Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

What is Optiview?

Optiview is an AI SEO audit tool that helps you optimize your website for AI search engines and answer engines. We analyze:

• AI Crawler Access: Whether AI bots can reach your content
• Structured Data: JSON-LD, FAQ schemas, and rich snippets
• Answerability: How well your content answers user questions
• Citation Performance: How often AI engines cite your pages

Our goal is to help you rank in AI-generated search results from engines like Brave AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.

How do I get started?

Getting started is simple:

1. Go to app.optiview.ai
2. Enter your website URL (e.g., yoursite.com)
3. Click "Run Audit"
4. Get instant results - audits complete in under 30 seconds
5. Review your scores, issues, and citations

No account required for demo audits! You can run an audit immediately to see what we find.

How much does Optiview cost?

Currently free during beta! We're offering unlimited audits while we refine the tool. Pricing will be announced soon, but early users will get special discounts.

Citations & AEO/GEO

What's the difference between AEO, GEO, and Organic citations?

How do citation counts work?

The Math:

Each Brave AI query returns ~10 sources. Our audit runs 50 smart queries across different topics (brand terms, how-to, FAQ, product info, etc.).

• 50 queries × 10 sources each = ~500 total sources analyzed
• We only count sources that cite YOUR domain
• All other sources (competitors, reference sites) are ignored

What's a "good" AEO citation count?

This depends on your industry, site size, and brand recognition. Here are rough benchmarks:

• 0-5 citations: Very low visibility-AI engines rarely cite your site
• 5-15 citations: Moderate visibility-some brand awareness
• 15-30 citations: Good visibility-AI engines see you as relevant
• 30+ citations: Excellent! Strong brand presence in AI search

Remember: These numbers are from 50 queries. A larger site with more queries will naturally get more citations. Focus on citation rate (citations per query) rather than absolute numbers.

What matters most: Are you being cited for your most important pages and topics? Quality > quantity.

Can I see the raw API data?

Yes! Click the " View API" button at the top of the Citations tab to see the raw JSON response with all citation data.

You can also access it directly:

https://api.optiview.ai/v1/audits/YOUR_AUDIT_ID/citations?pageSize=500

You can also export your Brave AI query diagnostics:

• https://api.optiview.ai/v1/audits/YOUR_AUDIT_ID/brave/queries.csv
• https://api.optiview.ai/v1/audits/YOUR_AUDIT_ID/brave/queries.json

These endpoints let you download all queries, statuses, and mapping reasons (path, canonical, fuzzy) for offline analysis.

Brave AI Integration

How does the Brave AI integration work?

For each audit, we run 50 "smart queries" designed to test how AI engines answer questions about your brand:

• Brand Core (e.g., "site:yourdomain.com", "your brand name")
• Product How-To (e.g., "how to use [product]", "how [product] works")
• Jobs to Be Done (e.g., "benefits of [product]", "why use [product]")
• Schema Probes (e.g., "FAQ about [brand]", "coverage", "eligibility")
• Content Seeds (e.g., page titles from your site as questions)
• Competitive (e.g., "[brand] alternatives", "[brand] vs [competitor]")

Each query returns up to 10 sources. We analyze which sources cite your domain and which cite competitors.

What is the Brave AI Queries modal?

The Brave AI modal shows diagnostic details for all queries run during your audit:

• Query: The exact question asked
• Bucket: Category (brand_core, product_how_to, etc.)
• Mode: API type (grounded summarizer mode)
• Results: Number of sources returned
• Status: ok, empty, rate_limited, error, timeout
• Actions: "View (N)" link to see citations in Citations tab

Click any "View" link to filter the Citations tab to just that query's sources.

Why do some queries show "View (0)" or "View (1)"?

The number shows how many sources from that query cited YOUR domain specifically. Possible reasons for low counts:

• Your content doesn't directly answer that query (opportunity to improve!)
• Competitors have better optimized content for that topic
• The query is too broad or generic
• AI engine preferred authoritative third-party sources (medical sites, news, etc.)

Use these "near-miss" queries to identify content gaps and optimization opportunities.

Can I run custom Brave AI queries?

Yes! In the Brave AI modal:

1. Click "Run +10 More" to add 10 additional smart queries
2. Or enter custom queries in the text area (one per line)
3. Click the button to run them

Note: Custom queries count against Brave's rate limits. If you see rate-limited errors, wait an hour or reduce query count.

Audits & Scoring

How is the overall score calculated?

Your overall score (0-100%) is a weighted average of four components. Each component is first converted to a percentage, then weighted:

• Crawlability (40% weight): robots.txt + AI bot access + sitemap + real crawler bonus → max 42 points
• Structured Data (30% weight): JSON-LD coverage + FAQ schema + schema variety → max 30 points
• Answerability (20% weight): Titles + H1 tags + content depth → max 20 points
• Trust (10% weight): HTTP 2xx status + load performance → max 10 points

Formula: Overall = (Crawl% × 0.4) + (Struct% × 0.3) + (Answer% × 0.2) + (Trust% × 0.1)

How many pages does Optiview audit?

We audit up to 120 pages per site by default (automatically scaled for larger sitemaps). You can adjust this in the "Advanced" settings when starting an audit.

