AI SEO Audit: What Should Your Business Check?
- 4 hours ago
- 10 min read
An AI SEO audit examines how search engines and AI platforms find, understand and present your business.
It can reveal whether your brand appears in AI-generated answers, which competitors are being recommended and which sources are shaping those results.
The audit should also identify the practical work needed to improve your visibility. This may involve your website, content, technical SEO, reviews, links, digital PR or wider business information.
Despite the new name, an AI SEO audit shouldn’t be separated from traditional SEO. Google has confirmed that its generative AI features remain rooted in its existing search and quality systems.
Strong technical foundations, useful content and a trusted reputation still matter. The audit simply looks at these areas through the wider lens of AI-powered search.
What Is an AI SEO Audit?
An AI SEO audit is a structured review of your visibility across platforms such as:
Google AI Overviews
Google AI Mode
ChatGPT Search
Microsoft Copilot
Gemini
Perplexity
Other AI-powered answer platforms
It examines whether your business is mentioned, recommended or cited when people ask relevant questions.
It should also assess why you appear for some prompts but not others.
For example, the audit may find that ChatGPT understands your services but has weak information about the sectors you work with. Google might cite your articles but overlook your commercial pages.
Perplexity may rely on a competitor’s guide because it provides clearer evidence.
These findings create the starting point for an AI SEO strategy.
1. Check Your Current AI Search Visibility
The first stage is to establish where your business appears now.
Choose a group of prompts based on questions that real customers might ask. These should cover different stages of the buying process.
Research prompts
These are used when someone is exploring a problem or subject.
Examples include:
How can a business improve its visibility in ChatGPT?
What should I look for in dealer management software?
Which type of window is best for an older property?
Comparison prompts
These help someone compare products or providers.
Examples include:
Which AI SEO agencies provide visibility reporting?
What are the best dealer management systems for independent dealerships?
Aluminium windows compared with uPVC windows
Purchase-focused prompts
These indicate stronger buying intent.
Examples include:
Recommend an AI SEO agency for a UK business.
Who can provide VAT support to an international retailer?
Which companies install aluminium doors in Essex?
Track these prompts across the platforms most relevant to your customers.
Record:
Whether your brand is mentioned
Your position within the answer
Whether you are recommended
The way your business is described
Links to your website
Other websites being cited
Competing businesses that appear
One favourable search isn’t enough. AI answers can change, so you need a wider set of prompts to create a useful baseline.
Our guide to measuring AI search visibility explains this process in more depth.
2. Compare Your Visibility With Competitors
AI search performance needs context.
A brand mention rate of 20% might look promising. It becomes less impressive if a competitor appears in 70% of the same answers.
Identify the businesses that appear most often across your tracked prompts. These may not be the competitors you expected.
AI platforms sometimes select businesses that rank well in traditional search. At other times, they may favour a company supported by stronger reviews, clearer content or more trusted third-party coverage.
Compare:
Overall mentions
First-position mentions
Recommendations
Platform coverage
Cited pages
Topics associated with each business
Third-party sources supporting each brand
Locations and sectors understood by the platform
The aim isn’t to copy a competitor’s website. It is to understand the evidence that may be helping an AI platform assess them.
3. Review Access for Search and AI Crawlers
Your content must be accessible before it can appear within an AI search result.
The technical review should check whether important pages can be crawled, rendered and indexed.
For Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, pages must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. Google says there are no extra technical requirements for its generative AI features beyond established search requirements.
ChatGPT Search uses OAI-SearchBot to surface websites within its search results. Official OpenAI documentation states that websites which block OAI-SearchBot won’t be included within ChatGPT Search answers, although they may still appear as basic navigational links.
Your audit should check:
The robots.txt file
Meta robots directives
X-Robots-Tag headers
Canonical tags
HTTP response codes
XML sitemaps
Search engine indexation
CDN and firewall rules
JavaScript rendering
Pages hidden behind forms or logins
Access to images and supporting resources
It is important to separate OAI-SearchBot from GPTBot. OAI-SearchBot supports ChatGPT Search.
GPTBot relates to potential model training. Businesses can make separate decisions about each crawler.
Allowing a crawler doesn’t guarantee visibility. It ensures your website is at least available for consideration.
4. Examine Your Website Structure
A confusing website makes important information harder to find.
The audit should examine how commercial pages, supporting content, case studies and company information are connected.
Ask:
Can each important page be reached through internal links?
Are related services grouped together?
Do blog articles link to the relevant commercial pages?
Are orphan pages present?
Do several pages compete for the same subject?
Are old pages still receiving internal links?
Does the main navigation reflect the services you want to promote?
Are breadcrumbs used where appropriate?
Internal linking helps visitors move through the site. It also shows search platforms how different subjects and pages relate to each other.
