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The Nine Signals

Answerability

Whether a buyer question can be answered from a clear, self-contained passage on your site.

SignalAnswerability
What it checksQuestion coverage, passage clarity, fact completeness, and extraction quality
MovesCited, Recommended
Fix cardImportant facts are unclear or missing
VerifyAsk the same buyer question again
At risk
Needs work
Strong
04070100

What it measures​

Answerability is the degree to which the site answers real buyer questions in visible, attributable content. A page is answerable when an assistant can retrieve one passage and use it without heavy rewriting or guessing.

The research recommends measuring coverage, clarity, self-contained wording, explicit facts, machine readability, technical stability, and confidence behavior. For local businesses, the minimum fact inventory usually includes services, service area, hours, price or estimate policy, eligibility constraints, response time, and contact or booking route.

Why it moves your EAC​

If a page does not answer the question, an assistant has to infer. Inference is where businesses get skipped, misread, or replaced by a competitor whose page states the answer plainly.

Answerability turns vague content into reusable evidence. It is the difference between "we offer exceptional care" and "same-day pediatric dental appointments are available Monday through Saturday at our Bellevue location."

What the agent sees​

Weak read

The page says the company is experienced and customer-focused, but does not state service area, price policy, hours, or the exact services relevant to the prompt.

Strong read

The page has a heading that matches the buyer question and a short answer that states the service, area, condition, price or estimate policy, and next step.

How to improve​

  1. Build a buyer-question inventory. Include pricing, service area, hours, emergency availability, eligibility, credentials, insurance, booking, and response-time questions.
  2. Put direct answers under direct headings. Use headings such as "Do you offer emergency appointments?" and answer in the first sentence.
  3. Use fact rows and lists. Hours, service areas, accepted plans, price ranges, fees, and constraints are easier to extract when labeled.
  4. Keep answers self-contained. Repeat the business, service, and location inside the passage so the chunk still makes sense out of context.

How to verify​

Can the assistant answer from your page?

Re-scan the same buyer questions. A passing answer cites the business and repeats the corrected fact without hedging.

Re-run check

Research basis: docs/research/deep-research-report(8).md