Botworthy™

Is your content Botworthy?

AI models answer your customers’ questions by quoting someone’s content. The Botworthy Score measures how likely they are to quote yours, across 10 criteria weighted by published citation research.

Get a Botworthy AuditGet the free scoring skill
Illustrative example. Each row is an article and each column a criterion; darker means more of it met. A column that stays pale all the way down is a habit across the whole library.

AI models quote your first sentence. Make it the answer.

When a model builds an answer, it lifts passages that make sense on their own. If your answer sits in sentence three, behind a warm-up line or an ‘it depends’, it rarely gets lifted.

Answer-first sections carry 20 of the 100 points, more than any other criterion.

How often should a boiler be serviced?

Your boiler works hard all year, especially through the colder months. It depends on the type of boiler you have and what your warranty says, but most engineers recommend an annual service.

What an AI model lifts

“Your boiler works hard all year, especially through the colder months.”

Doesn't answer the question

The answer is buried behind a warm-up line and an 'it depends'.

Illustrative example.

The Botworthy Score

Every article is scored out of 100. The weights come from published research into what AI models cite, so the criteria with the strongest evidence carry the most points.

Answerability 33 points

Does each section answer its heading straight away?

  • Answer-first sections20The first sentence after each heading answers it.
  • Question-led headings6Headings written the way people ask.
  • Summary at the top7A short summary before the detail.

Extractability 33 points

Can a passage be lifted out and still make sense?

  • Self-contained passages12Openings that name their subject, with no 'it' or 'this' pointing backwards.
  • Short sentences7An average of 14 words or fewer.
  • Lists and tables14Structure a model can pull from directly.

Evidence 26 points

Is there something worth citing?

  • Statistics and specifics10Numbers, prices and percentages.
  • Named sources10Where the facts come from.
  • Named expertise6An author, reviewer or quoted expert.

Freshness 8 points

Has it been updated recently?

  • Recently updated8Full marks within three months.

The research behind the weights

The writing habits that cost citations

Scoring every section opening shows the same few habits again and again. Writers pick them up from years of writing for the web, which is why nobody spots them in their own work.

The unanswered question

A heading written as a question, followed by a paragraph that never answers it.

Write instead: Answer it in the first sentence, then explain.

The 'it depends' opener

A section that opens with 'it depends' or 'that's up to you' and leaves the condition for later.

Write instead: Give the usual answer and the condition together.

The announced list

“Here are a few things to consider:”, which tells the reader a list is coming without saying what's in it.

Write instead: Summarise the list in one sentence, then give it.

The warm-up line

A general or emotional sentence before the point, such as “We all know how stressful moving can be.”

Write instead: Delete it. Your second sentence is usually the right first one.

Why before what

An instruction heading that opens with why it matters instead of what to do.

Write instead: Instruction first, reason second.

The Botworthy Audit

A fixed-price audit of one part of your site, delivered without a single meeting. First run on a FTSE 100 company’s content library, where the highest-scoring articles were also the most cited by AI models.

What you get

  • 25 to 40 articles from one content type, each with a Botworthy Score
  • A score for the library as a whole
  • A heatmap of every article against every criterion, and where the points are lost
  • A writing patterns framework built from your own content
  • 6 to 8 before-and-after rewrites using only facts already on your pages
  • The full report and a spreadsheet of every score, so you can rescore after changes
  • A recorded video walkthrough of the findings

How it works

  1. Buy the auditPay by card, or request an invoice if your finance team needs a PO.
  2. Tell us what to scoreA short form: the section of your site, your competitors and who will read the report. It takes about 10 minutes.
  3. We score every articleEach section opening is checked twice, then every article is scored and the patterns are grouped.
  4. Get your reportWithin 10 working days: the report, the scores spreadsheet and a recorded video walkthrough.

Not included: technical SEO, off-site signals and writing new content. Ask if you need help with those after the audit.

The Botworthy Index

We’re scoring the content of the leading brands in one sector at a time and publishing the rankings. Get the first Index in your inbox when it’s out.

Who’s behind it

Botworthy was created by Jess Redman, who has spent eight years in SEO and digital marketing, in-house and for clients in insurance, pharma, wellness and IoT. She’s spoken at BrightonSEO and DMWF, and in Lisbon on how to get content cited by AI models.

She built the Botworthy method to show content teams exactly why AI models pass over their pages, and what to change. Follow Jess on LinkedIn.

Questions

Which pages should we audit?

One family of content, such as your blog, guides, help centre or knowledge base. Between 25 and 40 articles gives patterns you can trust.

Does a high score guarantee AI citations?

No. The score measures what's on the page. Rankings, crawlability and mentions on other sites matter too, and they sit outside the audit. In the first study, the highest-scoring articles were also the ones AI models cited most.

Do we need to meet?

No. You send your URLs, and you get the report and a recorded walkthrough. If you'd also like a live call, just ask.

Can we try the method first?

Yes. The scoring skill is free, so your team can run it on its own content before you buy anything.

Do you charge VAT?

UK customers pay VAT at 20%, so the audit costs £4,200 in total. Businesses outside the UK can enter their VAT or tax ID at checkout and won't be charged UK VAT.

Can we pay by invoice?

Yes. Request an invoice and we'll send one with bank details. Work starts once it's paid.