Four things an AI robot needs from your store. Each gets a plain pass or fix.
AI assistants can get in
We read your robots.txt, the file that tells robots what they may visit, and look for the AI robots by name.
Why it matters: OpenAI says sites that block its search robot “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.” Anthropic says blocking Claude’s search robot may make you harder to find, and Perplexity says to let its robot in if you want to appear.
Robots that only collect pages to train future AI are your call. Blocking them doesn’t take you out of search, say OpenAI, Google and Apple.
OpenAI · source · Anthropic · source · Perplexity · source · Google · source · Apple · source
Product facts spelled out
We open one of your product pages and look for the facts written for machines: name, price, currency, stock, brand, a product code and reviews.
Why it matters: OpenAI asks stores selling in ChatGPT for these same facts, and says the extra ones, like product codes and reviews, “improve ranking, relevance, and user trust.”
OpenAI · source
Shipping and returns
We look for your shipping and returns pages, linked from your homepage or written into your product data.
Why it matters: Return terms and shipping cost sit right next to price on the list of facts OpenAI asks stores for, and Google can show them beside your products.
OpenAI · source · Google · source
The robot basics
Is your text in the page itself, or only drawn by JavaScript? Is there a sitemap? An llms.txt?
Why it matters: Most AI robots, including ChatGPT’s and Claude’s, read your page without running JavaScript, so words that only appear after it runs are invisible to them. An llms.txt is newer and optional: no big AI has said it reads one yet.
Vercel, Dec 2024 · source · Google’s John Mueller · source
How we score, out of 100: AI robots let in 30, product facts 35, shipping and returns 15, the basics 20. It measures what a robot can read, not whether an AI will pick you.