General
What is AI Visibility and why does it matter?
AI Visibility measures how well AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude can find, understand, and recommend your business. In 2026, over 60% of Google searches end without a click because AI answers questions directly. If your business isn't AI-visible, you're invisible to the fastest-growing channel in search.
How is TCD different from Semrush or Ahrefs?
Semrush and Ahrefs measure the Human Web — keywords, backlinks, domain authority. TCD measures the Machine Web — structured data, AI bot access, entity congruency, and whether AI engines can actually verify and recommend your business. It's an entirely different layer of visibility that traditional SEO tools don't touch.
What is a Machine Handshake?
A Machine Handshake is when all layers of your digital presence — website schema, Google Maps listing, social profiles, and directory citations — agree with each other. When AI engines see consistent identity signals across all platforms, they trust your business enough to recommend it.
What is an llms.txt file and do I need one?
An llms.txt file is the AI equivalent of robots.txt — it tells AI language models what your business does, your services, and your geographic service area in a format they can easily parse. Without one, AI engines have to guess your business details from raw HTML. Our AI Intelligence Dashboard generates a custom llms.txt for you.
Pricing & Plans
Is there a free tier?
No. The minimum entry point is the $27 Prospect Audit — a one-time payment that gives you a full 5-dial scan, detailed report, and access to the Command Center dashboard. This ensures every user gets meaningful, actionable data rather than a watered-down preview.
What's included in the $27 Prospect Audit?
The full 5-dial scan: Schema & AI Audit, Site Intelligence, Speed & Velocity, SEO Health, and Security. Plus a detailed report with entity extraction, social congruency check, competitor lookup, verify-it-yourself links, and 30-day dashboard access.
What are the monthly agency tiers?
Starter ($297/mo): 100 client scans, Schema Doctor Pro™, branded PDF reports, AI action plans, custom llms.txt. Growth ($297/mo): 300 scans, full white-label branding, Voice of Customer, social setup guide, geo-grid mapping, priority support. Scale ($997/mo): Unlimited scans, Demand Engine, national ranking, dedicated onboarding, quarterly strategy session. Plus City Exclusivity ($997/mo) as an add-on for metro lockout.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. All monthly plans are billed through Stripe and can be cancelled any time from your portal. The $27 Prospect Audit is a one-time charge with no recurring billing.
Audit & Scanning
How long does the AI audit take?
Under 60 seconds. The engine runs 5 parallel scanners (schema, SEO, speed, security, and site intelligence) through live API calls — not cached databases. Results are generated in real-time from your actual website.
Do I need to install anything on my website?
No. TCD scans your site externally using the same methods AI engines use — HTTP requests, HTML parsing, and API verification. Just enter your URL. The recommended fixes (schema markup, llms.txt, robots.txt) are implemented on your site later.
What does the AI Visibility Score measure?
A deterministic 0–100 score across four categories: Schema (40 pts) — structured data quality; Bot Access (15 pts) — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, llms.txt; Speed (20 pts) — load time and Core Web Vitals; SEO (25 pts) — title, meta, H1, sitemap, viewport. Grades: A+ (≥90), A (≥80), B (≥70), C (≥60), D (≥50), F (<50).
What is the AI Perception Check?
The AI Secret Shopper™ actually asks ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to recommend a business like yours in your city. It reveals whether you're Recommended, merely Mentioned, or completely Invisible to each AI engine — plus a "Why You're Invisible" analysis with provider-specific insights.
What APIs power the scanner?
Five enterprise APIs: Google PageSpeed Insights for Core Web Vitals, Google Places API for Maps verification, Serper.dev for real-time SERP data, Apify for social & web crawling, and Claude AI for strategic analysis and report generation.
AI Intelligence Dashboard
What is the AI Intelligence Dashboard?
An interactive Claude AI–powered intelligence dashboard with deployable fix code. It scans your business and your top competitors through the full pipeline, adds Google "People Also Ask" data, and provides a comprehensive strategy covering head-to-head comparisons, hidden opportunities, implementation guides, ROI projections, and a Voice of Customer section.
What is the Voice of Customer section?
The Voice of Customer section analyzes real Google "People Also Ask" questions related to your industry and location. For each question, it shows whether your content currently answers it (COVERED) or doesn't (UNANSWERED), with gap analysis and recommended content strategies to capture those search intents.
How many competitors can I compare?
The AI Intelligence Dashboard supports up to 5 competitor URLs. Each competitor goes through the same full 5-dial scan pipeline, so you get an apples-to-apples comparison of schema quality, speed, SEO, security, and AI bot access for every business.
Can I export the dashboard report as PDF?
Yes. Server-side PDF generation via PDFKit creates a professionally formatted document with cover page, score breakdowns, competitive analysis, Voice of Customer, and implementation guide. White-label agencies get their brand on the cover.
Technical
What schema types does TCD detect?
TCD detects all major JSON-LD schema types including LocalBusiness (and 14+ subtypes like ProfessionalService, Restaurant, MedicalClinic), Organization, FAQPage, Product, Review, and more. It also flattens @graph arrays used by WordPress/Yoast/RankMath sites.
Does TCD use Puppeteer or headless browsers?
No. All scanning is HTTP-only using fetch() and https.get(). This makes scans faster, cheaper, and more reliable. For any browser-based scraping (like People Also Ask data), we use Apify cloud actors instead of local browser instances.
What is GPTBot access and why does it matter?
GPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler. If your robots.txt blocks GPTBot, ChatGPT literally cannot read your website to recommend you. TCD checks whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot (Anthropic), and other AI crawlers are allowed or blocked, and whether you have an llms.txt file to guide them.
How does the geo-grid Maps analysis work?
The geo-grid checks your Google Maps ranking from 25 different geographic points in a 5×5 grid with 1.5km spacing across your city. This reveals where you rank #1, where you drop off, and where competitors dominate — essential data for local SEO optimization.
Agency Partners
Can I white-label reports for my clients?
Yes. Starter ($297/mo) and Scale ($997/mo) tiers include full white-label branding. Upload your logo, set brand colors, and every PDF and web report shows your agency name. Clients never see "TransCanada Digital."
What is City Exclusivity?
For $997/mo (add-on), you lock out other agencies in your metro area. You get a branded city landing page, exclusive geo-grid access for that city, and priority placement. One partner per metro — first-come, first-served across 20 cities.
Can I share scan reports with prospects?
Yes. The Shared Reports feature creates a public, read-only link to any scan result. Perfect for sending to prospects as proof of their AI visibility gaps. Shared reports include scores, entity profiles, competitors, and Voice of Customer data — no login required for the recipient.
How do I manage multiple client sites?
The Command Center dashboard includes a URL Slot panel where you can add and manage client URLs. Each tier has a slot limit (10/50/unlimited). You can track fix status, last scan score, and re-scan any site directly from the dashboard.