What we look at, and why.
Bellfound reads your website the way Google and AI assistants do, in seven areas. Here is each one in plain words, and why it matters for being found.
Seven things, in plain words.
Can Google and AI read your site?
Before anyone can find you, machines have to open your pages, be allowed in, and know which pages exist. If they can’t, nothing else counts.
Do they know who you are?
Your name in your page titles, a real About page, and your details in a form machines understand, so they match you to the right business. Checking your Google Business Profile is coming soon.
Do your pages answer real questions?
Clear headings, steps a reader can follow, short comparisons. These are the parts Google and AI lift straight into their answers.
Is there something worth quoting?
Real numbers with their sources, and enough depth on each page. Answers quote pages that know what they’re talking about.
Does the rest of the web vouch for you?
Your social profiles and map listing, linked from your site, tell machines you’re a real business. Counting the sites that link to you is coming soon.
Can a visitor reach you easily?
Being found only helps if people can contact you: a quick way to message or call, your address and hours, and a promise of when you reply.
Does AI name you when customers ask?
In the full report we ask an AI assistant what a customer would ask, and record whether your name is in the answer. Regular monthly AI answer checks are coming soon.
What a good result looks like.
four grades, one ladderEvery check gives points, and your points place you on a ladder. Most businesses start lower than they expect. That’s normal, and it’s where the useful fixes are.
how scores move
Your score follows your website.
Fix something, and the next weekly check counts it. The score measures what’s in your control. It isn’t a promise of rankings: nobody can honestly make one.
See the weekly report→open by design
Every point comes with its proof.
Your report shows what we found on your own pages for each check, so you can see it for yourself, or hand it to your developer.
Questions.
about the check and the score01What does my score mean?
Every check is worth points. Your score is the points you earned out of the points we could check on your site, for example 41 of 52. It places you on four grades: Lost (under 40%), Wandering (40–59%), On the path (60–79%) and Found (80% and up). How we score →
02Where does your method come from?
From Google’s public guidance, the documentation of the AI companies whose crawlers read your site, and published research on what AI answers choose to quote. Every check on the full method names its source. The full method →
03Do you use AI to check my website?
Mostly not. Most checks are fixed rules that read your pages directly. Two checks use AI to review your writing against a fixed checklist with fixed points, and the full report asks an AI assistant a customer’s question to see if you are named.
04Why are some checks marked coming soon?
We only count a check once it works. Checking your Google Business Profile, counting the sites that link to you and regular AI answer checks are being built, and they say so until they are live.
05What happens to my website’s information?
We only read the public pages anyone can open, the same way Google does, and we never ask for logins or passwords. Your result is kept at its own link so you can come back to it, and report pages are kept out of search engines.
06Can you promise I’ll rank first?
No, and nobody honestly can. We fix what is in your control and show the proof. Rankings follow many things, and we report them truthfully every week.