AI visibility self-audit: a 20-point checklist

Key point. This free checklist covers the 20 points we check first when we look at how AI search engines find, read and describe a company. Work through them in order, tick what you have done, and use the linked free tool for each point. A two-page PDF is included.

The points are grouped in six layers: what AI engines say about your category today, one clear company record, structured data, AI crawler access, answer-ready pages and third-party sources. They come from the same steps we follow in our managed AEO work, written so a marketing lead or founder can run them without a developer for most points.

The 20-point checklist

Free checklist · 20 points

AI visibility self-audit

Work through it in order: each layer depends on the ones before it. Tick what you have done; every point links to a free tool or guide.

0 of 20 done

1. What AI engines say today

Do AI engines name you when buyers ask?

  1. Cover what to buy, how options compare and which provider to choose. Use your sales calls and support inbox for the wording.

    Buyer-question builder

  2. Answers change between identical asks, so count a share of answers, not a yes or no. Keep each engine separate.

    Free Lenz report (ChatGPT and Gemini)

2. One clear company record

Do your site and your profiles describe the same company?

  1. Name, what you do, who it is for, location and contact read the same on the home page, About page, footer, contact page and in your markup.

    Example: our About page

  2. LinkedIn, directories, review sites and marketplace listings. Update any that still describe an old product, name or service.

    Audit guide: entity consistency

  3. A real photo, title, credentials and links to their profiles. The byline on each article links there.

    Schema and authorship guide

3. Structured data

Can a machine read who you are without guessing?

  1. One JSON-LD block with your name, logo, URL, founders and links to every official profile. Every fact in it is visible on the site.

    Organization schema generator

  2. Author and reviewer match the visible byline. The publish date never changes; the modified date moves only when the content does.

    Schema markup guide

  3. Zero parse errors in a schema validator. No HowTo markup. FAQ markup is optional now that Google has removed FAQ rich results.

    FAQ rich results change

4. AI crawler access

Can the crawlers behind AI search read your pages?

  1. OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, plus Googlebot and Bingbot. Test the home page, one article and one product page.

    Free AI crawler check

  2. ChatGPT-User, Claude-User and Perplexity-User fetch a page when a person asks an assistant to read it.

    Free AI crawler check

  3. Put GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and CCBot in their own group and record the decision with a date. Never block a search crawler to stop training.

    AI bots in robots.txt

  4. "Block AI bots" and bot-protection settings act before robots.txt and cannot be seen from outside. Confirm verified AI search crawlers get through.

    Audit guide: crawler access

  5. /robots.txt returns 200. A server error there tells standards-following crawlers to stay away from the whole site.

    Free AI crawler check

  6. With JavaScript turned off, the main text, headings, links and JSON-LD are still on the page. A crawler that does not run scripts never sees content they load.

    AI search visibility funnel

5. Answer-ready pages

When an engine reads your page, can it lift an answer?

  1. Each returns 200, carries a canonical tag pointing to itself, has no noindex and is in your sitemap.

    Stage 0: indexable

  2. Under a heading phrased the way a buyer asks it. One H1 per page, with a unique title and description.

    User intent guide

  3. