Search became an answer.
People increasingly ask a machine and read one reply. Either you're in that reply or you aren't — and unlike a ranking, there's no page two to be on.
Four questions, in the order they matter
Each stage only matters if the one before it passes — so ARIA measures them in sequence.
Access
Can answer-engine crawlers fetch your pages at all? Robots rules, WAF blocks and JavaScript-only content stop the conversation before it starts.
Readiness
Once fetched, is the page shaped to be quoted? Clear claims, answerable headings, and facts a machine can lift without guessing.
Representation
When engines describe you, do they get it right? Wrong descriptions travel further than missing ones.
Citation
Do they actually name you when someone asks about your category? This is the only stage that shows up as demand.
What we don't tell you to do
Add an llms.txt file
It doesn't work. Google has said on the record that it uses no such file, and studies find no correlation with citation. We publish our reasoning rather than sell the tactic.
Rewrite everything for machines
Pages that read as machine bait read badly to people, and the engines are trained on people's judgement. Clarity does both jobs.
Chase every engine separately
The stages above are common to all of them. Fix access and readiness once and every engine benefits.