---
title: "Is my website AI-ready? A 12-point self-test"
description: "Twelve checks you can run in ten minutes: AI bot access, text without JavaScript, status codes, a quotable first sentence, consistent facts and the extras."
url: https://katman.pro/is-my-website-ai-ready
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-18
---

Situation Updated 18 Oct 2026

# Is my website AI-ready?

> Bring your domain and ten minutes. Run twelve checks in three groups (can AI bots read your pages, can assistants quote you correctly, and the extras for AI agents) and mark each one pass or fail. You get an ordered list of what to fix first and commands to rerun after every change, so you don’t spend a week on llms.txt or schema while the real blocker is a 403 at your CDN.

## What “AI-ready” should mean

Different tools mean different things by it. Cloudflare’s “Is Your Site Agent-Ready?” scanner checks emerging standards for AI agents in five groups: discoverability (robots.txt, sitemap, link headers), Markdown content negotiation, bot access rules such as Content Signals and Web Bot Auth, protocol discovery (MCP Server Card, Agent Skills, OAuth) and agentic commerce (isitagentready.com, read 15 Oct 2026). That’s useful if you want agents to sign in, call your API or buy from you.

It doesn’t tell you whether ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity can read your page text and quote it correctly, which is what most small sites want first. For them, ready means three things in this order: bots can read you, assistants can quote you, and then the extras. Start with the [AI crawler checker](https://katman.pro/tools/ai-crawler-checker), which requests your home page as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and seven other bots.

## The twelve checks

### Group 1: can AI bots read your pages?

| # | Check | Pass when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | AI bots reach the page through your CDN | OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot all get a 200 |
| 2 | robots.txt allows the search bots | No `Disallow: /` for OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot or PerplexityBot |
| 3 | The text is in the HTML | Hundreds of words without JavaScript, not dozens |
| 4 | Missing pages are missing | An unknown URL returns 404, not 200 |
| 5 | Every public page can be found | Listed in `sitemap.xml` and linked with a real `<a href>` |

Any fail here outranks everything below. Checks 1, 3 and 4 have longer explanations on [My vibe-coded site is invisible to ChatGPT](https://katman.pro/vibe-coded-site-invisible-to-chatgpt), and failures on a specific URL on [ChatGPT can’t access my website](https://katman.pro/chatgpt-cant-access-my-website).

### Group 2: can assistants quote you correctly?

| # | Check | Pass when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 6 | Your first sentence says what you do | The first 200 characters of the home page name the customer, the job and the result |
| 7 | Buyer questions have pages | Each main question a customer asks has a page with that question as its H1 |
| 8 | Your facts agree with each other | Name, prices and plan limits match on the home page, pricing, About, llms.txt and schema |
| 9 | You say who you’re not | One line separates you from companies or products with a similar name |

These four decide whether an assistant can lift a correct sentence about you. Check 8 fails more often than people expect: our own llms.txt once contradicted a page, with two prices for one feature.

### Group 3: extras, useful but not decisive

| # | Check | Worth it when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 10 | llms.txt at the root | Other tools read it; Google says its search ignores llms.txt and needs no special markup for AI features (Google Search Central, AI features guide, updated 10 Jul 2026, read 15 Oct 2026) |
| 11 | Organization JSON-LD | It repeats facts that are visible on the page, with `sameAs` only for real profiles |
| 12 | Agent standards (Markdown versions, MCP card, OAuth discovery) | You want agents to act on your site, not just read it |

More on llms.txt: [What is llms.txt?](https://katman.pro/what-is-llms-txt), or generate one with the [llms.txt generator](https://katman.pro/llms-txt-generator).

## Example: run the checks in one go

Groups 1 and 3 can be scripted; group 2 needs your eyes.

```bash
SITE="https://yoursite.com"
for b in "OAI-SearchBot/1.4" "ChatGPT-User/1.0" "ClaudeBot/1.0" "PerplexityBot/1.0"; do
  printf "%-20s " "$b"
  curl -s -o /dev/null -D - -A "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; $b)" "$SITE/" | head -n 1
done
echo "robots rules:"; curl -s "$SITE/robots.txt" | grep -i -A2 "searchbot\|perplexitybot"
echo "words:  $(curl -s "$SITE/" | sed 's/<[^>]*>/ /g' | wc -w)"
echo "404:    $(curl -s -o /dev/null -D - "$SITE/no-such-page-4821" | head -n 1)"
echo "urls:   $(curl -s "$SITE/sitemap.xml" | grep -c '<loc>')"
echo "llms:   $(curl -s -o /dev/null -D - "$SITE/llms.txt" | head -n 1)"
echo "jsonld: $(curl -s "$SITE/" | grep -c 'application/ld+json')"
```

Remember that a borrowed user agent only reveals user-agent rules; CDNs that verify bots by IP need their own logs checked.

