Frequently Asked Questions

BizScoreAI is a business intelligence platform that analyzes your company's online presence using AI. We score your business across multiple categories including SEO performance, local directory visibility, and AI visibility (how well Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode can find and recommend your business).

Every business gets a free listing with scores and letter grades. Paid plans unlock detailed grades and scores, with every recommendation ranked and explained.

From "where do I start?" to a prioritized fix plan, in under 60 seconds:

• Find your business. Search our directory or enter your website URL. Our scanner analyzes your entire online presence in seconds.
• Get your visibility score. See how your business performs across AI search, SEO, Local SEO, structured data, and directory accuracy, a 0-100 score whose checks are explained on How We Score.
• Follow the fix plan. Get a prioritized list of improvements, or let us handle them. Claim your listing to track your score as it climbs and AI starts recommending you.

No. BizScoreAI combines SEO, Local SEO, directory accuracy, structured data, and AI-readiness signals, grading how well your business can be found, understood, and recommended by search engines and AI assistants.

No. You can start with a free scan or business lookup, no credit card required.

BizScoreAI shows you exactly what to change, ranked by impact, with plain-language instructions you or your web developer can follow.

Your listing and scores are free. Every business gets a published listing, AI Visibility score, SEO score, and Local SEO score with letter grades (A–F) and your top 3 recommendations — no credit card required.

Paid plans unlock detailed grades and scores, with every recommendation ranked and explained in plain language so you or your web developer can make the changes. See pricing.

Use the Browse Businesses page to search by business name, category, or location. You can also try a Google search for your business name followed by site:bizscoreai.com.

If your business isn't listed yet, you can add it for free.

Click "Add Your Business" in the navigation menu or visit your listing page and click "Claim This Business." You'll be prompted to register with your email address. Registration is free and takes about 30 seconds.

Once registered, you can claim listings, view your scores and letter grades, and manage your business profile from your Author Dashboard. Upgrade to a paid plan to unlock detailed scores and have corrections handled for you.

Claiming your listing is a simple 3-step process:

• Step 1: Find your business listing and click "Claim This Business" in the header area.
• Step 2: Log in or create a free account.
• Step 3: Verify you own the business using one of our two verification methods.

Once verified, you'll see a green Claimed badge on your listing and gain access to all scanning tools.

We offer two ways to prove you own the business:

Method 1 — File Upload (Easiest):

• We'll give you a unique filename (e.g., bizscoreai-verify-abc123.txt)
• Create an empty text file with that name
• Upload it to your website's root directory (e.g., yoursite.com/bizscoreai-verify-abc123.txt)
• We'll detect it automatically within 60 seconds

Method 2 — DNS TXT Record:

• Log into your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.)
• Add a TXT record with the verification code we provide
• We'll check your DNS records automatically

Both methods expire after 24 hours. If you run out of time, just start the process again.

Yes! Use DNS verification instead. You only need access to your domain's DNS settings, which you can typically find at your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, Cloudflare, etc.).

If you don't have access to either, contact us and we can arrange alternative verification (such as verifying from your business email address).

Claiming your listing unlocks several features:

• Claimed Badge — A green checkmark that builds trust with visitors
• Score Overview — See your SEO, Local SEO, and AI Visibility letter grades (A–F) with top 3 recommendations
• Business Profile Management — Update your description, hours, contact info, and more
• Lead Notifications — Get notified when potential customers contact you through your listing

Want to see your detailed grades and scores? Upgrade to a paid plan for your full report, with every recommendation ranked and explained.

Currently, each listing is tied to one account. If you need to transfer ownership (for example, to a new marketing manager), contact us and we'll handle the transfer.

Your BizScore is a 0 to 100 visibility score based on the signals that help search engines, directories, and AI assistants understand your business.

• 90-100 Excellent
• 75-89 Strong
• 60-74 Needs Improvement
• 40-59 Weak
• 0-39 High Risk

The score reflects AI Visibility, SEO Health, Local SEO Accuracy, Directory Coverage, Structured Data, Content Clarity, and Technical Trust Signals.

The AI Visibility Score (0-100) measures how likely Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are to find and recommend your business. It's calculated across four categories:

• Reputation (0-35 pts) — Review ratings, review volume, and sentiment across platforms
• Online Presence (0-25 pts) — Directory listings, social media profiles, and website quality
• Visibility (0-25 pts) — Schema markup, structured data, and how well search engines understand your business
• Competitive Position (0-15 pts) — How you stack up against similar businesses in your area

A score of 70+ means AI assistants are likely to recommend you. Below 50 means you're at risk of being invisible to AI-powered search.

The SEO Score is a comprehensive 80+ point audit of your website, broken into 12 categories:

• On-Page SEO — Title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, keyword usage
• Technical SEO — Site speed, mobile-friendliness, SSL, crawlability, sitemaps
• Security — HTTPS, security headers, mixed content, cookie security
• Performance — Page load time, file sizes, compression, caching
• Content Quality — Word count, readability, content-to-HTML ratio
• Usability — Mobile responsiveness, viewport settings, font sizes
• Email Security — SPF, DKIM, DMARC records
• Link Profile — Internal links, external links, broken links
• Social Integration — Open Graph tags, Twitter cards, social profiles
• WordPress Security — (If applicable) Plugin updates, login security, file permissions
• AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) — Structured data, FAQ schema, featured snippet readiness

Your overall score is a weighted average of all categories. 90+ is excellent, 70-89 is good, 50-69 needs work, and below 50 means you're losing significant traffic to competitors.

The Local SEO Score measures how well your business appears across online directories (also called "citations"). We check 20+ major directories including:

• Google Business Profile, Facebook, Yelp, Bing Places
• Apple Maps, Yellow Pages, BBB, Foursquare
• Industry-specific directories relevant to your business category

The score is broken into three components:

• Coverage — How many directories list your business
• Accuracy — Whether your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) are correct across listings
• Consistency — Whether your information matches across all directories

Inconsistent or missing citations confuse search engines and hurt your local rankings. Even small differences (like "St." vs "Street") can impact your score.

Scores are updated when you run a scan from your listing page. The AI Visibility Score is calculated automatically when your listing is created or updated. You can re-scan your SEO and Local SEO scores anytime by visiting your listing and clicking the scan buttons.

We recommend re-scanning every 2-4 weeks to track your progress after making improvements.

Different tools measure different things with different weightings. BizScoreAI is unique because we include AI Visibility as a core metric — something most traditional SEO tools don't measure at all.

Our SEO audit checks 80+ real technical factors, not just surface-level issues. We also emphasize local business factors that matter most for businesses that serve customers in a specific geographic area.

The most impactful things you can do:

• Get more reviews (and respond to them) — AI systems heavily weight review volume and quality
• Claim all your directory listings — Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, BBB, and industry directories
• Add structured data (Schema.org) to your website — This is how AI reads your business information
• Maintain consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) everywhere — Inconsistencies confuse AI systems
• Create helpful, authoritative content — Blog posts, FAQs, and guides that AI can reference

Start with the categories that have the lowest scores in your audit. Common quick wins include:

• On-Page: Write unique title tags and meta descriptions for every page. Keep titles under 60 characters, descriptions under 160.
• Technical: Submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console. Fix broken links. Ensure your site loads over HTTPS.
• Performance: Compress images, enable browser caching, minimize CSS/JS files.
• Security: Install an SSL certificate (HTTPS). Set up security headers. Remove mixed content.
• Content: Aim for 600+ words on key pages. Use clear, readable language. Structure content with headings (H1, H2, H3).
• Email: Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your domain — this prevents email spoofing and improves trust signals.

After making changes, re-scan to see your updated score.

Local SEO comes down to three things: be listed, be accurate, and be consistent.

