema
Structured data that marks question-and-answer content on your page. When present, AI agents can directly quote your answers to user questions — essentially making your website a source that AI cites.
Why it matters: Pages with FAQPage schema are dramatically more likely to appear as direct answers in AI-generated responses.
Entity Identity
How confidently AI can verify that your business exists as a real entity. Strong entity identity means your business has consistent name, address, phone, and directory references across the web. Weak identity means AI isn't sure you're real.
Why it matters: AI agents won't recommend a business they can't verify. Weak entity identity = AI skips you for a competitor it can confirm.
Content Quality
Semantic HTML
HTML elements that convey meaning about your page structure — headings (H1, H2), navigation bars, main content areas, sidebars, and footers. Unlike generic "div" elements, semantic HTML tells AI what each section of your page IS.
Why it matters: AI agents use semantic HTML to understand page structure and extract relevant content. Pages built entirely with generic divs ("div soup") are harder for AI to parse.
Alt Text
Text descriptions attached to images that describe what the image shows. Originally designed for visually impaired users, alt text is now how AI "sees" your images.
Why it matters: AI agents can't see images. Without alt text, every image on your site is invisible to AI — including your logo, team photos, and service images.
Deep-Linkability
Whether specific sections of your page can be linked to directly (via anchor IDs on headings). For example, linking directly to the "Hours" section instead of just the top of the page.
Why it matters: AI agents extract specific answers from specific sections. Deep-linkable pages let AI point users to exactly the right part of your content.
Content Chunking
How well your page content is broken into digestible pieces. AI processes content in chunks — if a section is too long (2000+ characters), it may be truncated or ignored.
Why it matters: Well-chunked content (short paragraphs, clear sections) is dramatically easier for AI to process, understand, and cite.
Actionability
tel: Link
A clickable phone number link that opens the phone dialer when tapped. Written as tel:+13525551234 in the HTML. Different from just displaying a phone number as text.
Why it matters: AI agents and voice assistants need tel: links to help users call your business. A phone number displayed as plain text can't be clicked or dialed by AI.
CTA (Call to Action)
Buttons or links that prompt users to take a specific action — "Book Now," "Schedule Consultation," "Call Us," "Get a Quote." They guide both human visitors and AI agents toward the intended next step.
Why it matters: AI agents look for CTAs to determine what action they can help users complete. No clear CTA = AI can find you but can't help users engage with you.
Agent Compatibility
How well your website's forms, buttons, and interactive elements work with AI agents. Factors include labeled form fields, proper input types (email, phone), autocomplete attributes, and submit buttons with descriptive text.
Why it matters: As AI agents evolve to complete tasks (booking appointments, filling forms), agent-compatible sites will be preferred over those that require manual human interaction.