Answer guide · how the score works
The AI Visibility Scorecard: 16 Signals, Explained
The RankOps AI visibility score reads your live website the way AI engines do and grades 16 on-page signals across three groups: found & readable (26 points), AI citation signals (44 points), and local & discoverable (30 points). Under 30 is Invisible; 85 and up is Dominant. We publish the whole scorecard because the method survives being seen.
Group 1 — Found & readable (26 points)
Can engines fetch and parse you at all? Site loads for AI readers (6), HTTPS (4), a clear title (5), a meta description (4), one main headline (4), mobile viewport (3). Boring, foundational, and still failed by a surprising share of local sites.
Group 2 — AI citation signals (44 points)
The quotable layer, weighted heaviest because it's what generated answers actually lift: structured data present (9), business schema identifying who/where you are (9), FAQ markup (10 — the single heaviest signal), Speakable markup (7), and Open Graph tags (9). If you fix only one group, fix this one — see which schema matters.
Group 3 — Local & discoverable (30 points)
Can engines place you? Mentions your city (6), visible phone number (6), llms.txt file (4), sitemap (4), a LinkedIn entity link (4), and neighborhood/location pages (6). This group is why a technically clean site can still lose "near me" questions.
The tiers
Under 30: Invisible. 30–49: Emerging. 50–69: Visible. 70–84: Established. 85+: Dominant. Triple B's Mechanics went 78 → 96 through a full rebuild — the tiers are the same scale on the free check, the client dashboard, and our own daily self-audit.
What the free score doesn't measure
Anything off your website: Google Business Profile quality, reviews, directory consistency, and what engines actually answer when asked about your market. The off-site checks are part of the $99 Site Inspection; live answer tracking is the $29/mo Tracker. The free check tells you where you stand on-page — honestly, in two minutes.