Most businesses find out they are invisible in AI search by accident: a customer mentions that ChatGPT recommended a competitor, or a sales rep tests a prompt and the brand is nowhere. This checklist is the same structure we use for paid GEO audits, written so you can run it yourself. Mark each point as pass, fail or unsure. The fails are your action list.
Part 1: Can AI engines reach and read your site?
- AI crawlers are allowed in robots.txt. Check yourdomain.com/robots.txt for rules blocking OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended. OAI-SearchBot powers ChatGPT search; GPTBot is used for training, so blocking it is a separate decision.
- Your firewall or CDN does not block them. Bot protection settings at the CDN level can block AI crawlers even when robots.txt allows them. Check your security rules and logs.
- Key content is in the HTML. View the page source of a service page. If the text is not there and only appears after JavaScript runs, many crawlers will see an empty page. Pre-render or server-render important pages.
- Your pages are indexed in Google. Use the Pages report in Google Search Console. Gemini and AI Overviews draw on Google's index.
- Your pages are indexed in Bing. Check Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap. Copilot relies on Bing, and ChatGPT search also draws on third-party search indexes. IndexNow helps new pages get picked up faster.
- Your sitemap is clean. It lists only canonical, indexable pages that return a 200 status.
Part 2: Do engines understand who you are?
- Organization or LocalBusiness schema is present on the homepage, with name, logo, address, phone, URL and sameAs links to your official profiles.
- Service pages carry Service schema, and pages with questions carry FAQPage schema whose text matches what is visible on the page.
- Articles carry Article schema with author or publisher and dates.
- Structured data validates. Run key pages through Google's Rich Results Test or the schema.org validator and fix errors.
- Your name, address and phone are identical everywhere: site, Google Business Profile, directories, social profiles. Small differences make it harder for engines to treat them as one entity.
- You publish an llms.txt file at your domain root: a plain summary of who you are, what you do, where, and links to your most important pages. It is an emerging convention, cheap to add, and makes your key facts easy to find.
Part 3: Is your content easy to cite?
- Every key page opens with a direct answer. The first paragraph says, in 40 to 60 words, what you do, for whom and where. Engines extract short, self-contained answers far more easily than slogans.
- Each service has its own page. One "Services" page listing ten things cannot be the best answer to ten different questions.
- Headings are phrased as real questions buyers ask, followed by a clear answer.
- You have pages for comparison and decision questions: "X vs Y", "how much does X cost", "how to choose X". These are the prompts where recommendations happen.
- Content contains specifics: named clients with permission, concrete results, processes, locations, credentials. Generic copy gives engines nothing to quote.
- Pages show who wrote or reviewed them and when they were updated. Freshness and authorship help both search and AI engines judge reliability.
Part 4: Do other sources confirm you?
- You have a steady flow of genuine reviews on Google and on the platforms that matter in your industry, with replies from you.
- You appear on the lists engines already cite. Ask an AI engine your buyers' key question, note the sources it cites, and check whether you are on them. Those lists, directories and roundups are your outreach targets.
- You are listed in reputable directories for your country and niche, with consistent details.
- You are mentioned in articles, interviews or partner pages, ideally with a consistent description of what you do.
Part 5: Are you measuring AI visibility?
- You have a fixed prompt set. Write 10 to 30 questions your buyers actually ask, including local and comparison prompts.
- You test it monthly across engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews. Record whether you appear, your position, what is said about you and which sources are cited. Answers vary between runs, so look at trends rather than single results.
- You track AI referrals and leads. In analytics, segment traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com. Check Bing Webmaster Tools for its reporting on AI citations, and ask new leads how they found you.
How do you score the audit?
| Result | What it usually means | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Fails in Part 1 | Engines cannot read you at all | Fix crawl access, rendering and indexing first; nothing else matters until this works |
| Fails in Parts 2 and 3 | Engines can read you but cannot extract clear answers | Schema, direct-answer intros and dedicated service pages |
| Fails in Part 4 | Your site is fine but nobody else confirms you | Reviews and outreach to the sources engines already cite |
| Fails in Part 5 | You cannot tell whether anything is working | Set up the prompt set and referral tracking before investing further |
What does a self-audit miss?
This checklist catches the most common problems, but it has limits. It will not tell you which prompts carry the most commercial value in your market, how your share of voice compares with competitors over a statistically meaningful number of runs, which third-party sources carry the most weight in your niche, or which fix will move results fastest. That is where a done-for-you audit earns its fee. If you are weighing that option, our guide on what GEO costs and what each tier delivers explains how audits and retainers are scoped.
What should you do first after the audit?
Fix Part 1 in the first week: unblock crawlers, make sure content is in the HTML, submit sitemaps to Google and Bing. Then rewrite the opening paragraph of your five most important pages as direct answers and add the matching schema. Those two steps alone often change what engines say about a business within a few weeks of re-indexing. For the bigger picture on how ChatGPT search picks businesses, read how to get recommended by ChatGPT, and if you are considering an agency outside your country, see hiring an SEO agency in Romania.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI visibility audit?
It is a review of whether AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot can read your site, understand who you are and find enough evidence to recommend you, plus a baseline test of what they currently say about your niche.
How long does an AI visibility audit take?
The 25-point self-check takes an afternoon for a small site. A full agency audit with a large prompt set, competitor comparison and source analysis takes longer, depending on the number of engines and markets.
Does blocking GPTBot stop me appearing in ChatGPT search?
No. GPTBot is used for model training. ChatGPT search relies on OAI-SearchBot, so keep that crawler allowed if you want to be found in ChatGPT search.
Do I need llms.txt to appear in AI answers?
It is not required. It is an emerging convention that summarises your business for AI systems. It is quick to add and makes your key facts easy to find, but crawl access, indexing and clear content matter more.
How do I measure whether AI engines recommend my business?
Test a fixed set of buyer questions monthly across engines and record whether you appear and which sources are cited. Also track referral traffic from AI platforms in analytics and ask new leads how they found you.
What should I fix first after an AI visibility audit?
Crawl access, rendering and indexing come first, because engines cannot cite pages they cannot read. Next, add direct-answer intros and matching structured data to your most important pages.
Want us to run the full audit for you?
We test your buyers' questions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, check the technical side and send you a prioritised fix list.
Call: +40 758 80 20 20 SEO and GEO services