• Get listed everywhere: Claim your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and at least 15-20 other directories.
• Fix inaccuracies: Make sure your business name, address, phone number, website, and hours are 100% correct on every directory.
• Be consistent: Use the exact same format everywhere. If your address is "123 Main St Suite 4" on Google, don't list it as "123 Main Street #4" on Yelp.

The scan report shows you exactly which directories have issues. Start with Google Business Profile and the top 10 directories first.

Focus on these high-impact actions first:

• Install SSL (HTTPS) if you haven't already — this alone can improve your Technical and Security scores
• Claim your Google Business Profile — the single most important local SEO action
• Fix your title tag and meta description — low effort, high impact on On-Page score
• Add alt text to all images — improves accessibility and On-Page score
• Set up email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) — usually zero from default, big score bump

Most businesses can go from a C/D grade to a B within a few hours of focused work.

Scores update when you re-scan, not automatically. Visit your listing page and click "Get SEO Score" or "Scan Local SEO" to run a fresh audit after making changes.

Also make sure your changes are actually live. Common gotchas:

• Your website has caching that's serving old pages — clear your cache first
• DNS changes (like SPF/DKIM records) can take up to 48 hours to propagate
• Directory updates (Yelp, Google, etc.) can take days to reflect

The way people search is changing fast. Instead of typing keywords into Google, more and more people are asking AI assistants: "What's the best plumber near me?" or "Find me a good Italian restaurant in downtown."

If AI can't find or understand your business information, it won't recommend you. This is already happening with Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, Siri, and Alexa.

Businesses that optimize for AI visibility now will have a significant advantage as AI-powered search becomes the default over the next 1-3 years.

AEO is the next evolution of SEO. While traditional SEO optimizes for search engine rankings, AEO optimizes for AI answers.

When someone asks ChatGPT or Google AI "Who is the best dentist in Austin?", the AI pulls information from structured data, reviews, directory listings, and website content to generate its answer. AEO ensures your business information is structured in a way that AI systems can easily understand and recommend.

Key AEO factors include:

• Schema.org structured data on your website
• FAQ pages with clear question-and-answer formatting
• Consistent business information across the web
• High-quality reviews mentioning specific services
• Authoritative content that demonstrates expertise

Google AI Overviews appear at the top of search results and answer the user's question directly, often without them clicking through to any website. AI Overviews can significantly reduce click-through rates for many types of searches.

To get featured in Google's AI Overview, your business needs:

• A well-optimized Google Business Profile
• Strong reviews (quantity and quality)
• Schema markup on your website
• Content that directly answers common questions in your industry

Your BizScoreAI AEO Score specifically measures how well you're positioned for AI-generated search results.

Absolutely. Traditional SEO isn't going away — it's evolving. The fundamentals (fast website, good content, proper technical setup) still drive the majority of online visibility. AI systems build on top of traditional search signals.

Think of it this way: if your website has poor SEO, AI won't be able to find you either. Good SEO is the foundation, and AEO is the next layer on top.

Entity Visibility measures how well AI systems recognize your business as a distinct, trustworthy entity — not just a website, but a real business with verifiable information across the web.

AI assistants don't just read your website. They cross-reference your business across directories, review platforms, schema markup, and public records to decide if you're credible enough to recommend. Entity Visibility checks:

• Schema Entity Completeness — Does your website's structured data include your business name, address, phone, logo, social profiles, and contact points?
• Brand Consistency — Does your business name and information match across your website, schema markup, and directory listings?
• Off-Page Presence — Are you listed on Google Business Profile, Yelp, BBB, and industry directories? Can AI verify you exist?
• Authority & Trust Signals — Do you have ratings, E-E-A-T signals (expertise, experience, authority, trust), and verifiable credentials?

A business with high Entity Visibility is one that AI can confidently recommend because it can verify the business is real, reputable, and relevant.

