Guides & How-Tos
Everything you need to get the most out of Searchlight — from connecting Google Analytics to white-labeling your reports.
Want the big picture first? See how Searchlight works end-to-end.
Getting Started
How to Connect Google Analytics (GA4)
Connect your GA4 property in one click to track AI referral traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude.
How to Connect Google Search Console
Link Search Console to surface informational queries with the highest AI citation potential.
Run Your First Scan and Read the Report
Analyze any website in 30 seconds and learn how to read the AI Readiness score.
How to Optimize Your Website for ChatGPT
A practical how-to for getting your pages read, understood and cited by ChatGPT — covering GPTBot access, JSON-LD schema, robots.txt directives and content clarity.
Using the Dashboard
Compare Your Score Against Industry Benchmarks
See how your AI Readiness stacks up against peers in your industry.
Track Trends with the Score History Chart
Use the Score History view to monitor progress and validate your optimizations.
Understand the AI Visibility Tab
Read the AI vs SEO vs Social traffic classification and the AI Discovery Potential view.
Track AI Bot Visits (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot)
GA4 filters bots — here's how to see real AI crawler hits on WordPress, Plausible, Matomo or Cloudflare.
Track AI Referrals (humans clicking from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude…)
GA4 now ships a native AI Assistant channel (May 2026). Here's how to read it, plus fallbacks for properties that haven't received the rollout.
Surface AI Traffic in Your Own GA4 Reports
A 15-minute Custom Channel Group setup so ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Copilot show up as a dedicated channel in every standard GA4 report.
Optimizing for Google AI Overviews & AI Mode (what Google actually says)
Cut through the AEO/GEO noise. The official Google rules for AI Overviews and AI Mode, updated December 2025 — plus the five things Google says you don't need to do.
Understanding AI Discovery Probability
Why the top-line score is a probability (%), how it's computed, and how it relates to your category scores and actual AI traffic.
What is WebMCP and should I care?
WebMCP is an emerging standard letting websites expose structured tools directly to AI agents. Here's what it is, whether it matters for your site today, and how Searchlight detects it.
Pro & Enterprise
Set Up White-Label Branding
Customize report branding with your logo, colors, and company details (Enterprise).
Manage Multiple Domains
Track multiple sites and switch between them from a single dashboard.
Install the SearchLight Detector Chrome extension
Download, install and use the SearchLight Detector to scan any page for analytics, consent platforms and AI/LLM signals.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Reach out — we're happy to help and we use your questions to expand this knowledge base.
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