Named or Skipped
There's no page two in AI search. You're in the answer or you don't exist.
A Score, Not a Guess
100 points across 8 signals. You get a number, a tier, and a ranked gap list.
Weeks, Not a Rebuild
Most gaps are proof and structure — not a new website.
Ranking on Google Is No Longer the Same Thing as Being Found.
You can hold the #1 spot on Google and still never come up when a buyer asks ChatGPT. They're different systems with different rules, and most businesses are only playing one of them. Here's what that actually looks like:
- You rank, but you're never named — the traffic is there, the recommendation isn't.
- AI describes you wrong — a stale rating, an old address, a service you stopped offering three years ago.
- Your best proof isn't on the page — the results and stories that win you jobs live in your head and in sales calls.
- A machine can't read your site — no structure, no schema, key content buried in scripts or images.
- You're losing to worse companies — a thinner track record and a better-organized website is getting recommended.
- You have no baseline — so you can't tell whether anything you've tried has moved the needle.
None of that means your business isn't ready. It means nobody has shown you where you stand — and that's exactly where we begin.
Read the full guide: Why Your Business Doesn't Show Up in AI Search →
Score Your Own Site in Fifteen Minutes.
The same 8-signal scorecard we use on paid reviews, as a one-page self-scoring checklist. Walk your site, mark each signal, add it up, find your tier. Bring us the score or fix it yourself — either way you'll know where you stand.
The 8 Signals Scorecard
100 points, 8 signals, 4 tiers · one-page PDF
The Eight Signals, and What Each One Is Worth.
100 points across eight categories — weighted toward the proof and clarity AI cares about most. Your total places you on one of four tiers.
1. Experience, Expertise, Authority & Trust
The proof AI weighs most heavily.
2. Entity Clarity
Can AI tell who you are, what you do, where you work?
3. Topical Depth & Coverage
Do you cover the territory, or just the pitch?
4. Content Extractability
Can a machine lift a clean, quotable answer?
5. Question & Answer Content
Do you answer what people actually ask AI?
6. Technical AI Accessibility
Can AI reach and read your site at all?
7. Proprietary Assets & Methodology
Do you have something only you can say?
8. Off-Site Presence & Mentions
Does the rest of the web back you up?
Most websites we review start as Invisible or Findable. The roadmap moves you up.
How do I get my business found in ChatGPT and AI search?
To get found in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI, your website has to do three things a traditional SEO setup doesn't require: state plainly who you are, what you do, and who you serve so the engine can identify you as an entity; put your actual proof — results, credentials, reviews, methods — on the page rather than in a sales conversation; and structure that content so a machine can extract a clean, quotable answer without guessing. AI engines return one or two recommendations instead of ten links, so being merely present isn't enough. StoryWorks measures all of this on a 100-point AI Readiness Scorecard across 8 signals, then builds a prioritized 30/60/90-day plan to close the gaps.
Eight Signals, From the Proof on Your Page to the Web That Backs You Up.
Each one is scored, each one has a fix, and each one has a deeper guide.
Everything that makes you the right choice, and none of it is on your website
The proof AI weighs most heavily · 20 of 100 points
This is the biggest single block of points, and it's the one almost everyone fails — not because the proof doesn't exist, but because it lives in your head. The jobs you've done, the certifications you hold, the results you've produced, the reason you do it the way you do. A sales call is full of it. Your website has almost none of it. AI can only recommend what it can read, so the work of closing this gap isn't creating anything new — it's publishing what already exists.
AI has to know who you are before it can recommend you
Who you are, what you do, where you work · 15 of 100 points
An AI engine has to resolve you as a specific entity — one business, one location, one set of services — before it will put your name in an answer. That means your name, address, and phone consistent everywhere; your services stated in plain language rather than clever ones; your service area named explicitly; and structured data telling machines the same story your homepage tells humans. Ambiguity here quietly caps every other signal, because a machine that isn't sure who you are won't risk recommending you.
Cover the whole territory, not just the pitch
Depth across everything you do · 15 of 100 points
Most sites cover the two or three services that make the most money and skip the rest — which means AI sees a fraction of the business. Depth means every service represented, the adjacent questions answered, and enough coverage of your subject that an engine reads you as a source on the topic rather than a brochure about one offer. This is where a hub-and-spoke content structure earns its keep: one page defines the framework, each spoke goes deep on a piece of it.
If a machine can't lift a clean answer, it won't quote you
Structure that makes you quotable · 15 of 100 points
Good content that AI can't extract earns nothing. Extractability means answers that stand on their own without the paragraph above them, headers that state what the section actually answers, definitions in a single self-contained sentence, and no burying the point three paragraphs into a story. It's the least glamorous fifteen points on the scorecard and usually the fastest to win, because the content is already written — it just has to be restructured.
