Google’s AI is secretly scoring your brand’s trustworthiness. Every single piece of content you publish either raises or lowers that score. And if your score drops too low, you appear less in the search results. In this blog, I’m going to show you exactly how to check your score and repair it before it’s too late. I’ve helped brands generate millions of revenue through Google. And now we’re helping clients adapt to the biggest shift in search since the algorithm was invented. Let’s get started.
The Invisible Scoring System:
If you’ve been watching your traffic flight line where you’re ranking on page one, your AI trust score is a reason why. Imagine you’re a loan officer. Two people walk in with identical credit scores, but one has consistent income across multiple sources, solid references, and a stable history. The other sketchy employment, conflicting information, no references, who gets the loan?
So, just like financial institutions use credit scores to determine your creditworthiness, Google’s AI uses trust scores to determine your brand’s worthiness. Now, Google doesn’t just give you a little number you can check. You won’t see Ashdev press score 750. But just like credit scores, there are clear signals that show whether you’re trusted or not.
Your rankings, your citations, whether you show up in AI overviews or get ignored completely. All of it points to one thing. How much Google’s AI actually trusts your brand.
So, how do you know if your brand is trusted by AI or silently filtered out? One of the clearest signals is this. Are you getting cited by AI tools like Google, Chat GPT, and Perplexity when people ask questions in your space?
Our team analyzed 1.5 million AI-generated answers to find out what content actually gets cited and what gets left behind. The results were clear. Blogs account for 44 to 65% of all citations, but not just any blogs, only the ones the AI trusts.
That trust comes down to five core factors. And these are the exact signals Google uses to determine whether you deserve to show up or disappear.
Five Core Factors Behind AI Trust:
Factor one, EAT signals, also known as E, experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Are you sharing real results or just regurgitated theory? Do you have actual credentials or just good SEO?
Factor two, cross-platform consistency. When people look you up on LinkedIn, YouTube, or even your website, do they see content from you at all? And if you do have content and you’re consistent on those platforms, is your advice similar, or are you contradictory to the advice you give on some of the other platforms? Because if you are contradicting yourself, that could potentially negatively impact you.
Factor three, engagement patterns. Google watches how people interact with your content. Are they sticking around, or are they fleeing your site like it’s on fire?
Factor four, citation graph. Are reputable sites linking to you? Are people mentioning you in forums like Reddit or even industry discussions? That builds your semantic reputation. Basically, how AI learns how to associate your name with a specific topic or even industry.
Factor five, technical trust signals. This is the behind-the-scenes stuff like schema markup, structured data, and consistent author names. Basically, it’s how you label your content so AI can understand what it’s about, who wrote it, and whether you’re credible. If that structure is missing, the algorithm gets confused or ignores you completely.
Now, here’s a reality check. Our analysis of 9 million content pages shows that traditional SEO content is now only 41% effective. But content optimized for AI trust signals is 91% harder to create. And that’s exactly what separates the winners from the losers.
And here’s the scary part. Most businesses are destroying their AI trust score without even realizing it.
The 5-Minute Trust Score Audit:
So how do you know if your brand’s already in the danger zone? Let me walk you through the same 5-minute audit we run our clients through that shows exactly where your score stands and what’s holding you back.
So, you want to know what your trust score actually looks like. Good, because what I’m about to show you will either confirm your worst fears or reveal why your competitors are suddenly outranking you. Let’s run a quick five-trust score audit.
Test one, the consistency check. Right now, open a tab and search your company’s name plus your expertise. For example, Luna Labs sleep tracker or velour skin anti-aging serum. What do you see?
Multiple content types, blog posts, videos, social mentions, is it just your homepage and tumble weeds, or do you also see your homepage, Amazon, and a lot of other websites that talk about your products and services?
If Google only knows you from one place, that’s not authority. That’s invisibility with a website.
Test two, the authority reality check. Search your expertise area without your brand name. For example, the best sleep trackers or top retinal serums for sensitive skin. Do you appear anywhere? More importantly, are you in the AI overviews at the top? If you’re not showing up when people search for your expertise, your score needs work.
Test three, the engagement truth. Open Google Analytics. What’s your bounce rate over the last 90 days? Above 70%, Google’s watching people just flee your content. Under a minute session time, when your competitors are all over a minute, your trust score just knows that.
Test four, the citation reality. Now head back to Google and search your brand name in quotes plus a word like expert review or says. For example, Luna Labs plus expert or skin plus reviews. Are other websites mentioning you, quoting you, or citing you as a source?
If there’s nothing there, you’re not just missing backlinks, you’re missing proof. No citation means no authority signal in the eyes of AI.
Test five, the technical check. Use Google’s rich results test. Can Google identify who wrote the content and their expertise? If not, you’re missing critical trust infrastructure.
Now, considering all this, here’s what a healthy score would look like. You appear in AI overviews, get cited by reputable sources, people engage with your content, and your messaging is consistent everywhere.
So, how did your audit go? If you’re like most people, you’ve gotten a few green lights and a few red flags. But here’s where almost everyone goes wrong. They try to fix everything at once, or worse, they start in the wrong place. Let me show you the exact sequence that actually works.
Repair Strategy, Fixing the Foundation:
If your auto reveal problems, don’t panic. What I’m about to share is the exact system we use to repair client scores. Some have gone from invisible to leaders in their space in under 90 days. Most within a year, though.
Repair strategy one. Answer first content architect. Here’s the secret. Google AI rewards direct answers. Take the exact question people are typing and use it as your heading. Then answer immediately. No fluff, no three-paragraph windup, just straight up an answer.
