Do AI assistants actually read directories?
Partly. Directories matter when an assistant searches the web, and not at all when it answers from memory.
What does a free AI visibility score tell me?
That the assistants named you, or didn't, on the day the tool ran. It is a real measurement of one thing, taken once. Several platforms now offer a free AI visibility score. You type in a brand name or a website, the tool puts some questions to ChatGPT
What happens when a website is rebuilt so AI assistants can read it?
In this case, the assistants went from naming the business in about half their answers to nearly all of them, in five weeks. The one assistant that could not read the site at all went from naming it in one answer in five to nineteen in twenty. Here is the
What is Signal Lock?
Signal Lock is an independent practice that measures what AI assistants say about businesses. It was founded in 2026 and is run by one person from Zürich. That person is me. What it measures. Whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity name a business when a customer asks the kind of
Does my business need to worry about AI search yet?
Probably yes if your customers ask for recommendations before they buy. Probably not yet if they don't. Here is how to tell, without paying anyone. Signs it does not matter much for you yet. Your customers buy on impulse or proximity: a coffee shop, a corner shop, a
Why do AI assistants recommend businesses that don't exist?
Because when an assistant answers from memory rather than by searching, it produces the most plausible answer, and the most plausible answer can be a business that has never existed where it says it does. A real case, from the same Zürich study in July 2026. Before collecting any assistant
Why can't AI assistants read my website?
Because some websites only exist once your browser has done some work, and many of the things that read the web on behalf of AI assistants do not do that work. Here is a real case. In July 2026 I measured a martial arts academy in Zürich. A good site:
Four AI assistants still recommend a wedding venue that closed in 2024
Tracy Park, near Bath, ceased trading on 30 September 2024. The estate was sold, and its own website states that golf, wedding and event services are closed. The new owner has applied to return it to private use. In July 2026 I asked four AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and