Frequently asked questions - Visibl - AI Visibility Score


Last updated: May 2026

Before You Install

  1. What does AI Readiness Auditor do?

It scans every product in your Shopify catalog and tells you exactly how visible each product is to AI shopping agents — ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Each product gets a score from 0 to 100, and the app shows you precisely what is missing and how to fix it.

  1. Why does AI discoverability matter for my store?

AI shopping agents are increasingly how consumers discover and compare products. When a shopper asks ChatGPT "recommend a lightweight running jacket under £80", the AI pulls from indexed product data. If your products have missing categories, no GTIN, weak descriptions, or no price, they are invisible to these agents — regardless of how good your SEO is. This app tells you who can't find you and why.

  1. Who is this app for?

Any Shopify merchant who sells physical products and wants their catalog to be discoverable through AI-powered shopping channels. It is especially useful if you are already using or planning to use the Shopify Agentic Storefronts sales channel, which connects your store to ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Microsoft Copilot.

  1. Does this app work for digital products or services?

The checks are designed for physical product catalogs — GTIN, images, pricing, and variant structure are all physical-product concepts. Some checks (description length, title specificity, category) apply broadly, but the overall score will not be fully meaningful for digital-only stores.

  1. Is this app free?

Please check the current pricing on the Shopify App Store listing, as pricing may have changed since this FAQ was written.

  1. Does installing this app change anything in my store?

No. The app is strictly read-only. It cannot create, edit, or delete any products, orders, or settings in your Shopify store. Installing it has zero impact on your live storefront.

  1. What permissions does the app request and why?

Read products: To fetch product titles, descriptions, images, prices, barcodes, categories, and variants for the audit

Read product listings: To check which products are published and eligible for AI channels

Read publications To check whether your Agentic Storefronts sales channel is active

The app does not request any write permissions and cannot modify your store in any way.

  1. Does this app use AI to analyse my products?

No. All checks are deterministic rule-based logic — word counts, field presence checks, barcode detection, and title comparisons. No product data is ever sent to an external AI service. Everything is processed on our own infrastructure.

  1. Is my product data safe?

Yes. Product data is processed to generate scores, and only the scores and check results are stored — not your raw descriptions, barcodes, or images. Your data is stored in an encrypted database, isolated per store, and permanently deleted when you uninstall. See the full privacy policy for details.

Getting Started

  1. How do I install the app?

Find "AI Readiness Auditor" on the Shopify App Store and click Install. You will be redirected to authorise the required permissions. After authorisation you land directly on the app dashboard inside your Shopify Admin. The app is yet to go live on shopify app store.

  1. What happens right after I install?

You land on the dashboard with a "Run your first scan" prompt. No scan runs automatically — you trigger it when you are ready.

  1. How do I run my first scan?

Click the "Run your first scan" button on the empty-state screen, or the "Run scan" button in the top-right corner of the dashboard at any time.

  1. How long does a scan take?

For most stores with under 250 products, a scan completes in under 30 seconds. Larger catalogs (up to 500 products) may take up to a minute.

  1. Does the app scan all my products?

The current version scans up to 500 products (two pages of 250). If your catalog is larger than 500 products, only the first 500 are included in the score. Contact support if you need coverage beyond this limit.

  1. Can I run multiple scans?

Yes. Click "Run scan" at any time to get a fresh audit. Each new scan replaces the previous results. Run a new scan after making changes to your products to see your updated scores immediately.

Understanding Your Scores

  1. What does the store score mean?

The store score is the average of all your individual product scores, rounded to the nearest whole number. A score of 100 means every product passes every check. A score of 0 means every product fails every check.

  1. What do the score bands mean?

75 – 100 Good (green) Your catalog is AI-ready

50 – 74 Warning (amber) Meaningful gaps that reduce discoverability

0 – 49 Poor (red) Products are likely invisible to AI shopping agents

  1. Why is my store score different from what I expected?

The store score is a straight average — a small number of very low-scoring products can drag down an otherwise healthy catalog. Use the product table sorted by score (lowest first) to identify which products are pulling your average down.

  1. Why do some products score 100 but the store score is still lower?

Products that pass all 8 checks score 100. If other products score lower, the average will be below 100 even if many products are perfect.

  1. Why does a product score 0?

A score of 0 means the product failed all four Critical checks simultaneously — no category, no GTIN, no price, and no images. This is most common with draft or placeholder products.

The Checks Explained

  1. What are the 8 product checks?

Check Points Severity Fails when Category Assigned 25 Critical Product type is missing, empty, or "Uncategorized" GTIN Present 20 Critical Barcode field is empty on the first variant Price Present 15 Critical No price set or price is £0.00 / $0.00 Image Present 10 Critical No product images attached Title Specificity 10 Warning Fewer than 3 words, title is brand name only, or over 150 characters Description Length 10 Warning Plain-text description is under 50 words Description Quality 5 Warning No numbers or measurements anywhere in the description Variant Structure 5 Warning Title matches another product AND the product has only 1 variant

  1. What is the difference between Critical and Warning?

Critical checks carry the highest point weights (15–25 points each) and represent fields AI agents require just to consider a product. Warning checks carry lower weights (5–10 points) and represent fields that meaningfully improve matching quality but are not absolute blockers.

  1. Why does Category carry 25 points — more than any other check?

Category is the primary signal AI shopping agents use to match products to queries. Without a specific product taxonomy category, an agent cannot confidently surface your product for relevant searches. Shopify's AI channel playbook and Google Merchant Center both treat category as the single most critical field.