Answer the question they actually asked
Real buyer questions, answered directly · 10 of 100 points
People ask AI what they'd never type into Google — what does this cost, how long does it take, what do you need from me, what happens if it goes wrong. If your site doesn't answer those, AI finds a competitor's site that does. The fix is a real FAQ built from the questions you actually get on sales calls, each answered directly in the first sentence before any elaboration.
Can AI reach and read your site in the first place?
Crawlability, structure, and the files AI looks for · 10 of 100 points
Before any of the content signals matter, the engine has to get in. That means AI crawlers explicitly allowed in robots.txt, an accurate sitemap, JSON-LD schema, content rendered in HTML rather than locked behind scripts, and an llms.txt at your root telling engines who you are and where your important content lives. These are the cheapest points on the board — usually an afternoon of work — and skipping them caps everything else.
Give AI something only you can say
Named frameworks, original data, your own process · 10 of 100 points
Interchangeable claims produce interchangeable answers. A named methodology, a scored framework, original numbers from your own work — these give an engine a reason to name you specifically rather than describe your category. It's the reason this page exists in the form it does: the 8 Signals is a named framework with a defined scoring system, and no competitor can be the answer to a question about it.
The rest of the web has to back you up
Reviews, citations, directories, third-party mentions · 5 of 100 points
AI cross-checks. Reviews on Google and third-party sites, consistent citations, directory listings, mentions in places you don't control — this is corroboration, and it's often where an engine goes when your own site is thin. Only five points, but it's the category we most often see scored lowest, and it's the one you can't fix by editing your own website.
This Isn't Theory. We've Run It More Than 30 Times.
Advantage Roofing, Cincinnati
We built exactly this structure for a roofing client — a named framework hub, one deep-dive post per promise, all interlinked, each with its own FAQ and schema. Within about an hour of pushing it live, AI engines were naming them first for the best roof warranty in Cincinnati, ahead of two competitors who had been outranking them. A day later the owner reported a new lead from someone who had asked Claude for the best roofing company in Cincinnati.
Our own site's score. We run the scorecard on ourselves, publish the number, and work our own gaps. Ask us what our weakest category is; we'll tell you.
Find Out Whether AI Can Find You.
Drop in your website and we'll score it by hand against all eight signals — your score, your tier, your biggest gaps — within two business days. No call required.
AI Search, Answered.
How do I get my business found in ChatGPT?
Make sure ChatGPT can identify you as a specific business, find your proof on the page, and extract a clean answer. In practice that means consistent entity information, published results and credentials, content structured so a machine can quote it, direct answers to the questions buyers actually ask, and technical access — AI crawlers allowed, schema in place, and an llms.txt at your root. StoryWorks scores all of this on a 100-point scorecard across 8 signals.
What are the 8 Signals?
The 8 Signals are the eight things AI engines check when deciding which business to recommend, scored by StoryWorks on a 100-point AI Readiness Scorecard: Experience, Expertise, Authority & Trust (20 points), Entity Clarity (15), Topical Depth & Coverage (15), Content Extractability (15), Question & Answer Content (10), Technical AI Accessibility (10), Proprietary Assets & Methodology (10), and Off-Site Presence & Mentions (5). Your total places you on one of four tiers — Invisible, Findable, Citable, or Authoritative.
What's the difference between SEO and AI search optimization?
Traditional SEO gets you into a list of links. AI search optimization gets you into the answer. They overlap — both reward clear, credible, well-structured content — but AI adds entity clarity, on-page proof, machine-extractable answers, and coverage of the questions buyers ask AI. A site can rank first on Google and still never be named by ChatGPT.
What is GEO (generative engine optimization)?
GEO is optimizing a website to be quoted and recommended by generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. It's the same discipline we call AI search readiness.
How do I know if AI is recommending my business?
Ask it. Open ChatGPT or Perplexity, ask the question your best customer would ask — who's the best at what you do in your city — and see whether your name comes up, and whether what it says about you is accurate. That five-minute test is where every review we run starts.
How long does it take to show up in AI search?
Faster than SEO. Technical fixes can register within days, and we've seen a full hub-and-spoke content structure change AI answers within hours of publishing. Depth and off-site signals take longer — plan on a 30/60/90-day arc.
Do I need to rebuild my website?
Usually not. Most of what the scorecard measures is proof and structure — publishing what you already know, reformatting what's already written, and adding the technical files. A rebuild is the exception, not the starting point.
What does an AI Search Readiness Review cost?
$2,500, flat rate. It includes your score and tier, a demonstration of what each engine actually says about you, a category-by-category breakdown, a one-hour gap interview, your AI Archive, and a prioritized 30/60/90-day roadmap. Implementation is quoted separately. The initial score is free.
Can I do this myself?
Yes. Download the scorecard, walk your own site, and start with the technical points and your FAQ — those are the fastest wins. The part that's hard to do alone is the proof: getting what's in your head onto the page is what the gap interview exists for.
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