Search visibility is not the same as search ranking. A site can rank well for a handful of terms but have low overall visibility if those terms attract little traffic, or if the site is invisible to AI-powered search tools that millions of users now use daily.
For a local, national or global business, strong search visibility means:
If any of these are missing, your visibility is incomplete — and you are losing enquiries to businesses that have got this right.
Use these steps in order. Each one checks a different layer of your visibility. You do not need paid tools for most of them.
Enter your domain at technicalgraffiti.co.uk/free-assessment — nine live checks covering your schema markup, llms.txt, AI crawler access, meta signals, FAQ schema, social sharing tags, Companies House verification and identity signals. Takes 60 seconds. No account needed.
Go to Performance → Search Results. Look at total impressions, clicks, and average position. Low impressions with decent rankings suggest your pages are not being indexed properly. Low click-through rate suggests your titles and meta descriptions need work.
Open ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity in separate tabs. Search for your service and location — for example 'HVAC contractor Oxfordshire' or 'accountant in Manchester'. Does your business appear? Is the information correct? If not, your AI visibility signals are missing.
Search Google for your business name. Does a Knowledge Panel appear? Is the name, address, phone number, website and hours accurate and complete? An incomplete or unclaimed Google Business Profile is one of the most common visibility gaps for SMEs.
Go to validator.schema.org and enter your homepage URL. This checks whether your site has structured data — the machine-readable code that tells Google and AI engines what type of business you are, where you are, and how to contact you.
Visit yourdomain.co.uk/llms.txt in your browser. If you get a 404 error, the file does not exist. llms.txt is a plain-text file that AI models read to understand your business identity, services and credentials. Without it, AI engines have to guess who you are from your webpage content alone.
to your homepage so social sharing previews display correctly.
Your business name, address and phone number (NAP) must be identical across your website, Google Business Profile, Yell, Bing Places and any other directory listing. Inconsistent NAP data causes AI engines to lose confidence in your business identity.
The right tool depends on what layer of visibility you are checking. Here is what is available.
Technical Graffiti Free Assessment — Nine live checks on your domain covering AI visibility signals. Schema, llms.txt, crawl access, meta, FAQ schema, OpenGraph, Companies House, identity signals. Instant results. technicalgraffiti.co.uk/free-assessment.
Google Search Console — Official Google tool. Shows impressions, clicks, average position and index coverage. Essential for understanding how Google sees your site. Requires ownership verification.
Schema.org Validator — Validates your structured data markup at validator.schema.org. Shows which schema types are present and flags errors.
Google Business Profile — Controls how your business appears in Google Maps and the local pack. Free to claim and manage.
Manual AI testing — ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are free to use. Searching for your service and location in each platform is the most direct way to check your AI search presence.
Ahrefs / Semrush — Comprehensive keyword ranking and visibility tracking. Shows which search terms your site ranks for, estimated traffic, and competitive gap analysis. Starts from approximately £99/month.
Use Google Search Console for Google-specific visibility data, and the Technical Graffiti free assessment tool for AI visibility signals. Both are free. The free assessment runs nine live checks on your domain and returns results in under 60 seconds — no account required.
For AI visibility, a score of 80 or above is considered good. A score of 100/100 means all signals are correctly in place. Scores below 60 indicate significant gaps that are likely affecting your visibility in AI-generated search results and recommendations.
The most common reasons are: missing schema markup, no llms.txt file, AI crawlers blocked in robots.txt, or insufficient cross-referenced identity signals. Run a free check on your domain to identify exactly which signals are missing.
Technical AI visibility signals — schema, llms.txt, robots.txt — can be installed and take effect within days. AI engines re-crawl frequently. Google SEO improvements typically take weeks to months depending on the competitiveness of your target keywords.
Not for AI visibility signals. Schema markup can be added via Rank Math or Yoast in WordPress without touching code. llms.txt and robots.txt are plain text files you can create and upload yourself. Technical Graffiti generates all the required files automatically from your domain — no developer required.
No — they overlap but are distinct. Traditional SEO focuses on ranking in Google's organic results through content, backlinks and technical optimisation. AI visibility focuses on being correctly identified, understood and recommended by AI search tools. Both matter for a complete search presence in 2026.