Published August 2026 · Original research by Kanyon Studio
The short answer: probably, yes. In August 2026 we audited the websites of 15 well-known San Diego businesses — dentists, med spas, gyms, real estate teams, and restaurants — to see how readable they are to AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The average score was 58 out of 100. Several household-name San Diego businesses scored so low that an AI assistant asked about them has almost nothing to work with. You can check your own site free in about 60 seconds.
Why this suddenly matters
A growing share of local buying decisions now starts with a question to an AI assistant instead of a Google search: "best cosmetic dentist in La Jolla," "how much does a photographer cost in San Diego," "good date-night restaurant in Little Italy." The assistant answers by reading websites — but it can only recommend what it can read and understand. A beautiful site that never plainly says what you do, where you are, and what you charge is effectively invisible in this new channel, no matter how good the business is.
What we found
We checked each of the 15 sites for six specific, publicly observable signals (methodology below). The aggregate results:
- Average score: 58/100. The best site scored 85; the worst scored 15.
- Only 3 of 15 had any llms.txt file — the plain-text file that tells AI systems what your site contains.
- Only 4 of 15 published prices anywhere on their site. AI assistants get asked "how much does X cost" constantly, and eleven of these businesses give no answer to cite.
- Only 5 of 15 had any FAQ content — the format AI systems quote most readily.
- Healthcare beat hospitality. Dental and med spa sites averaged meaningfully higher than restaurants, which had the three lowest scores in the study. One beloved, nationally famous San Diego restaurant scored 15/100 — its homepage title is literally a placeholder.
- Big and successful doesn't mean visible. Some of the strongest real-world brands in the study had the weakest AI readability. Reputation doesn't transfer to AI search; structure does.
The six things AI can actually read
These are the factors we scored, and the same ones our free audit tool checks:
- Plain-language clarity (25 pts): Does the site state, in text, what the business does and where it serves? Not in a hero video — in words a machine can quote.
- Metadata quality (20 pts): A descriptive title tag and meta description with the service and city. "Home" or a placeholder title is an instant fail.
- Pricing transparency (15 pts): Any published price, range, or starting rate. This is the single most-cited data point in AI answers about services.
- FAQ content (15 pts): Real questions answered in full sentences. AI assistants lift these almost verbatim.
- llms.txt (15 pts): A simple text file at yoursite.com/llms.txt that maps your site for AI crawlers. Takes an hour to create; 80% of the sites we checked don't have one.
- Booking clarity (10 pts): A phone number, booking link, or contact path stated in text, so the assistant can tell someone how to actually become a customer.
How to check your business in 60 seconds
- Run your site through the free AI visibility audit — it scores the same factors as this study, instantly, no email required to see your score.
- Ask ChatGPT: "What does [your business name] in San Diego do, and what does it cost?" If the answer is vague or wrong, that's what every potential customer using AI is being told.
- Look at your homepage title tag. If it doesn't name your service and your city, neither will the AI.
If your score is low
Every fix in this study is structural, not cosmetic — schema markup, llms.txt, FAQ content, metadata, and plainly stated services and pricing. It's the exact work of answer engine optimization (AEO), and for most small business sites it's a flat-rate sprint measured in weeks, not months. Kanyon Studio builds this into every site it designs, and retrofits it onto existing sites without a rebuild.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my business shows up in ChatGPT?
Ask it directly — "recommend a [your category] in [your neighborhood]" and "what does [your business] charge?" Then run the free audit to see exactly which signals your site is missing. Together those two checks show both the symptom and the cause.
What is llms.txt?
A plain-text file at the root of your website that describes your pages for AI systems, the way robots.txt and sitemap.xml do for search crawlers. It's one of the simplest, highest-leverage AEO fixes, and only 20% of the San Diego businesses we studied had one.
Do Google reviews affect AI visibility?
Partly — assistants draw on maps and review data for reputation, but for facts like services, pricing, and booking they rely heavily on your website. Strong reviews with a weak site means AI knows people like you but can't say what you do or charge.
How fast can a low score be fixed?
Most of the six factors can be fixed in a single focused sprint — typically two to four weeks from audit to live — because they're additions to your existing site, not a redesign.
