Find out what AI answers say about your business.

1. Establish a search and index baseline

Start with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Record indexed and discovered pages, sitemap status, branded and non-branded queries, and pages receiving impressions before changing copy. Check that canonical URLs resolve directly, the sitemap uses the final host, priority pages have internal links, and duplicate routes are consolidated.

Google: AI features and your website

2. Test effective crawler access

Inspect the robots file and HTML served in production, including CDN or firewall behavior. Test Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, and ClaudeBot. A challenge page, soft 404, or empty JavaScript shell can prevent reliable retrieval.

3. Audit the company entity

Search the trading name, legal name, founders, domain, and common misspellings. Keep the canonical website, logo, founders and roles, and service-area facts consistent across controlled profiles. Add sameAs only after the public profile URL exists and is accurate.

4. Map questions to pages

Group buyer questions by definition, problem, comparison, evaluation, and transaction intent. Give each important intent one primary page. Consolidate pages that repeat the same answer and deepen the winning URL.

5. Score answer extractability

Review priority pages for passages that remain useful when quoted alone: direct definitions, meaningful numbered processes, explicit comparison tables, dated statistics with named sources, limitations, and first-hand examples.

6. Separate owned claims from public proof

A citation and a recommendation are different outcomes. Map every important claim to owned evidence and independent corroboration. If corroboration is missing, prioritize client-authorized case studies, reviews, technical communities, earned media, or external testing.

7. Validate structured data

Use Organization and WebSite as the entity foundation, BreadcrumbList for navigation, Service for genuine service pages, SoftwareApplication for working tools, and Article for substantive guides. Markup must match visible facts; never invent ratings, prices, dates, reviews, or FAQs.

Schema.org Article

8. Measure four visibility outcomes

Track retrieved, cited, mentioned, and recommended separately. Run a stable monthly prompt set across relevant answer engines, recording the date, model, locale, response, cited URLs, brand framing, and changes. Add a lead-source question because AI-influenced buyers may later arrive through branded search or direct traffic.

Download the public Marsen GEO audit sample
Read its scope and limits

9. Turn findings into a 30-day plan

Fix access and index dependencies first; establish one clear company entity; consolidate duplicates; publish one evidence-led resource; earn independent reviews and editorial mentions; then monitor citations, mentions, recommendations, and lead quality. Every finding needs an owner, evidence, a due date, and a measurement plan.