For example, a guide about measuring AI visibility should link to the main AI SEO service. The service page can then link back to the guide where someone may want more detail.
This creates a connected body of information rather than a collection of isolated pages.
5. Check Whether Your Business Is Clearly Explained
AI platforms need to understand who you are and what you do.
Review whether your website clearly states:
Your business name
Your main services
Your products
The customers you support
The sectors you understand
The locations and countries you cover
Your key people
Your experience
Your contact information
Your trading address
Any qualifications or professional memberships
This information should be consistent across the website and trusted external profiles.
A business can serve local, national and international clients at the same time. The website simply needs to explain this clearly.
Improve Marketing is based in Suffolk, for example, but works with businesses across the UK and internationally. A local mention shouldn’t lead an AI platform to assume that our services are limited to Suffolk.
Check for conflicting information, old addresses, former staff profiles and outdated service descriptions. These can make the wider picture less clear.
6. Review Your Commercial Pages
Each important service or product should have a useful page.
A thin page containing a headline, a few claims and a contact form gives AI platforms little information to work with.
Review whether each commercial page answers the questions a potential customer may have:
What is the service?
Who is it for?
What problems does it solve?
What is included?
What is your process?
Where is it available?
What experience do you have?
How is performance measured?
What evidence can you provide?
What should someone do next?
The page doesn’t need to answer every imaginable question. It should provide enough information for someone to judge whether the service may suit them.
Avoid vague language such as “cutting-edge solutions” where a clear explanation would work better.
Specific details help both customers and search platforms.
7. Assess the Quality of Your Supporting Content
Supporting articles can build depth around your main services.
However, publishing large volumes of generic content won’t automatically improve AI visibility.
Google’s current guidance places particular value on useful, original and non-commodity content. This means information that adds something beyond the same basic advice found on dozens of other websites.
An AI SEO audit should look for:
Important customer questions with no useful answer
Topics covered only at a surface level
Outdated advice
Articles with no original insight
Several posts targeting the same intent
Content written outside your genuine area of expertise
Pages that receive traffic but don’t support a business goal
Useful articles with weak internal links
Missing comparisons, case studies or practical guides
The strongest content often draws on first-hand work.
That could include results, screenshots, tests, client questions, original research or an explanation of how your team solved a problem.
This makes the content more useful and gives AI platforms a reason to reference your version rather than another generic summary.
8. Look for Evidence of Experience and Expertise
Claims need evidence.
A company saying it is “trusted”, “leading” or “experienced” doesn’t prove very much. These descriptions appear across countless websites.
An AI SEO audit should identify where stronger proof can be added.
Useful evidence may include:
Case studies
Client results
Testimonials
Reviews
Original photographs
Examples of completed work
Named authors
Expert biographies
Qualifications
Awards
Research
Data
Years of relevant experience
Recognised clients
Detailed explanations of your process
The evidence should be placed where it helps.
A strong case study hidden deep within the website may have less impact than a concise result shown on the relevant service page, with a link to the full story.
Author information matters too. If a specialist writes an article, explain who they are and why they know the subject.
9. Audit Reviews and Third-Party Mentions
Your business cannot prove its authority using its own website alone.
AI platforms may compare your claims with information from independent sources.
Review your presence across:
Google Business Profile
Bing Places
Trusted review platforms
Industry directories
Professional bodies
Trade publications
Local media
Client and partner websites
Award websites
Social profiles
Podcast and event websites
Check whether these sources describe the business correctly.
The audit should also examine:
Review volume and quality
How recently reviews were received
Common words used by customers
Incorrect business details
Unclaimed profiles
Missing links
Low-quality directory listings
Coverage supporting your main services
Mentions of competitors within trusted publications
Not every mention carries the same value. Relevant coverage from a respected source is usually more useful than a large number of weak directory entries.
This is where focused link building and digital PR become part of AI SEO.
10. Check Brand and Entity Consistency
Search and AI platforms need to connect different pieces of information with the correct business.
Review how consistently your organisation is presented across the web.
Look at:
Business name variations
Addresses
Telephone numbers
Website URLs
Social accounts
Founder and team profiles
Service descriptions
Company registration details
Professional accreditations
Logos and branding
Relationships with parent or partner companies
Several companies can have similar names. People may also share names with other experts.
Clear About pages, team profiles, contact details and external profiles help reduce confusion.
Where suitable, structured data can support these connections. It should always match the information visible on the page.
11. Review Structured Data Without Chasing “AI Schema”
There is no special schema that guarantees inclusion in an AI answer.
Google has specifically stated that no special AI markup is required for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
That doesn’t mean structured data is pointless. Appropriate markup can help search engines understand certain visible information and make pages eligible for established search features.