## What to fix first

1.  Any fail in checks 1 and 2: nothing else counts until bots get in.
2.  Check 3: if they get in and see no text, nothing else counts either.
3.  Checks 4 and 5, then 8 and 9: they decide which pages and facts are real.
4.  Checks 6 and 7: the pages and sentences assistants actually quote.
5.  Checks 10 to 12, when the rest pass.

Passing all twelve makes you readable and quotable. It doesn’t make you recommended: that also needs pages for buyer situations and mentions on other sites, covered on [Why doesn’t ChatGPT recommend my brand?](https://katman.pro/why-chatgpt-does-not-recommend-my-brand).

## Where Katman fits, and what it can’t do

Katman MCP runs inside your AI coding tool. `katman_audit_site` runs groups 1 and 3 on every page of your live site, including the bot test through your CDN, and reads each page’s first paragraph and JSON-LD. `katman_lint_content` checks group 2 against your research file, and `katman_generate` writes robots.txt, llms.txt and Organization JSON-LD from one source of facts, so they can’t drift apart. Katman Pro is $99 a month for up to 3 sites, with fix prompts and page briefs uncapped. Or have us do it: [Growth](https://katman.pro/done-for-you) writes 30 pages a month for you. Plans are on the [pricing](https://katman.pro/pricing) page.

It doesn’t change your CDN settings or edit your site by itself; your coding tool makes the code changes. And nobody can promise an assistant will recommend you, however ready the site is.

Written by the Katman team, Rnify Limited. Cloudflare and Google pages checked 15 October 2026.

## Who this is not for

-   App screens behind a login: they don’t need to be AI-ready, and shouldn’t be.
-   Sites that want to keep AI bots out: this test checks the opposite.
-   Anyone who wants a single score to show a client: the checks are pass or fail on purpose.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Cloudflare’s agent-ready score the same as being visible in ChatGPT?

No. Cloudflare’s scanner checks standards for AI agents, such as Markdown negotiation, MCP server cards, OAuth discovery and agentic commerce. It doesn’t test whether ChatGPT can read your text or whether assistants name you.

### What is the quickest AI-readiness check?

Request your home page as the main AI bots and look at the status codes. The AI crawler checker does that in one go; anything other than a 200 is the first thing to fix.

### Which of the twelve checks matters most?

Check 1, bot access at your CDN. If AI bots get a 403, nothing else on the list can help.

### My site passes all twelve. Why doesn’t ChatGPT mention it?

Because readiness only opens the door. Being named also needs a page for the buyer’s situation and other sites that mention you; see Why doesn’t ChatGPT recommend my brand?

### How often should I rerun the self-test?

After every deploy that touches routing, rendering, robots.txt or your CDN, and once a month otherwise. Hosting defaults change: Cloudflare changed its AI bot defaults for new domains on 15 September 2026.

### Does an AI-ready site need its own MCP server?

Only if you want AI agents to act on your site, for example to book, buy or call your API. To be read and quoted by assistants, plain HTML pages are enough.

## Related pages

-   [**AI crawler checker** Free: we load your homepage as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and 8 other bots, then show which ones your CDN blocks and what robots.txt says.](https://katman.pro/tools/ai-crawler-checker)
-   [**Why can’t ChatGPT access my website?** When ChatGPT says it can’t open your site, the cause is usually a CDN block, a bot challenge, a login or preview wall, or text drawn by JavaScript. Test each one.](https://katman.pro/chatgpt-cant-access-my-website)
-   [**I built my site with Lovable, Bolt or Cursor, and ChatGPT never mentions it** Built it with Lovable, Bolt, v0 or Cursor and ChatGPT never mentions it? Six traps hide vibe-coded sites; each has a one-minute test and a fix for your AI tool.](https://katman.pro/vibe-coded-site-invisible-to-chatgpt)
-   [**What is llms.txt, and is it worth writing?** llms.txt is a short Markdown summary of your site for language models. Google ignores it and most files get no requests; here is when it's still worth writing.](https://katman.pro/what-is-llms-txt)
-   [**Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend my brand?** ChatGPT names your competitors but never you? Check the seven causes in order, from blocked AI bots to missing situation pages, with a test and a fix for each.](https://katman.pro/why-chatgpt-does-not-recommend-my-brand)
-   [**Katman MCP** Katman MCP runs in Cursor, Claude Code and VS Code: it scans your code, audits your live site like AI crawlers do and checks every fix. Katman Pro from $99/month.](https://katman.pro/mcp)

Updated 18 October 2026 · Katman