AI models update constantly. What gets you recommended today might not work next month. Here's why ongoing monitoring matters:

• AI models change their sources. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode regularly update how they select businesses to recommend. Your competitors are optimizing too.
• New competitors appear. A new business in your area with better reviews or stronger schema can displace you from AI recommendations overnight.
• Your information drifts. Directory listings get outdated, reviews age, and content becomes stale. Without monitoring, you won't notice until customers stop calling.
• AI adoption is accelerating. The percentage of searches going through AI assistants grows every month. What was a small channel in 2024 is becoming a primary discovery method in 2026.

Think of it like Google Search Console for AI. You wouldn't stop checking your Google rankings after optimizing once — AI visibility works the same way.

NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. NAP consistency means your business information is exactly the same everywhere it appears online — your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, Yellow Pages, and every other directory.

Even small differences hurt you:

• "Main Street" vs "Main St" vs "Main St."
• "Suite 100" vs "Ste 100" vs "#100"
• "(631) 555-1234" vs "631-555-1234" vs "6315551234"

Search engines and AI use NAP data to verify your business is real and legitimate. Inconsistencies create doubt and can directly hurt your local search rankings.

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the one of the most important local SEO factors. It controls:

• Your appearance in Google Maps
• Your listing in the "Local Pack" (the map results at the top of Google searches)
• What Google AI says about your business
• Your review profile and star rating in search results

If you do nothing else, claim and optimize your Google Business Profile. A complete Google Business Profile makes you significantly more likely to attract local visits and be considered for purchases.

Reviews are one of the top 3 ranking factors for local search. They impact your visibility in multiple ways:

• Quantity: More reviews = stronger trust signals for search engines
• Quality: Higher average ratings improve click-through rates
• Recency: Fresh reviews signal an active, relevant business
• Keywords: Reviews that mention specific services help you rank for those terms
• Responses: Businesses that respond to reviews rank higher than those that don't

Pro tip: Respond to every review, positive and negative. Google's own tips to improve your local ranking include managing and responding to reviews, and a reply shows customers the business is paying attention.

Yes, 100%. Service-area businesses (plumbers, electricians, cleaners, consultants, etc.) benefit enormously from local SEO. Google Business Profile specifically supports service-area businesses — you can list your service areas without showing a physical address.

Focus on:

• Setting up your GBP with accurate service areas
• Getting reviews that mention the cities/areas you serve
• Creating location-specific pages on your website (e.g., "Plumbing Services in Myrtle Beach")
• Listing your business in local directories for each area you serve

Structured data is code you add to your website that helps search engines and AI understand your content. Think of it as labeling your information so machines can read it. For example:

• LocalBusiness schema tells AI: "This is a business located at [address], reachable at [phone], open [hours]"
• FAQ schema tells AI: "These are questions and answers about this topic"
• Review schema tells AI: "This business has [X] reviews with [Y] average rating"

Without structured data, AI has to guess what your website content means. With it, AI understands exactly what your business offers. This is one of the most impactful things you can do for AI visibility.

These are email authentication records that protect your domain from being used for spam or phishing:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) — Tells email servers which mail servers are allowed to send email from your domain
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) — Adds a digital signature to your emails to prove they're really from you
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication) — Tells email servers what to do when they receive an email that fails SPF or DKIM checks

These affect your BizScoreAI email security score. More importantly, without them, someone could send spam emails pretending to be your business, which damages your reputation and domain trust.

WordPress sites have their own set of best practices:

• Install Rank Math or Yoast SEO — Free plugins that handle title tags, meta descriptions, sitemaps, and schema markup
• Keep WordPress, themes, and plugins updated — Outdated software is the #1 cause of WordPress security issues
• Use a caching plugin (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache) — Dramatically improves page load times
• Optimize images with Smush, ShortPixel, or Imagify — Images are usually the biggest performance bottleneck
• Disable XML-RPC if you don't need it — It's a common attack vector
• Hide your WordPress version and login page — Makes brute-force attacks harder

BizScoreAI specifically checks WordPress security factors if your site runs on WordPress.