Depending on your website, this may include:
Organisation
LocalBusiness
Product
Article
Breadcrumb
Event
JobPosting
Video
Review markup where permitted
Check that the markup:
Uses a supported type
Matches the visible page
Contains accurate information
Isn’t misleading
Has been tested
Remains updated when the page changes
Adding large amounts of irrelevant schema won’t make a weak page authoritative.
12. Check Local and Product Information
If your business serves local customers, review your location signals.
This includes:
Google Business Profile
Bing Places
Address consistency
Opening hours
Service areas
Local landing pages
Directions and contact details
Local reviews
Relevant local coverage
Location pages should provide meaningful local information. Avoid producing near-identical pages where only the town name changes.
For ecommerce businesses, check:
Product names
Descriptions
Prices
Availability
Product identifiers
Images
Reviews
Shipping information
Returns details
Merchant feeds
Accurate feeds and profiles can support visibility across product search, shopping and AI-powered results.
13. Find Out Which Sources AI Platforms Cite
Citations can reveal where an AI platform is getting its information.
Record whether it cites:
Your homepage
Service pages
Blog posts
Case studies
Competitor websites
Directories
Review platforms
News articles
Public data
Industry publications
The cited source may not be the page you expected.
A broad blog article could be cited instead of a carefully built service page. An old directory entry might be shaping an inaccurate description of the business.
Bing Webmaster Tools now includes AI Performance data for supported Microsoft AI experiences. This can show cited pages and sample grounding queries used to retrieve the content.
Google has also introduced a Generative AI performance report within Search Console. Access is being rolled out, so it may not yet appear for every website.
These reports should be used alongside independent prompt monitoring to build a broader picture.
14. Measure AI Referrals and Commercial Results
Visibility is useful, but it should support a real business goal.
The audit should review referral traffic from AI platforms where that data is available.
Look at:
Referral sessions
Landing pages
Engagement
Enquiries
Trial registrations
Purchases
Revenue
Assisted conversions
Branded search activity
OpenAI adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to links from ChatGPT Search, making some referral visits easier to identify within analytics platforms.
Not every AI-influenced enquiry will arrive through a tracked link. Someone may see your business recommended and then search for your name through Google, visit directly or make contact later.
It is worth adding “How did you hear about us?” to suitable forms or sales conversations. This can reveal journeys that analytics may miss.
15. Prioritise the Findings
A useful audit doesn’t end with a list of 100 problems.
Each finding should be assessed according to:
Commercial importance
Likely impact
Urgency
Ease of implementation
Resources required
Dependencies
Ability to measure progress
A blocked crawler or major indexation problem may need urgent attention.
Improving a commercially important service page could offer greater value than publishing another general article. A trusted industry mention might fill a clear authority gap.
Group the work into practical stages.
Immediate fixes
These may include crawler blocks, incorrect business details, indexing problems and broken internal links.
Short-term improvements
This could involve strengthening service pages, updating profiles, adding proof and improving existing content.
Ongoing development
Longer-term work may include new content, digital PR, link acquisition, reviews and AI visibility tracking.
AI SEO Tactics You Probably Don’t Need
An audit should also protect you from wasting time on unsupported shortcuts.
Be cautious about recommendations centred on:
Creating an llms.txt file for Google
Adding “AI schema”
Breaking every paragraph into tiny chunks
Producing a separate page for every prompt variation
Rewriting good content purely for AI crawlers
Buying large numbers of weak brand mentions
Guaranteeing inclusion within ChatGPT
Treating one AI answer as a permanent ranking
Google states that it doesn’t use llms.txt for Google Search, including its generative AI features. It also says there is no special schema needed for AI search.
This may change across other technologies, so developments should still be monitored. For now, these files and shortcuts shouldn’t distract from better content, technical SEO and genuine authority.
How Often Should You Run an AI SEO Audit?
A full audit doesn’t need to be repeated every month.
Most businesses could carry out a detailed audit when:
Starting an AI SEO campaign
Launching a new website
Entering a new market
Adding an important service
Experiencing a major visibility change
Reviewing their wider SEO strategy
Prompt visibility, citations and competitors can then be monitored more regularly.
AI search is changing quickly. A quarterly review of the main findings can help identify platform changes, new competitors and fresh content opportunities.
Turn Your AI SEO Audit Into a Practical Strategy
An AI SEO audit should provide more than a score.
It should tell you:
How AI platforms currently understand your business
Where your brand appears
Which competitors have stronger visibility
What sources are being trusted
Which pages are helping or holding you back
What should be improved first
How progress will be measured
Improve Marketing provides AI visibility audits for businesses that want to strengthen their presence across traditional and AI-powered search.
We review prompts, mentions, citations, competitors, content, technical SEO and external authority. The findings are then turned into a prioritised strategy based on genuine commercial opportunities.
