The AI Visibility Audit Checklist: 15 Things to Check Today
Most brands have no idea how AI models describe them. This 15-point audit changes that in under two hours — with specific things to check, what good looks like, and what to fix when something fails.
Work through all 15 items. Mark each as Pass, Needs Work, or Fail. At the end, prioritize your Fails, then your Needs Work items. A brand with 10+ Passes is in solid AI visibility shape. Under 7 Passes means significant gaps are costing you AI recommendations right now.
Search Your Brand in ChatGPT
Ask ChatGPT (new conversation, no history) three things: (1) “What is [your brand]?” (2) “What's the best [your category] for [your primary use case]?” (3) “Compare [your brand] vs [top competitor].”
ChatGPT accurately describes what your product does, mentions you in category queries, and includes you in competitor comparisons.
ChatGPT says “I don't have information about [brand],” describes you inaccurately, or never mentions you in category queries.
If ChatGPT doesn't know you: build entity presence (Wikipedia, G2, Crunchbase, major publications). If description is wrong: update your Organization schema and all directory profiles with consistent language.
Check Perplexity Citations
Run the same three queries on Perplexity.ai. Check: (1) Is your brand mentioned? (2) Which URLs does Perplexity cite — your website, or third-party sources? (3) Are competitors cited while you're not?
Your brand is mentioned with a citation linking to your website or a high-authority third-party source (G2, major publication).
Perplexity lists 3–5 competitors with citations but omits your brand entirely.
Perplexity uses live web search — if competitors rank above you on Google for these queries, fix your SEO. Also check whether your pages load fast and have clean structure for easy extraction.
Audit Your Structured Data
Run your homepage, main product page, and one blog post through search.google.com/test/rich-results. Check for: Organization schema on homepage, Product schema on product pages, Article schema on blog posts.
Rich Results Test shows valid schema with no errors. Organization schema includes sameAs links to LinkedIn, Crunchbase, G2.
No schema detected, or schema with validation errors. Homepage missing Organization markup entirely.
Add JSON-LD schema to each page type. Start with Organization on homepage — it's the highest-impact single schema addition. Use schema.org markup generators to create valid JSON-LD.
Review Your FAQ Pages
Count how many FAQ pages you have. Check if they use FAQ schema markup. Run your category keywords through AlsoAsked.com — are those questions answered on your site?
Standalone FAQ page with 20+ questions, FAQ sections on product pages, all using FAQ schema. Top 10 questions from AlsoAsked are addressed.
No FAQ page. Product pages have no Q&A sections. FAQ schema not implemented anywhere.
Create a /faq page this week. Use AlsoAsked and Google's People Also Ask to find the exact questions. Add FAQ schema markup. This is one of the fastest AEO wins available.
Check Competitor AI Mentions
Ask AI: “What are the top alternatives to [Competitor A]?” and “What are the best [category] tools?” For each response, note: which brands appear, in what order, with what descriptions. Do this across ChatGPT and Perplexity.
You appear in 60%+ of relevant category and competitor-alternative queries. Your description is accurate and positive.
Competitors appear in every alternative and category query. You don't appear at all, or appear as a minor footnote.
Build /alternatives/[competitor] pages for every brand that appears without you. These directly target the queries where you're losing visibility.
Audit Content Freshness
Check your top 10 most-visited pages. When were they last updated? Any page targeting commercial queries that hasn't been updated in 12+ months is a freshness liability for RAG-based AI systems.
Review Your Schema Coverage
Go beyond Organization and FAQ. Check: do product pages have Product schema? Do blog posts have Article schema with author markup? Does your pricing page exist and is it structured for easy extraction?
Check Domain Authority Signals
For Perplexity and ChatGPT web search, domain authority drives retrieval selection. Check your domain rating in Ahrefs/Moz. Compare against competitors. Note your referring domain count and the quality of linking sites.
Audit Your Comparison Content
List your top 5 competitors. Check whether you have a dedicated comparison page for each. Verify that each page has a comparison table, honest tradeoffs, use-case guidance, and FAQ schema.
Review Product Documentation
Ask Claude or ChatGPT technical questions about your product: integrations, API capabilities, pricing tiers, security features. If AI can't answer accurately, your documentation is a visibility gap.
Check Review Presence
Check your review count and rating on: G2, Capterra/Software Advice, TrustRadius (for SaaS), Yelp and TripAdvisor (for local), and your industry-specific review platform. Note your position in category grids.
Audit Entity Consistency
Search your brand name on Crunchbase, LinkedIn, G2, Wikipedia, AngelList, and Product Hunt. Check: is your company description identical across all platforms? Same name format? Same category description?
Check AI Model Coverage
Run your 3 core queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. Record whether you're mentioned in each. A brand visible in ChatGPT but invisible in Perplexity has a specific gap (usually fresh content + SEO) that's different from the reverse.
Review Content Extractability
Open your top 5 pages. Try to copy the core answer to a user's question within 5 seconds. If you can't find the answer quickly, an AI can't extract it reliably either. Check for: direct answers in opening paragraphs, question-formatted headers, scannable structure.
Set Up Ongoing AI Visibility Monitoring
This audit is a point-in-time snapshot. AI visibility changes constantly as models update, new content is published, and competitors make moves. Without ongoing monitoring, you're flying blind again within 60 days.
Scoring Your Audit
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I run this audit?
The full 15-point audit quarterly. For high-priority items (ChatGPT mentions, Perplexity citations, competitor queries), monthly checks via Surfaced automation. AI models update frequently and competitor activity can shift your visibility quickly.
Which checklist item has the highest ROI?
Item 4 (FAQ pages with FAQ schema) for most brands — it's the fastest to implement and produces measurable citation rate improvements within 2–4 weeks. Item 11 (review presence) has the highest long-term ROI but takes longer to build.
I passed 13 of 15 items but ChatGPT still doesn't mention me. What's wrong?
Strong execution on all these signals doesn't guarantee instant ChatGPT visibility — foundation model training happens on cycles. If you're not appearing in ChatGPT but are appearing in Perplexity (live search), your content is good but you weren't prominent enough during GPT's last training cycle. Keep building authority signals and your ChatGPT presence will increase over time.
Can I automate any of these checks?
Items 1, 2, 5, and 13 can be automated with Surfaced — it runs your query set across 13 AI platforms on a schedule and reports back with mention rates, sentiment, and competitor comparisons. Items 3, 6, 7, and 9 benefit from periodic manual review.
Automate items 1, 2, 5, and 13 with Surfaced
Stop running manual AI checks. Surfaced tracks your brand across 13 AI models weekly and sends you a report — so you always know your AI visibility score without opening ChatGPT.
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