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Do this before you buy anything
Every agency selling AI search optimisation will offer you an audit. You can do the useful eighty per cent of one yourself in under an hour, and you should, because it turns a vague worry into a specific list and because it makes you a much harder person to sell to.
1. The readability test
Open your homepage, view source, and use find to search the raw HTML for a full sentence you can see on the rendered page. Present means the page is served as HTML and every crawler can read it. Absent means it is assembled in the browser and some crawlers receive almost nothing. Repeat on one service page, because sites are often mixed.
This is the only test on the page with a binary answer, and it is the one that invalidates everything else if you fail it.
2. The existence check
In two or three assistants, ask: what do you know about [company name] in [town]? Note whether the answer is right, wrong, or an admission of not knowing. All three are useful. Wrong is the most urgent, because a confident incorrect answer means there is a bad record somewhere to be found and fixed.
3. The recommendation check
Now ask the question a customer would ask, without your name in it: who are the best [trade] in [town]? Then the same question three more ways, including the phrasing a nervous buyer would use. Write down every business named and every source named. If you are not in the answers, the businesses that are tell you who you are actually competing with in this channel, which is often not who you assumed.
4. The consistency check
Search your company name, your phone number and your address separately. List every record that comes back and mark each one correct or wrong. Include the old trading name if you have one. This is the step that takes the longest and finds the most.
5. The corroboration check
Count the sources that mention you and are not controlled by you. Your own site, your social accounts and anything you can edit do not count. If the number is zero, you have found your answer and no amount of on-site work will change it.
Reading the result
| What you found | What it means | Do this first |
|---|---|---|
| Text missing from the HTML | Crawlers may be receiving an empty page | Fix rendering. Nothing else until then |
| Assistants confidently wrong about you | A bad record exists somewhere | Find it and correct it |
| Zero third-party mentions | Nothing to corroborate | Google Business Profile, then two directories that came up in step 3 |
| Several records disagreeing | You look unreliable to a machine | Reconcile before adding anything |
| Everything clean, still not mentioned | You are competing on merit | Get into the sources from step 3, and accept it is slow |
What to do with the list
Most of what this audit turns up can be fixed by you or your existing web person, and the parts that cannot are the parts worth paying for. If you want a second pair of eyes on the result, bring it to a call. We would rather talk to someone holding their own findings than sell an audit that tells them what they could have learned in an hour.
Run the five checks, then call usWe would rather talk to someone holding their own findings. Bring the list and we will tell you which parts are worth paying for and which are an afternoon of your own time.
Call 07443 392243WhatsAppCommon questions
How do I check what ChatGPT says about my business?
Ask it directly, in more than one assistant, in more than one phrasing: what do you know about the company, and separately, who are the best firms in this trade and town. Note both the businesses named and the sources named. Answers vary between sessions, so run each question a couple of times.
The answer about my business is wrong. How do I correct it?
Not directly, in most cases. There is no edit button. You correct the underlying records: find the source that carries the wrong information and fix or remove it, then wait, because these systems are rebuilt on their own schedule rather than on request.
Should I pay for an AI search audit?
Only after you have done the free version of it. The five checks on this page are most of what a paid audit contains. Pay for the work that follows, not for being told what you can find out in an hour.
How often should I re-run this?
Quarterly is plenty for most businesses, and immediately after anything that changes your details. Running it weekly will mostly show you that these answers are unstable, which is true and not actionable.
Does any of this show up in analytics?
Partially and unreliably. Some assistant traffic arrives with a recognisable referrer and a lot does not, so treating assistant visibility as a directly measurable channel will mislead you. Judge it on the records you fixed and the sources you got into.