Why run Citation Readiness before the other AEO tools?

It answers whether a crawler can reach and read the page at all. If Retrievability fails, On-Page Audit and the writers are scoring HTML the bot never received. Run this first after a render, robots, or consent-wall change.

What do the five bars measure?

Retrievability (30), Answer structure (25), Structured data (20), Citable substance (15), and Trust signals (10). View issues opens one bar. The ring is a weighted average with a ceiling when criticals exist.

Why did it say my page is empty when I can see the text?

The fetch had fewer than 100 visible words in the HTML. Most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript, so they see that thin file, not the painted article. Paste the rendered HTML if you still want a copy score.

Why is there a banner and no score ring?

Robots.txt, an HTTP wall, or under 100 HTML words withhold the grade so a shell cannot look like an A. The banner is the finding. Paste code still scores whatever you submit.

Does a blocked bot mean my content is removed from ChatGPT?

No. A critical means that token cannot fetch this path today. It does not delete past training data. ChatGPT-User is omitted here because that client may ignore robots.txt.

What does the evidence panel show?

What an AI crawler sees is the first 300 words of the downloaded HTML, copied verbatim. Use it to confirm the score came from that file, not from the view in your browser.

What is the 15-40 word sentence it wants?

Answer structure looks for one declarative sentence in the first 100 words, 15 to 40 words long. That is a reachability check for a quotable opening, not the 40-60 word band on Direct Answer Optimizer.

Does Paste code fetch my site?

No. Paste is scored from the text you submitted, for that run only. Use it when the URL path is a JavaScript shell, a timeout, or a robots block.

AI Citation Readiness

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About AI Citation Readiness

AI Citation Readiness scores whether an answer-engine crawler can reach a public page and read enough HTML to quote it. Enter a Page URL or paste HTML, click Check citation readiness, and you get a 0-100 score plus the first 300 words GPTBot-class bots receive.

Page URL fetches the first HTML response and the origin robots.txt. It does not run JavaScript. Paste code scores the markup you submit, which is how you check a client-rendered article the live fetch cannot see. A finished run shows the Overall score ring, severity chips, and Words in HTML, HTTP, and Source.

Five bars sit under that: Retrievability (weight 30), Answer structure (25), Structured data (20), Citable substance (15), and Trust signals (10). View issues opens that bar. Download writes PDF or CSV. This is not a ranking forecast or a citation tracker.

When to use it

Run this before you rewrite copy. If Retrievability fails, a tighter lede will not help, because the crawler never received the article. Use it after a render change, a consent wall, or a robots.txt edit.

How to use AI Citation Readiness

1Choose Page URL or Paste code. Page URL is the crawler view. Paste code is for rendered HTML when the live page is a shell.
2Enter the URL or paste the HTML. A public https page, or the article markup. Localhost is rejected.
3Click Check citation readiness. Progress reads robots.txt, then the page.
4Read the banner or the score ring. Empty or blocked fetches stop at the banner. A full report shows the ring, bars, Issues, and What an AI crawler sees.
5Open View issues, then Download if you need a file. PDF keeps the categories. CSV is the issue table. Filters do not shrink the file.

How to read the results

Under 100 visible HTML words, or a robots / HTTP block, the score ring is withheld. example.com returned 17 words and the banner "Not enough readable text in the HTML." One critical caps any computed overall at 89, but an empty fetch is not shown as a content grade.

When the ring appears it is a weighted average, then a ceiling: one or two criticals cap the overall at 89, three or four at 79, five to nine at 69, ten or more at 59. Grade A needs zero criticals.

A named-bot critical cites the winning robots.txt rule. noindex is critical. Answer structure wants a 15-40 word declarative sentence in the first 100 words. What an AI crawler sees is the first 300 words of that HTML.

Why this matters for AI search

Answer engines quote the first HTML file their crawler was allowed to download, not the page your browser paints. A shell gives them nothing to lift, even when Google Search later renders the same URL and ranks it. example.com answered 200 with 17 words. Wikipedia's sourdough article arrived as 7,832 words and scored 96 A. Citation starts with admission: GPTBot either receives a document or it does not.

What this tool cannot do

It cannot execute JavaScript, open a login wall, or prove a bot obeyed robots.txt after the fetch. It cannot query ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. A high score is not a citation. Five runs per hour per network. The fetch waits 10 seconds, then times out. Localhost is blocked.

Common mistakes

Treating a withheld ring as a broken tool. Under 100 HTML words, the banner is the result.

Pasting an empty `#__next` shell and reading the 89 B as a live-site grade. Paste scores whatever you submit.

Editing FAQ schema while Retrievability already shows a named-bot block. Open View issues on that bar first.

Reading Google-Extended as Googlebot. That token is Gemini / Vertex training, not Google Search ranking.

FAQs

Why run Citation Readiness before the other AEO tools?: It answers whether a crawler can reach and read the page at all. If Retrievability fails, On-Page Audit and the writers are scoring HTML the bot never received. Run this first after a render, robots, or consent-wall change.
What do the five bars measure?: Retrievability (30), Answer structure (25), Structured data (20), Citable substance (15), and Trust signals (10). View issues opens one bar. The ring is a weighted average with a ceiling when criticals exist.
Why did it say my page is empty when I can see the text?: The fetch had fewer than 100 visible words in the HTML. Most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript, so they see that thin file, not the painted article. Paste the rendered HTML if you still want a copy score.
Why is there a banner and no score ring?: Robots.txt, an HTTP wall, or under 100 HTML words withhold the grade so a shell cannot look like an A. The banner is the finding. Paste code still scores whatever you submit.
Does a blocked bot mean my content is removed from ChatGPT?: No. A critical means that token cannot fetch this path today. It does not delete past training data. ChatGPT-User is omitted here because that client may ignore robots.txt.
What does the evidence panel show?: What an AI crawler sees is the first 300 words of the downloaded HTML, copied verbatim. Use it to confirm the score came from that file, not from the view in your browser.
What is the 15-40 word sentence it wants?: Answer structure looks for one declarative sentence in the first 100 words, 15 to 40 words long. That is a reachability check for a quotable opening, not the 40-60 word band on Direct Answer Optimizer.
Does Paste code fetch my site?: No. Paste is scored from the text you submitted, for that run only. Use it when the URL path is a JavaScript shell, a timeout, or a robots block.