Documentation
Help Center
Everything you need to get the most out of Geo Scorely.
Getting Started
What is Geo Scorely?
Geo Scorely is an AI visibility analytics platform. It analyzes your website and tells you how likely AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Bing Copilot, Claude, and Gemini are to cite your content when users ask relevant questions.
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
GEO is the practice of optimizing your content to be cited by AI engines — the same way SEO optimizes for search rankings. As more users get answers directly from AI, being cited by those AI systems is becoming as important as ranking in Google.
How do I run my first scan?
Go to the Scan page, enter your domain name (e.g. example.com), and click Analyze. A free scan analyzes your homepage and key pages, scores 10 dimensions of GEO readiness, and gives you personalized advice. Results appear in under 2 minutes.
Do I need to add my domain to DNS or install any code?
No. Geo Scorely analyzes your publicly accessible pages — no DNS changes, no code snippets, no account verification required. Just enter your URL and scan.
Scoring & Dimensions
What do the 10 scoring dimensions measure?
Content Quality (depth, data, research), AI Extractability (how easily AI can quote your content), Technical & Schema (structured markup), Trust & E-E-A-T (author, dates, credentials), Content Freshness (recency), Citation Performance (actual AI citation rates), Competitor Gap, Format Optimization (FAQs, lists, tables), Topical Coverage, and Content-Answer Fit.
What does the overall score mean?
Your overall score (0–100) is a weighted composite of all 10 dimensions. 70+ = strong GEO readiness. 50–69 = solid with clear improvement areas. Below 50 = significant optimization opportunities. The grade (A–F) maps to these ranges.
Why is my score different from a competitor's even though we cover the same topic?
Scores depend on content depth, schema markup, trust signals, and how directly your content answers questions — not just topic coverage. A competitor with less content but better structure, author attribution, and FAQ schema will often score higher.
How often should I rescan?
After making changes based on advice, rescan within 1–2 weeks to see impact. For ongoing monitoring, weekly or monthly rescans help you track progress and catch regressions.
AI Engines & Citations
How does Geo Scorely test actual AI citations?
With API keys configured, Geo Scorely queries ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude with queries relevant to your domain, then checks whether those engines cite your pages in their responses. Without API keys, you get our pattern-based advice engine instead.
Which AI engines does Geo Scorely support?
ChatGPT (GPT-4o), Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, Claude, and Gemini. Each has different citation patterns — our advice engine accounts for the specific signals each one uses.
Why does Perplexity penalize old statistics?
Perplexity applies a -65% citation decay penalty to statistics referencing data older than 24 months. It prioritizes freshness because its users expect current information. Pages with many old year references (2021, 2022) are systematically deprioritized.
Why does blocking GPTBot matter so much?
If your robots.txt blocks AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or PerplexityBot, those engines literally cannot read your content. A blocked site scores zero on AI citation performance regardless of content quality. Geo Scorely checks 15 AI bot names.
Plans & API Keys
What's included in the free plan?
Free plans include a limited number of scans per month, homepage + key page analysis, the 10-dimension score breakdown, and access to the pattern-based advice engine (no API keys required).
What do API keys unlock?
Adding your OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, or Gemini API keys enables the PRISM MERGE engine: actual live citation testing, multi-LLM advice synthesis, and competitor citation gap analysis. More keys = more advice sources.
Are my API keys secure?
API keys are used server-side to make requests on your behalf and are not stored permanently. They are sent with each scan request and discarded after use. We never log API key values.
What is BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)?
BYOK means you supply your own AI API keys. This gives you control over costs and keeps your key usage transparent. Geo Scorely uses your keys to run citation tests and the AI rewrite feature.
Technical Questions
My site is JavaScript-rendered (React/Vue/Next.js). Can Geo Scorely scan it?
Yes. Geo Scorely uses a multi-strategy fetch pipeline: it tries browser rendering, Jina AI reader, and archived versions (Wayback Machine) to get full page content even for JS-heavy sites. That said, JS-rendered pages are a significant GEO disadvantage — we'll flag this in your advice.
Why does Geo Scorely use Wayback Machine URLs?
The Wayback CDX API is used for URL discovery — it can find pages that aren't linked from your homepage or sitemap. It's also used as a fallback fetch strategy for pages that return errors when crawled directly.
What is "Schema.org markup" and why does it matter?
Schema.org markup is structured data added to your pages (as JSON-LD in the <head>) that tells AI engines exactly what type of content a page contains — Article, FAQ, HowTo, Product, etc. Pages with proper schema are cited 40% more often in AI engine responses.
What is E-E-A-T?
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google's framework for evaluating content quality. AI engines use similar signals: author attribution, credentials, dates, about pages, and external citations all factor into whether your content is trusted enough to cite.