How to read your self-check result: levels, caps and not sure answers
Your level is the headline. The list of open questions underneath is the useful part.
Am I Ready for Agents? editors · 8 September 2026 · Reviewed September 2026
Your self-check result has three parts: a level from 1 to 5, five area percentages, and a list of the questions you answered no or not sure. The level tells you roughly where you stand, the lowest area tells you where to start, and the list is what you take to your web team.
What does the level mean?
The level summarises your own answers against our published rubric. Yes scores 2 points, not sure 1 and no 0. Each area becomes a percentage, the five areas count equally, and the average falls in one of five bands: Hidden (0–24), Found (25–44), Readable (45–64), Actionable (65–84) and Prepared (85–100).
A level is not a measurement of your site. It reflects what you and your colleagues know today, which is why two people in the same business can reach different levels. That difference is useful in itself: the 30-minute review is built around it.
Why was my level capped?
The weakest-area rule limits your level to one above the level your lowest area would get on its own. In the worked example on the readiness levels page, the overall score is 59, which is Readable, but the pay area scores 17%, which would be Hidden on its own, so the result is capped at Found.
The cap exists because an agent's task is a chain. A site that is easy to find and read but cannot take a payment still loses the task at the last step. If your result says capped, the area it names is where to start, whatever your average.
What does a not sure answer tell me?
Sometimes more than a no. A no is a known gap. A not sure usually means the work sits between teams and nobody has checked. The rubric gives not sure 1 point, because part of the work often exists, and lists every not sure answer in your result so it is never hidden.
If many of your answers are not sure, treat the level as provisional. Get the answers first, then take the self-check again.
How do I compare my areas?
Look at the five percentages, not only the level. Find, read and act have 4 questions each; pay and trust have 3, so one answer moves pay or trust further than the others. Changing a single answer from no to yes is worth 25 percentage points in find, read or act, and 33 in pay or trust.
The readiness calculator lets you test changes like these and shows the fewest answers that would move you up a level.
What should I do with the list of open questions?
Each question in your result links to its group on ask your web team, which names the standards a developer will recognise and says what a clear answer sounds like. Give each open question an owner and a date. When the answers come back, take the self-check again. Answers are not stored, so write your level and area percentages down.
What does the result not tell me?
- Whether agents actually visit your site, or how often.
- How you appear in AI answers.
- Traffic, conversion or revenue.
- Whether your answers are correct. Only a check of the site itself can confirm that, which is the subject of the next lesson.