Our analysis of 500,000 Google AI overviews proves this. 44% of citations came from blog-style articles that answer questions directly.
Repair strategy 2, experience-based authority. Stop giving theoretical advice. Share real examples, actual results, and specific insights. Only someone with real experience would know. AI can generate generic advice all day. It can’t replicate your personal wins, failures, and battle-tested strategies.
Repair strategy 3, cross-platform message alignment. Create a message foundation document, your core beliefs, unique methodology, and key advice. Then ensure every piece of content, whether it’s LinkedIn, YouTube, blog post, or forms, aligns with this foundation. Consistency signals authority. Contradiction signals confusion.
Repair strategy four, strategic citation building. Don’t just create content on your platforms. Contribute to industry publications. Join expert roundups and provide journalistic quotes. Every reputable citation reinforces your authority across Google’s entire AI ecosystem.
Repair strategy five, technical trust infrastructure. Implement schema markup for articles, author bios, and brand info. Ensure consistent author names across platforms. Add structured data so AI systems can easily understand your expertise.
This creates a machine-readable structure that helps AI systems better understand your content and expertise, which supports your overall authority signals.
So, you fix the foundation. Good. But here’s the thing no one warns you about. Your trust score is always decaying.
Maintain Strategy, Keeping Your Score Alive:
If you’re not active and you’re not actively reinforcing it, the algorithm starts forgetting about you, and they start focusing on your competition, who’s active, and they’re building up all the positive trust signals.
Let me show you how our top-performing clients stay trusted month after month.
You repaired your trust score. But now comes the real challenge. Keeping it high while competitors try to knock you down. Here’s what our top-performing clients use to stay dominant.
Maintain strategy one. The question authority system. Instead of asking what keyword I should target, ask what specific question I want to be known for answering. Then create comprehensive content that addresses that question better than anyone else. When you’re consistently providing the best answers, Google’s AI remembers you as a go-to source.
Maintenance strategy two, trust signal monitoring. Track these monthly. Your appearance and AI overviews for expertise topics. Citations from reputable sources. Session duration and bounce rate. Cross-platform message consistency. When any metric drops, your score needs attention.
Maintenance strategy three, authority network building. Build relationships with other trusted industry voices. When you consistently collaborate with and get mentioned by highly trusted brands, it reinforces your authority. Google’s AI sees these connections and uses them to validate your expertise.
Maintain strategy four, unique value creation. Create interactive tools. AI overviews can’t replicate. Calculators, assessments, ROI tools, compatibility checkers, whatever works for your industry. While everyone competes for tech citations, you’re creating experiences that require site visits and engagement.
Build the Bridge, Turning Trust Into Revenue:
Okay, so now you’ve done all the hard work, built the authority, earned the citations, and showed up in AI results. But here’s the reality. This itself won’t grow your business. If you don’t know how to turn trust into revenue, you’ll stay stuck at visible but broke.
Let me show you how to build the bridge from credibility to customers.
A high trust score drives traffic. But trust alone doesn’t pay bills. Winning businesses don’t just get more visitors; they get visitors ready to buy.
This is what I call a trust-to-revenue bridge system.
Step one, teach first, then bridge, deliver genuine value upfront. Answer their question completely. Solve their immediate problem thoroughly. This builds a trust foundation. Once you’ve established trust, build the bridge to your solution.
Step two, natural progression method. After providing valuable content, mention how this connects to deeper systematic approaches. This strategy will help you grow your lists. But if you want to scale to thousands consistently, you’ll need a systematic approach that most businesses miss.
That’s exactly what we help businesses build. An email marketing system that consistently generates revenue.
Step three, authority-based call to actions. Every piece should end with a clear, relevant next step. The key, making your CTA feel like a natural continuation of the value provided. When people see that you’re a trusted authority, think you have a high trust score, they’re much more likely to work with you directly.
Step four, cross-score multiplier effect. As your score improves, you’ll notice that higher conversion rates on CTAs, more inbound leads from AI-powered search like ChatGPT, better email deliverability, engagement, increased referrals and word of mouth, your improved scores don’t just drive more traffic, they drive higher quality traffic that converts.
Conclusion:
Here’s the opportunity. Our survey shows that 79 to 92% of businesses still aren’t optimizing for AI engines. If you’re starting to implement these strategies now, you’re ahead of almost everyone in your industry.
Your brand’s AI trust score is being calculated right now. Every piece of content, every platform, every citation contributes to this invisible system determining your visibility.
Businesses that understand and actively improve this scoring will dominate their industries. Those who ignore will fade into digital obscurity.
The AI revolution isn’t coming. It’s here. Your trust score is either working for you or against you. If you want Google’s AI to recommend your brand instead of your competitors, then follow these steps.
FAQs:
1. What is Google’s AI trust score?
It’s an invisible system that evaluates your brand’s credibility and determines how often you appear in AI-driven search results.
2. How do I check my AI trust score?
You can audit it using Google searches, citation checks, analytics data, and structured data tests outlined in the 5-minute audit.
3. What lowers a brand’s AI trust score?
Inconsistent messaging, poor engagement, lack of citations, and missing technical SEO signals can all reduce your score.
4. How can I improve my AI trust score?
Focus on experience-based authority, cross-platform consistency, reputable citations, and technical trust infrastructure.
5. How often should I monitor my AI trust signals?
Check monthly for drops in AI overviews, engagement rates, and citations to keep your trust score healthy.
6. Does a higher trust score increase revenue?
Yes, a strong trust score drives more qualified traffic, higher conversions, and greater visibility in AI search results.