How to audit your AI search visibility
Dravik teamUpdated 6 min read
An AI search visibility audit checks whether AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews mention your business for the questions your buyers ask, whether they describe you accurately, and which sources they cite. It combines a repeatable question test with technical checks and a review of the third-party sources behind the answers.
Why run one
Buyers now ask AI assistants for explanations, shortlists and comparisons before they ever visit a vendor's website. If those answers leave you out, describe you incorrectly, or cite a competitor's comparison page, you lose deals you never see. Most analytics tools do not show this, because no click happens.
An audit gives you a baseline, shows the gaps, and tells you which fixes are worth doing. Repeat it quarterly to track progress.
What you need
- A spreadsheet
- Access to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot (free tiers work for a first pass)
- Google Search in a clean browser session (for AI Overviews)
- Access to your robots.txt, firewall or CDN settings, and server logs if possible
- Google Search Console and your analytics tool
Plan for a few hours for a first audit of 20 to 30 questions.
Step 1: Build your question set
The audit is only as good as the questions. Write 20 to 30 questions across four groups:
| Group | Purpose | Example (hypothetical, for an AP automation firm) |
|---|---|---|
| Category questions | Does AI name you as a provider? | "What are the best invoice automation providers for mid-size companies?" |
| Problem questions | Does AI use your content to explain the problem? | "How do I stop invoices getting stuck in approval?" |
| Comparison questions | How are you framed against alternatives? | "Invoice automation software vs outsourcing accounts payable" |
| Brand questions | Is your company described correctly? | "What does [your company] do?" and "[your company] pricing" |
Pull wording from sales calls, Search Console queries and forum threads. Use the phrasing buyers use, not your marketing language.
Step 2: Run the questions consistently
AI answers vary between runs, accounts, locations and settings. To make results comparable:
- Use a logged-out session or a fresh account where possible, and turn off memory or personalization features if the tool has them
- Use the same wording every time
- Run each question at least twice per tool
- Note whether the tool searched the web or answered from its own knowledge (ChatGPT and others show when they search)
- Record the date
For Google, search each question and note whether an AI Overview appears. Check AI Mode separately if you want to cover it.
Step 3: Record what you find
For each question and each tool, capture:
| Column | What to record |
|---|---|
| Mentioned | Yes or no |
| Position | Where in the answer you appear (first, in a list, in passing) |
| Accuracy | Is the description of your company correct? |
| Cited | Is one of your pages cited as a source? Which one? |
| Competitors | Which competitors are mentioned |
| Sources | Every cited domain |
| Sentiment | Positive, neutral or negative framing |
From this you can calculate a simple mention rate: the share of questions where you appear, per tool. Track that number over time rather than reading too much into any single answer.
Step 4: Analyze the sources
The sources column is the most useful part of the audit. Group cited domains:
- Your own site
- Competitor sites
- Review platforms and directories
- Industry publications and media
- Forums and communities (Reddit, Quora, industry groups)
- Video platforms
- Reference sites (Wikipedia, government sites, standards bodies)
Then answer three questions:
- Which five domains are cited most for your category?
- Are you present, and accurately described, on each of them?
- Which of your own pages get cited, and which important pages never do?
This tells you where to focus. If AI answers lean heavily on review platforms, a complete, well-reviewed profile matters more than another blog post. Our post on sources AI engines trust explains the patterns.
Step 5: Check technical access
AI tools cannot cite what they cannot read.
| Check | How | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt rules | Open yoursite.com/robots.txt | OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot and Bingbot are not blocked, unless that is a deliberate choice |
| Firewall and CDN | Review bot settings in Cloudflare or similar | AI search crawlers are not blocked by default rules |
| Server logs | Search for AI crawler user agents | Recent visits from the crawlers you allow |
| Indexing | Search Console Page indexing report, plus Bing Webmaster Tools | Key pages indexed in both Google and Bing |
| Snippet controls | Check for nosnippet or restrictive max-snippet tags | None on pages you want cited |
| Content in HTML | View page source or disable JavaScript | Main text visible without scripts |
Our guide to AI crawlers and robots.txt lists the main user agents and their purposes.
Step 6: Review your own content
For the pages that should be cited but are not:
- Does the page answer the question directly in its first paragraph?
- Are headings phrased the way buyers ask?
- Is the information specific and current?
- Does the page rank in Google and Bing for the question or close variants?
- Is it linked from other relevant pages on your site?
Pages that rank but are not cited often need a clearer answer near the top. Pages that are neither ranking nor cited usually need SEO work first.
Step 7: Check brand consistency
Compare how your company is described on your homepage, about page, LinkedIn, directory listings and review profiles. AI summaries reflect what the web says about you. Inconsistent descriptions often produce vague or wrong AI answers. Write one clear sentence about what you do, for whom and where, and use it everywhere.
Step 8: Check traffic and lead signals
- In analytics, look for referral traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com
- In Search Console, review question-style queries for impressions and click-through rate trends
- Add an "AI assistant" option to "How did you hear about us?" on your forms
These are partial signals. Many AI-influenced buyers never click a link and later search for you by name. Our post on measuring AI search traffic covers the limits.
Step 9: Turn findings into a plan
Sort fixes by impact and effort:
| Finding | Typical fix | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| AI crawlers blocked | Update robots.txt or firewall rules | Low |
| Key pages not indexed in Bing | Submit through Bing Webmaster Tools, fix issues | Low |
| Company described inaccurately | Standardize descriptions, correct cited sources | Low to medium |
| Own pages rank but are not cited | Rewrite openings and headings for direct answers | Medium |
| Absent from top-cited review sites | Build and maintain profiles, request genuine reviews | Medium |
| Absent from top-cited publications | Expert contributions, digital PR | High |
| No content for key questions | Create focused pages | Medium to high |
Audit summary checklist
- 20 to 30 buyer questions across four groups
- Each question run at least twice in each tool
- Mentions, accuracy, citations, competitors and sources recorded
- Top cited domains identified
- Crawler access and indexing checked
- Underperforming pages reviewed
- Brand descriptions standardized
- Traffic and lead signals reviewed
- Prioritized fix list with owners
If you would rather have this done for you, AI search visibility is part of our $199 fixed-price audit. Book a business audit and we will run your questions across the main engines and hand you a written plan.
Frequently asked questions
- How often should we audit AI search visibility?
Quarterly works for most companies, with a lighter monthly check on your top 10 questions. AI tools update often, so a single audit goes stale quickly.
- Why do AI answers change every time I ask?
AI tools generate answers fresh each time, may search the web differently, and can personalize based on account, memory and location. That is why the audit runs each question more than once and focuses on trends.
- Are there tools that automate AI visibility tracking?
Yes, a growing number of paid tools track brand mentions and citations across AI platforms. They help at scale, but their methods vary, so a manual audit is still a useful baseline and cross-check.
- What is a good AI mention rate?
There is no standard benchmark. Compare your rate against your main competitors on the same questions, and track whether it improves over time. Category leaders tend to appear far more often, so set targets relative to your market.
- Can we fix an inaccurate AI description of our company?
You cannot edit AI answers directly. You can correct the sources they rely on, make your own site's description clear, and keep your details consistent across profiles. Answers that use live search tend to reflect corrections faster than answers from training data.
Book a business audit
Find the leak. Then we hunt it down.
We look at your busywork, your Google rankings and how AI assistants describe your category, then hand you a prioritized plan.
- $199 fixed price
- 30 minute call
- A written plan you keep
- Full refund if not worth it