Short answer: An AI search visibility score is a 0 to 100 rating from third-party tools like SearchScore. It checks whether AI tools can crawl your site, understand what you do and where, and find answers worth quoting. It isn’t a Google metric and it doesn’t promise calls. For a local contractor, the fixes are mostly local SEO basics done well.

What the score measures

SearchScore is the company most people mean when they say “AI search visibility score.” Its free checker gives a site a number from 0 to 100 across eight categories, including AI Citability, Brand Authority, Structured Data and E-E-A-T Content (SearchScore). It also calls this a GEO score, short for generative engine optimization.

The part I want every owner to read comes from SearchScore’s own methodology page: the score “is a readiness benchmark to improve against, not a prediction of how often you will be cited.” So a 70 doesn’t mean ChatGPT will send you seven calls out of ten. It means your site has more of the things AI tools can read and trust.

Why a plumber or roofer should care

People now type whole sentences into ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers. Something like “I need a plumber that works 24/7 in Tampa.” The tool reads the web, picks a few companies and explains why. If it can’t tell what you do and where you do it, you’re not on that list.

“you're not going to be suggested by Google and you're not going to be suggested by AI, because they don't know what you do and where you do it.”

Bret Moleta, Google Doesn’t Trust Your Website — And It Shows, at 2:12

That’s the same problem that keeps a contractor out of the map pack. A score just puts a number on it.

SEO and AI search use the same basics

Google says there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode” beyond its normal Search rules (Google Search Central). The page has to be indexed and allowed to show a snippet. Nobody sells a secret AI tag.

The idea of optimizing for AI answers was written up in a 2023 research paper called GEO: Generative Engine Optimization. For a local business, the work looks a lot like good local SEO done properly.

What to fix first

Here’s the order I’d work in for a home service company:

  • Check your robots.txt. If it blocks AI crawlers such as GPTBot or PerplexityBot, those tools can’t read your site.
  • Put your business name, address and phone number on every page, and make it match your Google Business Profile.
  • Answer the question at the top of each page. If someone asks what a water heater install costs, the first paragraph should say so.
  • Add an FAQ to your main service pages, using the questions customers actually ask you on the phone.
  • Add schema: Organization or LocalBusiness on the home page, and FAQ markup where the FAQ is visible on the page.
  • Put a real person’s name on your articles, with a bio page that says who they are.

“a huge word online for ChatGPT, for all AI, is the word… it's trust.”

Bret Moleta, Google Doesn’t Trust Your Website — And It Shows, at 6:48

Reviews, directory listings and a complete profile all build that trust. None of it is new. AI tools just lean on it harder.

What to do next

Run a free check, then fix the basics before you worry about the number. If the site itself is the problem, our websites start at $5,000. For the map side, see Google Maps SEO.