Pages are discovered from:

• Your sitemap.xml (if present)
• Internal links from your homepage
• Priority is given to important pages (linked from multiple places)

How long does an audit take?

With our new phase-based execution system, audits are now much faster:

• Typical completion: 15-30 seconds
• Maximum time: Under 2 minutes
• Phase-based execution: Discovery → Robots → Sitemap → Probes → Crawl → Citations → Synthesis → Finalize

Our system includes automatic timeout handling, circuit breakers, and retry mechanisms to ensure reliable completion.

Can I re-run an audit?

Yes! You have two options:

• Re-run Audit: Creates a fresh audit using the same settings
• Retry from Checkpoint: For failed audits, retry from the last successful phase

Tip: Re-run after making changes to see if your score improves! If an audit fails, use the retry feature to continue from where it left off.

What are "Issues" and how do I fix them?

Issues are specific problems we found during the audit. Severity levels:

• Critical: Blocks AI crawlers (e.g., robots.txt disallows, missing sitemap)
• Warning: Important but non-blocking (e.g., missing JSON-LD, thin content)
• Info: Optimization opportunities (e.g., slow load times)

Click on any issue to see:

• What the problem is
• Why it matters for AI SEO
• How to fix it (with code examples)

AI Bots & Crawlers

Which AI bots does Optiview track?

We track all major AI crawlers:

• GPTBot (OpenAI / ChatGPT)
• ClaudeBot (Anthropic / Claude)
• PerplexityBot (Perplexity AI)
• CCBot (Common Crawl - used by many AI companies)
• Google-Extended (Google Bard / Gemini)
• ️ Bytespider (ByteDance / TikTok AI)
• Plus traditional bots: Googlebot, Bingbot

Crawler visits are automatically cross-linked with your audit's Crawlability score to confirm live access.

See the full list at AI Bots We Track.

Should I block AI bots?

Generally, no. Blocking AI bots prevents your content from appearing in AI search results. However, you might want to block them if:

• You have proprietary content you don't want in AI training
• Your server can't handle the extra traffic
• You want to prevent AI from regurgitating your content

To block, add to your robots.txt:

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

How do I allow AI bots?

Make sure your robots.txt explicitly allows them:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

Or simply don't block them (bots are allowed by default unless explicitly disallowed).

Privacy & Security

Does Optiview store my visitors' data?

No personally identifiable information (PII) is stored. We only track AI bot visits with:

• IP hashed with SHA-256 (irreversible)
• User-Agent string (to identify which bot)
• Visit timestamp
• Page URL visited

We never store:

• Raw IP addresses
• Cookies or device fingerprints
• Names, emails, or any PII
• Session data or tracking IDs

Is Optiview GDPR compliant?

Yes! Our privacy-first design means:

• IP hashing eliminates personal data at source
• If Optiview is your only tracking script, no consent banner is required. If combined with other analytics tools, follow your region's cookie consent requirements.
• Minimal data collection (only what's necessary)
• Cloudflare infrastructure (GDPR-compliant, EU data residency)

Since we don't store PII, there's no personal data to delete or export.

How does Optiview respect robots.txt?

Our audit bot (OptiviewAuditBot/1.0) strictly follows robots.txt rules:

• Checks robots.txt before crawling
• Obeys all Disallow directives
• Rate-limited to 1 request per second
• Clear User-Agent identification

To block our bot, add to robots.txt:

User-agent: OptiviewAuditBot
Disallow: /

Technical Details

What technology powers Optiview?

• Infrastructure: Cloudflare Workers (edge computing)
• Database: Cloudflare D1 (SQLite at edge)
• Browser Rendering: Cloudflare Browser Rendering (headless Chromium)
• AI Search: Brave AI API
• Frontend: React + Vite + TypeScript

Everything runs on Cloudflare's global edge network for speed and reliability.

How accurate is the structured data detection?

Very accurate! We:

• Render pages with a real browser (not just HTML parsing)
• Execute JavaScript to catch dynamically-loaded schemas
• Validate JSON-LD syntax and schema.org compliance
• We also verify Google Rich Results compatibility for each detected schema type.
• Identify all schema types (FAQPage, Organization, Product, etc.)

We detect structured data the same way Google and AI engines do.

Can I use Optiview's API programmatically?

Yes! Our API is available at https://api.optiview.ai. Key endpoints:

• POST /v1/audits/start
• GET /v1/audits/:id
• GET /v1/audits/:id/citations
• GET /v1/audits/:id/brave/queries
• GET /v1/audits/:id/pages/:pageId/recommendations

Contact us for API documentation and rate limits.

What's the difference between Optiview and traditional SEO tools?

Feature	Traditional SEO Tools	Optiview
Focus	Google/Bing rankings	AI search engines
Metrics	Keywords, backlinks	Citations, answerability
Bot Tracking	Googlebot only	All AI bots (GPTBot, Claude, etc.)
Structured Data	Basic validation	AI-optimized schemas (FAQ, How-To, etc.)
Citations	Not tracked	AEO, GEO, Organic breakdowns

Optiview is purpose-built for the AI search era.