  1. My product has a barcode — why is GTIN failing?

Check that the barcode is entered in the correct Shopify field: Admin → Products → [product] → click into a variant → Barcode (ISBN, UPC, GTIN). If the field is blank even though the packaging has a barcode, or if it was only added to a second variant rather than the first, the check will fail.

  1. I can't see a Barcode field in my Shopify Admin. Why?

The Barcode field visibility depends on your Shopify plan. On some plans it appears only when you click directly into an individual variant to edit it. Try opening a variant's edit screen rather than the main product page.

  1. What counts as a "measurement" for the Description Quality check?

Any number or unit anywhere in the description counts: dimensions (30 cm × 20 cm), weight (1.2 kg), volume (500 ml), quantity (pack of 6), material percentage (100% cotton), size range (S–XL). Even a single measurement passes this check.

  1. Why is my product failing Variant Structure when it is a genuinely unique product?

The check flags products where the first three words of the title match another product in your catalog AND the product has only one variant. This pattern typically indicates a colour or size that should be a variant of an existing product rather than a separate listing. If your products are genuinely distinct, you can safely deprioritise this warning — it is the only check where merchant judgement should override the score.

  1. What is the Agentic Storefronts channel check?

This is a store-level check (not part of the per-product score). It detects whether your Shopify Agentic Storefronts sales channel is active. If it is not, your products will not be surfaced through ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, or Copilot regardless of how well individual products score. It appears as a banner at the top of the dashboard.

  1. What is the robots.txt check?

The app fetches your public robots.txt file and checks whether it blocks known AI crawlers (GPTBot, Googlebot, Bingbot, PerplexityBot). Blocking these crawlers prevents AI agents from indexing your products. This also appears as a banner, separate from your product score.

Fixing Issues

  1. Where do I fix the issues the app found?

All fixes are made in your Shopify Admin → Products. The app is read-only — it cannot make changes on your behalf. Each failed check in the product detail view explains exactly what to change and where.

  1. I fixed several products. Do I need to do anything in the app?

Yes — run a new scan by clicking "Run scan" in the top-right. The app does not automatically detect changes to your products. Scanning is always manual and on-demand.

  1. I don't have GTINs for my products. What should I do?

If your products don't have manufacturer barcodes, you can purchase GS1-certified GTINs at gs1.org. These are the globally recognised identifiers that AI shopping agents and Google Merchant Center use to match products across the web.

  1. My description is long but Description Quality is still failing. Why?

The Description Quality check specifically looks for numbers or measurements in the text — not word count. A 500-word description with no numeric content will still fail. Add at least one specific measurement, weight, dimension, volume, or quantity.

  1. I activated the Agentic Storefronts channel but the banner is still showing.

Run a new scan — the app only checks channel status at scan time. After the new scan completes, the banner will clear if the channel is now correctly active.

  1. I fixed my robots.txt but the warning banner is still there.

Same as above — run a new scan. The robots.txt is re-fetched fresh on every scan.

Privacy and Data

  1. What data does the app store about my store?

The app stores: your shop domain, scan results (product ID, product title, score, and which checks failed), and a record of when scans were run. Raw product data (descriptions, barcodes, images) is processed in memory during a scan but is never written to the database.

  1. Does the app store any customer data?

No. The app never fetches or stores customer names, email addresses, postal addresses, order history, or any customer PII whatsoever. It only accesses product catalog data.

  1. Where is my data stored?

In a Supabase-hosted PostgreSQL database. Your data is isolated from other merchants' data at the application layer using your unique shop ID.

  1. What happens to my data when I uninstall?

Your store is immediately marked inactive and your OAuth session token is deleted the moment Shopify sends the uninstall webhook. All scan results, product scores, and app logs are permanently deleted within 48 hours when Shopify sends the GDPR shop deletion (SHOP_REDACT) webhook. A minimal record of your shop domain is retained for audit purposes only.

  1. Can the app read my orders or payment information?

No. The app holds only three read-only permissions: read_products, read_product_listings, and read_publications. It has no access to orders, customers, payments, fulfilment, or any other store data.

Troubleshooting

  1. The scan failed. What do I do?

Click "Run scan" again. Scan failures are usually transient — caused by a brief API timeout or connection issue with Shopify. If scans consistently fail across multiple attempts, contact support.

  1. The scan is taking longer than expected.

The app displays a progress state during scanning. For stores with 500 products, allow up to 90 seconds. If it never completes, try refreshing the page and running a new scan.

  1. My score went down after a new scan. Why?

This can happen if you added new products that score poorly, or if a previously populated field has since been cleared in Shopify (e.g. a category was removed during a bulk edit). Sort the product table by score to identify which products changed.

  1. The dashboard shows a different product count than I have in my store.

The app scans up to 500 products as returned by the Shopify Admin API. Draft products and archived products may or may not be included depending on your store configuration. If your total catalog exceeds 500, only the first 500 are scored.

  1. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app. Will my old scan data still be there?

If you reinstall within 48 hours of uninstalling, your previous scan data may still be present. If you reinstall after 48 hours, all previous data will have been permanently deleted and you will start fresh with an empty state.

Contact and Support

  1. How do I contact support?

Email: support@lifedesignos.com

  1. Where can I find the privacy policy?

The full privacy policy is available on the Shopify App Store listing for AI Readiness Auditor.

  1. Can I request deletion of my data before the automated 48-hour window?

Yes. Email support@lifedesignos.com with your shop domain and we will manually delete all your data within 72 hours of the request.

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