One number, 0–100, answering one question: when a customer asks AI who to call, are you the answer? Here is exactly what goes into it — and why free checkers may hand you a different number.
Do the engines actually name you? Half the score, because being named is the outcome that pays — everything else is a lever toward it.
Can the sources AI trusts — live web search, maps, directories, reviews, local press — even find you when they look?
When an AI crawler reads your site, does it get real text, structure, and permission — or a wall it can't parse?
Most free tools measure one of our three pillars and stretch it to a 0–100 scale. Neither they nor we are wrong — they're different rulers. We tested the same real business on the popular free tools and on ours, the same day:
| Tool type | What it measures | Maps to | Same business scored |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site-only checkers | Crawl your website's code: robots.txt, schema, structure, answer-style copy. They never ask an AI engine anything. | Our Site GEO-Readiness pillar (25 pts) | 92/100 — the site is genuinely well built |
| Brand checkers | Ask the engines about your brand and grade the answer: mentions, sentiment, share of voice. | Our AI Answer Presence pillar (50 pts) | 21–56/100 depending on the engine |
| WordOut GEO score | All three: named by AI (50) + findable by AI's sources (25) + readable by AI (25). | — | 50/100 — perfect site score, zero AI presence |
So if a site-only checker gives you a 90 and we give you a 50, look at our readiness pillar — it almost certainly agrees with their 90. The other 50 points are the part no website crawl can see: whether the engines actually say your name. Your score card shows the conversion for you.
The engines are asked unprompted — your name is never planted in the question, because your customers don't plant it either. Site readiness is deterministic: the same site scores the same number twice. AI answers vary a little day to day, so presence is measured across multiple engines, and a re-check after our work uses the identical questions.
A high score doesn't mean hire us — it means AI already recommends you; protect it. A low score doesn't mean your business is weak — the average local business we've measured scores under 40, and most have never been named by an AI engine at all. That's the gap, and closing it is the entire job.