AI Visibility Audit

What You'll Need

You'll need access to ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Gemini Advanced, and Perplexity Pro for comprehensive testing. Set up accounts for HubSpot's AI Search Grader (free) and either Otterly.ai or Profound.ai for monitoring. Have your Google Search Console credentials ready since we'll cross-reference AI mentions with traditional search data. Prepare a list of 10-15 industry-relevant queries where your brand should appear.

Step 1: Baseline Brand Query Testing

Time: 25 minutes | Tool: Manual testing across AI platforms Start with direct brand queries across all five platforms. Search your exact company name in ChatGPT, ask "Tell me about [Your Company]" in Claude, try "What does [Your Company] do?" in Gemini, search your brand in Perplexity, and check if Google shows AI Overviews for your brand name. Take screenshots of each result and note three things: whether your brand appears, the accuracy of information presented, and what competing brands get mentioned alongside yours. I usually test both "Company Name" and "Company Name + industry" variations since AI engines sometimes need context. Document any factual errors or outdated information - you'll use this for correction requests later. The key insight here isn't just whether you appear, but how you're positioned relative to competitors. If ChatGPT mentions three competitors before your brand in a category overview, that tells you more than a simple presence/absence check.

Step 2: Category and Solution-Based Query Testing

Time: 35 minutes | Tool: Manual testing + spreadsheet tracking Test 10-15 queries where prospects would naturally find you without using your brand name. Think "best CRM for small business" or "project management software comparison" - the high-intent searches where you want to appear. Run each query across all five AI platforms and track results in a spreadsheet with columns for Platform, Query, Your Position (if mentioned), Competitors Mentioned, and Information Accuracy. Pay special attention to queries where you rank well in Google but don't appear in AI results - that's your biggest opportunity gap. I've found that AI engines favor brands with strong educational content and clear category positioning. If you're getting buried behind competitors who publish more how-to guides or industry reports, note that pattern. It'll guide your content strategy recommendations.

Step 3: HubSpot AI Search Grader Analysis

Time: 15 minutes | Tool: HubSpot AI Search Grader Run your domain through HubSpot's AI Search Grader at aisearchgrader.com. This free tool tests your visibility across multiple AI platforms and generates a scored report. Enter your primary domain and 3-5 key industry terms you want to be known for. The grader will return percentage scores for different AI engines and highlight specific content gaps. Pay attention to the "Content Optimization" recommendations - they're usually spot-on about missing FAQ content or industry definition pages that AI engines prefer to cite. Export the full report PDF since you'll reference specific recommendations in your final audit document. The tool sometimes takes 2-3 minutes to complete analysis, so don't refresh the page if it seems slow.

Step 4: Set Up Ongoing AI Monitoring

Time: 20 minutes | Tool: Otterly.ai or Profound.ai Choose either Otterly.ai or Profound.ai for continuous monitoring (I prefer Otterly for its ChatGPT coverage, but Profound covers more platforms). Set up monitoring for your brand name, key executives, and 5-10 industry terms where you should appear. In Otterly.ai, create a new project and add your brand terms under "Keywords to Monitor." Set notification frequency to weekly rather than daily - AI mentions don't change as rapidly as traditional search results. Configure alerts for any negative sentiment or factual errors about your brand. The monitoring setup is crucial because AI training data gets updated regularly. Your visibility can shift overnight when these systems retrain, and manual checking won't catch those changes fast enough.

Step 5: Cross-Reference with Google Search Console

Time: 25 minutes | Tool: Google Search Console Open Google Search Console and navigate to the Performance report. Filter for queries that triggered AI Overviews by looking at the "Search Appearance" tab and checking "AI Overviews." Compare this data with your manual AI testing results. Look for queries where you have high impressions but low clicks in traditional search - those often indicate AI Overviews are intercepting your traffic. Export a CSV of queries that trigger AI Overviews for your domain, then cross-check which ones actually mention your brand in the AI response. This step reveals the disconnect between traditional SEO performance and AI visibility. You might rank #3 for a query but not get mentioned in the AI Overview at all, which explains mysterious traffic drops.

Step 6: Competitive AI Presence Analysis

Time: 30 minutes | Tool: Manual testing + Otterly.ai Test your top 3-5 competitors using the same query set from Step 2. This isn't about copying their strategy - it's about understanding the competitive landscape in AI search results. Run competitor brand names through your chosen monitoring tool to see their mention frequency and sentiment. Document which competitors appear most frequently across AI platforms and what types of content get them cited. I often find that B2B companies with strong help documentation or detailed product comparison pages dominate AI mentions, even if their traditional SEO isn't exceptional. Note any instances where competitors get mentioned for your brand's queries, or worse, where AI engines recommend competitor solutions when asked specifically about your product category.

Step 7: Compile Visibility Scorecard and Action Plan

Time: 20 minutes | Tool: Spreadsheet or dashboard Create a master scorecard showing your visibility percentage across each AI platform, broken down by query type (brand, category, solution-based). Use the data from all previous steps to calculate an overall AI Visibility Score. Build your action plan around the biggest gaps. If you're missing from category queries, prioritize creating comprehensive comparison content. If factual information is wrong, prepare correction requests for each platform. If competitors dominate solution-based queries, plan content that positions you as the definitive expert source. The scorecard should include specific metrics: percentage of brand queries where you appear, average position in competitive queries, and factual accuracy score. These become your baseline metrics for measuring improvement over time.

Common Pitfalls

• Testing only during business hours when AI system performance varies throughout the day due to load balancing
• Assuming consistent results across AI platforms when each has different training data and update cycles
• Focusing only on brand mentions while ignoring category and solution-based query gaps where prospects actually discover vendors
• Skipping the competitive analysis and missing why certain brands dominate AI recommendations in your space

Expected Results

You'll finish with a complete visibility map showing exactly where your brand appears across AI search engines, what information these systems share about you, and which high-value queries currently favor competitors. The audit typically reveals that most companies have 30-40% lower visibility in AI search compared to traditional search results. Use this data to prioritize AI optimization efforts and set up monitoring to track improvements over the next quarter.