Google recommends pages load within 2.5 seconds. Here's a rough guide:

• Under 1.5 seconds — Excellent. That's faster than most websites.
• 1.5 - 2.5 seconds — Good. Room for improvement but not hurting you.
• 2.5 - 4 seconds — Needs work. You're losing visitors.
• Over 4 seconds — Critical. Many mobile visitors leave if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Your BizScoreAI performance score factors in page size, compression, number of resources, and load time.

We collect and display publicly available business information: your business name, address, phone number, website, category, and hours of operation. This information comes from public directories and business registrations.

When you run a scan, we analyze your website's technical SEO factors and check public directories for your business listings. We do not access any private data, internal analytics, or non-public pages.

Yes. If you'd like your listing removed, contact us with your business name and the listing URL. We'll remove it within 48 hours. Note that claiming your listing and keeping it active is generally better for your online visibility than removing it.

No. Your scan results are private to your account. We do not share individual scan data with third parties, sell your information, or use your scan data for marketing to competitors.

Go to the login page and click "Lost your password?". Enter your email address and you'll receive a reset link. If you don't receive the email within a few minutes, check your spam folder.

SEO scans typically take 30-60 seconds and Local SEO scans can take up to 2 minutes (we're checking 20+ directories in real time). If a scan fails:

• Wait a moment and try again — Temporary network issues can cause timeouts
• Check if your website is online — We can't scan a website that's down
• Check your website's firewall — Some security plugins block automated scanners. Whitelist our scanning service if needed.
• Try a different browser — Sometimes browser extensions interfere with AJAX requests

If scans consistently fail, contact us with your listing URL and we'll investigate.

The map is generated from your listing's address using Google Maps geocoding. If it's pointing to the wrong place:

• Check your address — Make sure it's complete with street number, city, state, and ZIP code
• Update your listing — If you've moved or the address was entered incorrectly, update it through your dashboard
• Google Maps issue — In rare cases, Google Maps itself may geocode an address incorrectly. You can report this to Google Maps directly.

If you've claimed your listing, you can update your business information from your Author Dashboard. You can edit your description, phone number, website, hours, and more.

If you haven't claimed your listing yet, claim it first (it's free) and then you'll have full editing access.

If you need immediate corrections and can't claim the listing, contact us with the correct information.

Duplicate listings can happen when a business appears in multiple data sources with slightly different names or addresses. Contact us with the URLs of both listings and we'll merge them into a single, accurate listing.

Each module focuses on a different dimension of how customers find you:

• AI-SEO / AEO — Optimizes your site for AI assistants and Google's AI answers. Includes entity visibility analysis, plus llms.txt, FAQ schema, Speakable markup, and content structure.
• SEO Audit — A comprehensive 11-category audit of traditional search engine factors: on-page, technical, performance, security, content, usability, email, links, WordPress security, social, and images.
• Local SEO — Audits your business listings across 33+ directories for accuracy, consistency, and coverage. Ensures your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) match everywhere.

Every paid plan includes all three. See plans and prices.

Paid plans unlock detailed grades and scores. Here is what you get:

• Full Scan Reports: Every finding from your SEO, Local SEO, and AI Visibility audits — no more grayed-out results
• Recommendation Reports: For changes that carry risk (URL changes, redirects, server config), we generate developer-ready instructions you can hand to your team
• AI Visibility Checks: llms.txt, robots.txt AI crawler access, FAQPage schema, Speakable markup and entity schema, each with what to change
• Competitor Tracking: See who AI recommends instead of you and what they're doing differently

Yes. Open Billing in your account settings to update your card, see receipts or cancel, or contact Support and we will move you to a different plan.

Annual plans cost less than paying monthly, and every module is included in every paid plan. The annual price of each plan is on the pricing page.

Yes. Monthly plans can be cancelled at any time with no cancellation fee. Annual plans can be cancelled with a prorated refund for unused months. Your business listing on BizScoreAI.com remains active on the Free plan after cancellation — you never lose your listing.

