About This Tool

Why We Built This

It started with a frustration: checking a website's SEO meant opening the source, verifying title tag length, reading robots.txt, checking structured data — all manually, one item at a time. Full-featured tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush exist, but most cost over $100/month, putting them out of reach for individual bloggers and small site owners. On top of that, starting in late 2024, traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity began showing up in analytics, making it clear that traditional SEO checks alone were no longer enough. The idea was simple: build a free tool that checks both SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) in a single click. Development of IndexReady began in March 2026.

How It Evolved

The first version only checked 12 SEO items. After launch, users asked about llms.txt and AI crawler permissions, so we added 11 GEO items to reach the current 26-item structure. The scoring logic was designed by referencing Google Search Central documentation and web.dev Core Web Vitals benchmarks, and has been adjusted based on user feedback since release. Recent additions include PageSpeed Insights API timeout handling and CSV/PDF export for analysis results.

What Makes IndexReady Different

IndexReady stands apart by scoring GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) as a separate, independent category. It evaluates llms.txt and llms-full.txt presence, AI crawler permissions for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot in robots.txt, and whether content is structured in a way that AI search engines can cite. While many SEO checkers exist, few offer GEO diagnostics alongside SEO in a single free scan. On top of that, the full scoring logic — including why each item receives its point allocation — is published openly on the blog.

How It Works

When you enter a URL, the server fetches the target page's HTML and simultaneously retrieves robots.txt, sitemap.xml, llms.txt, and llms-full.txt. Performance data comes from the Google PageSpeed Insights API. All fetched data is parsed using cheerio, then run through 26 individual scoring rules. During analysis, progress is streamed to the browser via SSE (Server-Sent Events) in real time. After scoring completes, the results screen is rendered. All URL and HTML data is discarded from server memory once processing finishes — nothing is stored in a database.

Scoring Categories

• SEO (100 pts, 15 items): title, meta description, heading structure, OGP, HTTPS, meta robots noindex, canonical, image alt, robots.txt, sitemap, PageSpeed, Core Web Vitals, HTML lang, content length, viewport
• GEO (100 pts, 11 items): llms.txt, AI crawler permissions, structured data, clear answers, FAQ/list/definition patterns, question headings, statistics, content freshness, E-E-A-T, Google-recommended structured data, citation quality

Technology

The entered URL's HTML is parsed server-side and combined with Google PageSpeed Insights API data to calculate scores across 26 items. The site supports Japanese and English, and all communication is encrypted over HTTPS.

About the Operator

Josef — a web engineer based in the Kanto area of Japan. Professionally, he works primarily with TypeScript and Next.js in frontend development. On the side, he has a keen interest in the technical aspects of SEO, and IndexReady grew out of insights gained from running his own websites. Development, operations, and all blog content are handled solo.

Update Policy

IndexReady is a personal project, but it receives continuous improvements. Scoring logic adjustments, new check items, UI enhancements, and blog updates are shipped in response to user feedback and changes in Google and AI search specifications. The full change history is published on the Changelog page.