> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getcited.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# GEO Score Methodology

> How the GEO Score measures your website's technical readiness for AI search engines across 3 pillars and 15 signals.

The GEO Score is a 0–100 measure of how well your website is technically optimised for AI-powered search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Google's AI surfaces (AI Overviews and AI Mode). It evaluates 15 signals across 3 pillars — Accessibility, Readability, and Understandability — to determine whether AI crawlers can find, parse, and comprehend your content.

<Note>
  The GEO Score measures **technical readiness**, not actual AI visibility. A brand can score low on GEO Score but still be highly visible in AI answers due to brand authority. For actual visibility measurement, request a [GEO Audit](https://getcited.in/free-audit).
</Note>

Each signal links to a detailed reference page covering exactly what is measured, how it is scored, how to verify it independently, and how to fix it.

## The 3-Pillar Framework

### Accessibility (33 points)

*Can AI crawlers find and access your content?*

| Signal                                                                | Max Points | What It Checks                                                                                                                                                 |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [robots.txt AI Crawler Access](/signals/robots-txt-ai-crawler-access) | 10         | Whether the major AI crawlers (top-tier bots from OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Google, and a wider set of secondary crawlers) are allowed in your robots.txt |
| [Sitemap Accessibility](/signals/sitemap-accessibility)               | 8          | Whether a valid sitemap.xml exists with lastmod dates                                                                                                          |
| [Page Crawlability](/signals/page-crawlability)                       | 7          | Whether pages return HTTP 200 without requiring JavaScript to render                                                                                           |
| [llms.txt Presence](/signals/llms-txt-presence)                       | 8          | Whether a structured /llms.txt file exists describing your brand and content                                                                                   |

### Readability (37 points)

*Can AI parse and understand your content's structure?*

| Signal                                                        | Max Points | What It Checks                                                             |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Heading Hierarchy](/signals/heading-hierarchy)               | 7          | Whether pages use one H1 and nest headings logically                       |
| [Answer-Block Formatting](/signals/answer-block-formatting)   | 7          | Whether FAQ sections, Q\&A patterns, and question-style headings exist     |
| [Content Depth](/signals/content-depth)                       | 6          | Whether key pages have substantive body content                            |
| [Internal Linking Quality](/signals/internal-linking-quality) | 5          | Whether pages have contextual internal links beyond nav/footer             |
| [Meta Description Quality](/signals/meta-description-quality) | 6          | Whether meta descriptions are present and length-appropriate on every page |
| [Open Graph Tags](/signals/open-graph-tags)                   | 6          | Whether og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:type are present        |

### Understandability (30 points)

*Can AI extract meaning, context, and authority?*

| Signal                                                                | Max Points | What It Checks                                                              |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [JSON-LD Structured Data](/signals/json-ld-structured-data)           | 8          | Whether Organization, Product/Article, and FAQPage schemas exist in JSON-LD |
| [Author Attribution](/signals/author-attribution)                     | 5          | Whether author names and Person schema are on content pages                 |
| [Trust & Credential Indicators](/signals/trust-credential-indicators) | 5          | Whether an About page with team info and contact information exists         |
| [Content Freshness](/signals/content-freshness)                       | 5          | Whether content shows recent updates and last-modified dates                |
| [AI-Optimised Content Signals](/signals/ai-optimised-content-signals) | 7          | Whether comparison pages, buying guides, and "best of" lists exist          |

## Scoring

The GEO Score is calculated by summing all 15 signal scores. Each signal is scored independently — the total is additive, not weighted or gated.

### Score Bands

| Score  | Band                | Meaning                                        |
| ------ | ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| 80–100 | Fully Optimised     | Strong technical signals across all pillars    |
| 60–79  | Well Optimised      | Solid foundation with some gaps                |
| 40–59  | Partially Optimised | Notable gaps in technical readiness            |
| 0–39   | Not Optimised       | Foundational work needed across multiple areas |

## What the GEO Score does NOT measure

* **Actual AI visibility** — whether your brand is mentioned in AI-generated answers
* **Brand authority** — how well-known your brand is to AI models
* **Content quality** — whether your content is accurate, helpful, or well-written
* **Competitive position** — how you compare to competitors in AI citations

For these dimensions, request a [GEO Audit](https://getcited.in/free-audit), which queries AI platforms directly and measures real mention rates.

## How scanning works

The scanner runs in three stages:

1. **Static fetch.** robots.txt, sitemap.xml, llms.txt, and the homepage are fetched directly via HTTP.
2. **Browser crawl.** A headless browser renders up to 5 pages and extracts DOM-level signals — headings, internal links, author info, structured-data blocks, content patterns.
3. **Signal evaluation.** Each of the 15 signal analysers runs against the collected page data, and the scores are summed.

Page selection uses hierarchical sampling so the crawl reflects what a real visitor (or AI crawler) would encounter: the homepage, a blog/content page, a product/service page, an about/team page, and one additional page discovered via sitemap or internal links.

**If the browser stage can't render a page** (rare, but it happens — heavy bot protection, network failures), the signals that depend on rendered DOM are flagged as *unscored* rather than counted as failed. The denominator of your score is reduced accordingly, and a warning is surfaced on the result so you know which signals were skipped. A low score never silently includes unmeasured signals as zeros.

## How to improve your score

Run a free scan at [getcited.in/geo-score](https://getcited.in/geo-score) to see your score breakdown by pillar. The result identifies your top failing signals and links straight to the per-signal reference page for fix guidance.