The Free plan itself is your trial. You get a published business listing, your AI Visibility Score with up to 5 rescans a day, a letter grade (A-F), and your top 3 recommendations, all free, no credit card required. When you're ready for unlimited rescans and your full report, you can upgrade instantly.

Enterprise and Agency plans include a dedicated account manager who:

• Monitors your scores and proactively identifies optimization opportunities
• Provides strategic recommendations based on your industry and competition
• Reviews performance monthly and alerts you to score changes or competitive shifts
• Serves as your single point of contact for all BizScoreAI needs

Yes. Every business listed on BizScoreAI has an AI Visibility Score. You can browse competitors in your category and location to see how their scores compare to yours. Paid plans include competitive ranking data so you know exactly where you stand in your market.

When you upgrade to a paid plan, you install a small BizScoreAI Connector plugin on your WordPress site. It takes about 30 seconds — just upload and activate like any other plugin.

The connector creates a secure, limited communication channel between your website and BizScoreAI. We never ask for your WordPress username, password, or hosting credentials. The connector is the only way we interact with your site.

No, never. We do not ask for and do not store your WordPress admin credentials, hosting login, FTP details, or SSH access. The BizScoreAI Connector plugin handles all communication securely without any of that.

If anyone claiming to be from BizScoreAI asks for your login credentials, do not provide them — it is not us.

The connector is built with strict security boundaries. It can only perform a specific set of safe operations:

• Read your page titles, meta descriptions, schema markup, and other SEO-related data
• Update meta titles, descriptions, Open Graph tags, schema markup, image alt text, and heading structure

The connector cannot:

• Access your WordPress admin panel or user accounts
• Install, remove, or modify plugins or themes
• Change your URLs, permalinks, or site structure
• Modify server files (.htaccess, wp-config.php, robots.txt)
• Read or modify your database outside of post meta fields
• Access private pages, drafts, or non-published content

Every request is verified with HMAC cryptographic signing — even if someone intercepted the connection, they couldn't forge a valid request.

Yes, instantly. You can disconnect BizScoreAI from your website at any time by either:

• Clicking "Revoke Access" in your BizScoreAI dashboard, or
• Deactivating the BizScoreAI Connector plugin from your WordPress admin

Either action immediately stops all communication. No waiting period, no cancellation process. Your site returns to exactly the state it was in, and you keep your listing on BizScoreAI.

We designed the system so that even in the worst case, your website stays protected:

• Connection keys are encrypted at rest — a database breach alone doesn't expose them
• Request signing keys are stored separately from connection keys — compromising one system doesn't compromise the other
• The connector only accepts a narrow set of operations — there is no path from the connector to full site access
• Every request includes a timestamp — old or replayed requests are automatically rejected

We take our responsibility seriously. Connecting to your website is a privilege, and we've built the architecture to protect you even if we're the ones who get compromised.

Yes, partially. Any business can get a free BizScoreAI listing with scores and letter grades, regardless of what your website is built on.

On a paid plan you get the same detailed audit findings whatever your site is built on, each with plain-language instructions you or your web developer can follow.

Enterprise puts all your locations in one account, and each location is scanned and scored separately. Every module is included for every location. What Enterprise includes and costs is on the pricing page.

Enterprise is for businesses with multiple locations (restaurants, clinics, franchises). You manage your own locations from one account.

Agency is in development. It is planned for marketing agencies and consultants who manage multiple clients, with all 3 modules for every client, white-label dashboards and a client management portal.

Agency is in development. It is planned to include white-label dashboards and reports that you can brand with your agency's logo and colors.

Agency is in development. The client management portal is planned to let you:

• Add and manage client businesses from one dashboard
• Run bulk scans across all clients simultaneously
• Generate branded reports for each client
• Track score trends and identify clients who need attention
• Set recommendation priorities across your client base

See the planned Agency pricing.

Agency is in development. Its pricing is set by the number of clients, so you will be able to move to a larger tier as you grow. See the planned tiers.