Which phase are you in today, and how can you tell?
By the third column, and at the bottom of the ladder that is the only column that matters. The first two tell you where you stand; the third tells you what you do tomorrow. Anyone who recognises themselves in phase 2 — readable and still named nowhere — gets nothing from the word "invisible" and everything from the sentence next to it.
| phase | what it means | the next step |
|---|---|---|
| 1. AI can't read you | Your site blocks AI crawlers, so AI systems can't read you reliably. As long as the door is shut, optimizing achieves little. | To phase 2: allow AI crawlers in your robots.txt and get the on-page basics in order. |
| 2. Readable, but invisible | AI can read your site, but (almost) never names you in answers. You don't exist yet in the sources AI draws from. | To phase 3: earn external mentions (industry sites, guides, reviews) and make your content citable. |
| 3. Mentioned now and then | AI knows your name, but doesn't firmly place you in your category yet: you only show up for a minority of the questions. | To phase 4: claim your category with entity schema, citable FAQs and mentions on authoritative sources. |
| 4. Visible in your category | You get named regularly, but inconsistently — and competitors often more than you. | To phase 5: grow your share of voice with proof (reviews, cases, press) and score on more questions. |
| 5. Strongly present | AI recommends you in most answers. Now it's about share: being named first more often than your competitors. | To phase 6: build authority (press, comparisons you win) and monitor to catch any slide immediately. |
| 6. The reference | AI names you first in your category. Not a finish line but a position to defend — AI answers shift even when you change nothing. | Hold on: keep measuring and keep your content and mentions current. |
What is the difference between a phase and an AI visibility score?
A score is a number between 0 and 100; a phase is the meaning we give it, with the boundary stated. That second part is the difference. A composite figure whose weighting is not published cannot be checked — then it is an opinion with a decimal point. Which is why the table below says where each boundary sits, not merely that boundaries exist.
| score | phase | what the score measures |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 20 | 1 or 2 | If your robots.txt blocks the AI crawlers, phase 1. If it does not, phase 2: readable and still named nowhere. |
| 21 – 45 | 3 | Your name comes up, but on a minority of the questions. The engine knows you and does not yet place you. |
| 46 – 70 | 4 | Named regularly, varying from question to question, and competitors often more often than you. |
| 71 – 89 | 5 | Recommended in most answers. From here on it is about share, no longer about presence. |
| 90 – 100 | 6 | Named first in your category. Not an end point: AI answers shift even when you change nothing. |
Why does your phase drop while your score went up?
Because the phase looks not only at your score but also at how much of it we know. Three rules put a ceiling on the outcome, and all three have the same shape: if the measurement is too narrow or your share too small, the figure may not come out higher than it can carry. That is the unpleasant side of this model and it is the side that makes it usable.
| when | ceiling | why |
|---|---|---|
| fewer than four questions checked live | 70 | Three hits on three questions is not a 100, it is too small a sample. The ceiling says so, instead of a figure that hides it. |
| share of voice below 40% | 70 | You get named and most of the mentions go to somebody else. That is phase 4, however good your pages are. |
| share of voice below 60% | 89 | Phase 6 means you are the reference. With less than three fifths of the mentions, that is somebody else. |
What does it cost to go from phase 1 to phase 2?
Often nothing, and that is not a sales line but what the first phase says. Phase 1 means your robots.txt shuts the AI crawlers out; opening it is one line in one file and no subscription is involved. It is also the only step on this ladder that is that cheap — from phase 2 onwards it is about mentions you have to earn, and those cost time or money.
What does a phase not say about your company?
Nothing about your quality, your revenue or your customers. A phase measures how well an AI engine can read you, place you and recommend you — no more than that. The best company in a town can sit in phase 2 because there is barely anything about it outside its own site, and a mediocre provider can sit in phase 5 because a lot has been written about them.
Frequently asked questions
Can I skip a phase?
Not in the model, sometimes in practice. The phase follows from your score, so going from 15 to 60 jumps you from phase 2 to phase 4 without a phase being skipped — you simply moved far enough at once. What you cannot skip is phase 1: as long as a crawler cannot get in, there is nothing to measure.
Should my phase be the same in every AI engine?
No, and that is exactly why we also measure per engine. You can be in phase 5 in ChatGPT and phase 2 in Perplexity, because those two fetch different sources. The phase on your report weighs the engines by their market share in your market; the breakdown underneath shows where the difference sits.
Why six phases and not three or ten?
Because every rung has a different fix. Phase 1 is a line in a file, phase 2 is about existing in sources, phase 3 about claiming your category, phases 4 and 5 about share, phase 6 about defending. Merging two phases would give two different jobs the same name; splitting one would produce a rung with no action of its own.
Do I get my phase from the free scan already?
Yes, and usually with a ceiling on it. The free scan checks few questions live, and the first capping rule says a score may then not exceed 70. So you get a real phase, with the caveat that the measurement base is narrow — and that is more honest than a phase 6 on three questions.
Is this ladder yours or does it exist in the field?
Ours, and there are others. Other providers publish their own phase models; there is no settled division, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling their own name. What you may expect from us is not that our ladder is the right one, but that its boundaries are written down and can be recomputed.
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