An AI search visibility audit checks whether AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews actually know about and mention your brand when someone asks a relevant question. You can run a solid first-pass audit in about 30 minutes using nothing but the free tools you already have access to. This checklist walks through exactly what to check, in order, with a simple scoring rubric at the end so you know where you stand.
Set a timer. Do this in one sitting. Grab a notes doc or spreadsheet, you'll want to log your findings for comparison next quarter.
Before You Start: Pick Your 5 Core Queries
Write down the 5 questions your ideal customer would realistically ask an AI tool while researching a decision in your category. Not your brand name, actual buyer-intent questions. For an edtech brand, that might be "best data analytics bootcamp for career switchers" or "is a coding bootcamp worth it in 2026." For a SaaS tool, "best [category] software for small teams." Write these down now; you'll reuse them across every step below.
Part 1: Brand Presence in AI Tools (10 minutes)
1. Ask ChatGPT your 5 core queries. Open a fresh chat (logged out or new conversation, to avoid personalization skewing results) and ask each question plainly, the way a real customer would. Log: Did your brand come up unprompted? Was it accurate? Was it favorable?
2. Ask Perplexity the same 5 queries. Perplexity shows its sources inline, which is useful, note which domains it's citing. If competitors' domains show up as sources and yours doesn't, that's a direct gap to close.
3. Check Google's AI Overview for the same queries. Search each query in Google and screenshot whether an AI Overview appears, and whether you're cited within it. Note the exact domains that are cited, this tells you who Google's system currently trusts for this topic.
4. Ask directly: "What is [your brand]?" This tests whether AI tools have accurate, current information about you specifically. Outdated pricing, wrong positioning, or a "I don't have information about this" response are all things you need to know now, not when a prospect encounters them.
5. Ask a comparison question: "[Your brand] vs [top competitor]." This is one of the highest-intent query types in existence, someone asking this is deep in decision mode. If the AI tool can't answer it, or answers it entirely in the competitor's favor, that's a priority fix.
Score this section: give yourself 1 point for each of the 5 core queries where your brand appeared accurately, up to 5 points.
Part 2: Technical Foundation (8 minutes)
6. Run your homepage and top 3 blog posts through Google's Rich Results Test. Confirm schema markup is present and error-free. No schema at all on your core content is a common and fixable gap.
7. Check for FAQPage schema on any page with an FAQ section. If you have FAQ content without schema, that's low-effort, high-impact work sitting on the table.
8. Check your robots.txt for AI crawler blocks. Look specifically for GPTBot, PerplexityBot, CCBot, and Google-Extended user-agent rules. Some sites (often by accident, via a security plugin default) block these crawlers entirely, which means you're actively preventing AI tools from ever indexing you. This is a five-minute check that occasionally uncovers a huge, silent problem.
9. Confirm your top pages load fast and are actually indexed. Check Google Search Console's coverage report. A page that isn't indexed can't be cited by anything, no matter how well-written it is.
Score this section: 1 point each for schema present and error-free, FAQ schema implemented, no AI crawlers blocked, and top pages confirmed indexed, up to 4 points.
Part 3: E-E-A-T and Authority Signals (7 minutes)
10. Do your core content pages have named, credentialed authors? Anonymous "Team" or "Admin" bylines are a weak signal. Real names with real bio pages and demonstrable expertise are what AI systems (and honestly, human readers) trust more.
11. Search "[your brand] reviews" and see what comes up. Third-party review presence (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Google Reviews, industry-specific platforms) heavily influences how AI tools characterize you, since these are common sources in their training and retrieval data. No third-party presence is a real gap, not a cosmetic one.
12. Check whether your brand is mentioned on relevant Reddit threads or forums. Search site:reddit.com [your category] [your brand]. LLMs draw heavily on forum discussion for real-world, less-marketing-driven opinions. Organic, honest mentions (not astroturfed ones) carry real weight here.
13. Check your "About" and author pages for depth. Vague, generic bios versus specific, credentialed, case-study-backed bios make a measurable difference in how much authority a page projects, to both human readers and AI trust signals.
Score this section: 1 point each for named authors with bio pages, visible third-party reviews, organic forum/community mentions, and substantive About/author pages, up to 4 points.
Part 4: Content Structure (5 minutes)
14. Open your top 3 blog posts and check: is there a direct answer in the first 2-3 sentences after the H1? If your posts open with a story, an anecdote, or throat-clearing before the actual answer, that's the single most common structural issue I see in AEO audits.
15. Check whether your H2s are phrased as questions or clear topic statements. Vague H2s like "Our Approach" perform worse for AI extraction than specific ones like "How Long Does the Program Take."
16. Confirm you have at least one FAQ section on your most important page. If your highest-value page (pricing, core product, flagship service) has no FAQ section, that's a quick, high-leverage addition.
Score this section: 1 point each for direct-answer openers present, clear question-based H2s, and an FAQ section on your top page, up to 3 points.
Scoring Rubric
Add up your points across all four sections (16 possible):
- 13-16: Strong. You're already doing the fundamentals well. Focus on expanding topical depth and third-party presence rather than fixing structural gaps.
- 8-12: Developing. You have some pieces in place but real gaps exist, usually either in schema/technical setup or in content structure. Prioritize whichever section scored lowest.
- 4-7: Early stage. Most of the foundational work hasn't started yet. Don't panic, this is genuinely normal for most small companies right now, since AI search visibility work is new. Start with Part 2 (technical foundation) since it's the fastest to fix and unlocks everything else.
- 0-3: Not yet visible. AI tools likely have little to no accurate information about you. This isn't a crisis, it's a starting point, most of your competitors are probably in the same place, which means the opportunity cost of starting now is low and the upside of being early is real.
Re-run this exact audit quarterly and track your score over time. The 5 core queries you picked at the start are your benchmark, don't change them between audits, or you lose the ability to compare.
FAQ
How is an AI search visibility audit different from a normal SEO audit? A traditional SEO audit focuses on rankings, backlinks, and technical crawlability for search engines. An AI search visibility audit specifically checks whether generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) and AI-powered search features (Google AI Overviews) surface and accurately represent your brand, which depends on some overlapping factors but also on schema, citability, and third-party mention presence that traditional audits often skip.
How often should I run this audit? Quarterly is a good cadence for most small teams, frequent enough to catch drift (AI tools' knowledge of your brand can go stale or get outdated) without becoming a time sink. If you're actively in a content overhaul, monthly makes sense for the first two quarters.
What if my brand doesn't show up in ChatGPT or Perplexity at all? That's common for smaller or newer brands and isn't a sign you're doing something wrong, it usually just reflects limited web presence and mentions so far. Focus on the technical foundation and content structure sections of this checklist first, since those are prerequisites for ever being cited, then build third-party presence over the following quarter.
Do I need paid tools to run this audit? No. Every check in this checklist uses free tools: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Search, Google Search Console, and Google's Rich Results Test. Paid AI-monitoring platforms can automate and scale this tracking later, but they're not required to get a genuinely useful first read.
Is a low score actually bad, or just where most companies are right now? For most small and mid-sized companies, a low score right now reflects where the whole market is, not a unique failure. This space moved fast and most marketing teams haven't caught up yet, which is exactly why running this audit now, while the bar is still low, is worth doing.
Want a second opinion on your results, or help building out the fixes this checklist surfaces? Check out my case studies or get in touch, I run this exact audit process for startup and edtech clients as a starting point before any content work begins.