What is AI visibility?

AI visibility vs classic SEO

Traditional SEO focuses on ranking in search engine result pages. AI visibility overlaps with that work, but also asks different questions: Can GPTBot fetch your pages? Do you publish machine-readable summaries like llms.txt? When a buyer asks ChatGPT for a recommendation, does your brand appear?

GEO, AEO, and LLM visibility

People use several labels for the same problem space:

• GEO — generative engine optimization
• AEO — answer engine optimization
• LLM visibility — whether large language models and AI search surfaces mention you

OpenCrawl measures the crawl and answer evidence those practices aim to improve. See the glossary for precise definitions.

Signals that matter

1. Crawler access — robots.txt and live fetch success for AI bots
2. Content readiness — real HTML, clear titles, descriptions, structured data, sitemaps, llms.txt
3. Answer presence — mentions and recommendations in buyer-intent prompts
4. Training presence — whether archives like Common Crawl have seen your domain

How to improve AI visibility

• Allow important AI crawlers intentionally in robots.txt when that matches your policy
• Ship crawlable HTML—not an empty client-only shell—for key pages
• Publish sitemap.xml and a truthful llms.txt
• Add Open Graph and JSON-LD so pages state what they are
• Create public pages that answer buyer questions with clear, citable facts
• Measure repeatedly with tools like OpenCrawl instead of guessing

FAQ