Or what your AI search footprint is telling you. This chapter shows how to turn monitoring data into action: which fixes to prioritize, how to strengthen citations, and how to measure the impact on visibility and conversions.
AI search monitoring surfaces what’s working and what needs attention. Most issues fall into two buckets:
Examples: - No AI traffic to the site → technical. Check for blocked AI agents, robots.txt rules, or rendering barriers. - Competitor shows up for brand-relevant prompts → content. Improve pages for the prompts you care about. - LLMs can’t retrieve the right info → technical. Ensure meaningful content is available without JavaScript and loads fast. - Brand is missing in comparisons → content. Earn or create citations on the sources LLMs already trust.
Priority tip: Tackle technical blockers first. Great content won’t matter if LLMs can’t access or use it.
Start by ensuring your site isn’t blocking AI traffic. It happens more often than you’d think. After triple‑checking robots.txt, focus work where it moves the needle fastest:
In Scrunch, go to Citations → Add filter → Citation owner → Brand, then click your domain to see top AI‑popular pages by descending Influence Score (percentage of responses citing the source multiplied by the number of unique prompts).
There are three vectors for technical optimization:
Shameless plug: Scrunch’s Site Audits automatically checks access controls, content delivery, and content quality for any URL you drop in—so you know exactly what to fix first.
Another shameless plug: Scrunch’s Agent Experience Platform (AXP) generates a parallel, AI‑friendly version of your site for AI traffic—so agents can reliably access fast, structured, token‑efficient content.
Traditional crawls focus on web rendering and search engine accessibility. Scrunch’s AI‑oriented audits are built for how LLMs discover, ingest, and cite content. Beyond basic accessibility, they:
The result: fewer blind spots for AI platforms, faster time‑to‑citation, and better downstream conversion visibility.
Don’t jump straight to net‑new pages. Start by improving content on URLs AI platforms already see and crawl often. Use citations as your guide—LLMs are telling you which sources they trust.
Focus on pages that: - Already attract AI or organic traffic. - Are close to winning a citation with modest improvements. - Map cleanly to later‑funnel prompts with buying intent.
Top‑of‑funnel prompts can drive lots of visibility but not necessarily conversions. As prompts move down‑funnel (evaluation and comparison), LLMs increasingly cite niche sources with higher buyer intent. Strike a balance so you win where conversions happen, not just where volume is high.
Shameless plug: Scrunch makes it easy to filter prompts by funnel stage, persona, region, and custom tags—so you can prioritize the highest‑intent opportunities first.
Two paths: optimize existing pages, then create net new.
Optimize existing content by analyzing already‑cited sources for the prompts you care about. Look for differences in: - Length and depth - Directness in answering the question - Recency for time‑sensitive topics - Proprietary data vs. secondary sources - Expert POV and verified facts - Unique insights or stats that aren’t widely available - Information that supports or refutes related prompts
Common improvements: - Structure pages so LLMs can parse and prioritize (headers, clear markers). - Tighten schema and metadata to clarify context. - Add FAQs aligned to the exact prompts the page should win. - Update with fresher data, links, and resources.
Then create net‑new content: - Start with greenfield prompts (no competitors present). - Next, target prompts where competitors appear but your brand doesn’t—prioritizing weaker pages that are easier to beat.
Shameless plug: Scrunch’s Content Optimizer analyzes any audited page, identifies intent, lets you select a target persona, suggests prompts to optimize for, and recommends internal pages to borrow authoritative content from. Approve or edit, then publish to your CMS or deliver directly to LLMs via AXP.
Scrunch provides analytics purpose‑built for AI search performance, so you can quantify progress and prove impact:
Yes. Consultants with SEO and content chops typically get value fast: - Quick setup: Add a site, auto‑generate/import prompts, create personas, and track competitors in minutes. - Clear insights: See brand presence, citations, sentiment, and competitive performance at a glance. - Actionable recommendations: Use Site Audits and Content Optimizer to move from “what” to “how” quickly. - Fast implementation: Many customers—including large enterprises—are deployed and collecting data within one day. - Try it hands‑on: Scrunch offers a 7‑day free trial of the self‑serve Explorer plan. You can start a free trial without talking to sales.
If you’re evaluating for an enterprise, free trials are limited to a single brand and don’t include SSO or the enterprise data API. You can contact the Scrunch team to discuss a custom evaluation.
Customers report measurable business outcomes tied directly to AI search: - Increased brand presence and citations - Improved sentiment scores - Greater share of voice vs. competitors - Growth in AI‑referred website traffic - Lower costs vs. alternatives - Higher and faster conversion rates
They also highlight powerful strategic insights, exceptional product usability and customer support, and impressive product development velocity. Scrunch has raised $26M from leading investors (including Mayfield, Decibel, Homebrew, and GTM Capital), underscoring long‑term commitment to the category.
Up next: Chapter 4 — Actions 🥾
Or, how to make AI agents your friend and deliver optimized content directly to them.