Audit Methodology

How LeadByAI Scores Website Visibility

Our website audits score the signals that determine whether a site can be found, understood, cited, trusted, and converted — by humans, search engines, and answer engines.

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Seven-area scorecard

What gets scored

Each dimension is scored from live evidence. We do not treat one technical file, one schema block, or one AI-search trick as a replacement for a useful, crawlable, internally linked website.

On-page SEO

Whether important pages are crawlable, indexable, internally linked, and written around a clear buyer/search intent.

  • •Titles and meta descriptions
  • •H1/H2 structure
  • •Canonical URLs
  • •Internal links
  • •Indexable page depth

AEO readiness

Whether the site gives answer engines direct, citeable, plain-language answers instead of forcing inference from brochure copy.

  • •Question-and-answer sections
  • •FAQ schema when appropriate
  • •Short answer blocks
  • •Visible source text
  • •llms.txt resource coverage

GEO + local/entity visibility

Whether search systems can understand who the business is, where it operates, who it serves, and what services it is known for.

  • •Organization/entity schema
  • •Local or service-area signals
  • •NAP and contact consistency
  • •sameAs links
  • •Location/service pages

Content + authority

Whether the site proves expertise with useful pages, field notes, case studies, methodology, comparisons, or explainers.

  • •Depth of service pages
  • •Proof pages
  • •Blog/resource quality
  • •Original examples
  • •Trust and differentiation signals

Technical + crawl health

Whether bots and users can fetch, render, understand, and navigate the site without avoidable friction.

  • •Sitemap and robots behavior
  • •Redirects and status codes
  • •Schema parseability
  • •Mobile rendering
  • •Performance and console issues

ADA / accessibility risk

Whether forms, navigation, contrast, labels, tap targets, and content structure create avoidable access friction or risk.

  • •Form labels
  • •Keyboard paths
  • •Alt text
  • •Color contrast
  • •Live status regions and focus states

Overall visibility health

A weighted judgment of how findable, understandable, trustworthy, and conversion-ready the site is today.

  • •All six underlying categories
  • •Severity of blockers
  • •Speed of in-control fixes
  • •Competitive baseline where available

Evidence discipline

How the audit is run

01

Collect live evidence

We fetch the public site, robots.txt, sitemap files, representative pages, rendered screenshots, schema blocks, metadata, and crawl status evidence from the current live web.

02

Score each dimension

Each category is scored on the signals visible to users and crawlers. Scores are not recycled from prior runs, and stale competitor/client data is not reused.

03

Map fixes by control and impact

We separate fast in-control fixes from deeper content, design, platform, and authority work so teams know what can move first.

04

Verify before reporting

For implemented changes, we build or serve the site, check critical URLs, parse schema, verify robots/llms/sitemap bodies, and capture visual evidence.

AI-search standard

What we optimize for now

Durable fundamentals

Crawlable pages, useful visible answers, internal links, accurate structured data, entity proof, local signals, performance, and accessibility still do the heavy lifting.

Assistant-friendly context

We add curated resource indexes like llms.txt, but we treat them as supporting context — not a substitute for real pages or schema that matches what users can see.

Common questions

Do AI Overviews require special AI-only schema?

No. Google Search Central states there is no special AI-only schema or machine-readable file required for AI Overviews or AI Mode. We still use accurate Schema.org markup where it matches visible content because it helps search systems understand the page.

Why include llms.txt if Google does not require it?

LeadByAI treats llms.txt as a curated resource index for inference-time assistants. It supports discovery and context, but it does not replace crawlable pages, internal links, robots.txt, sitemaps, canonical tags, or visible source text.

Is the ADA score a legal compliance certification?

No. The ADA/accessibility score flags practical user-friction and risk signals. It is not legal advice and is not a formal WCAG or ADA certification.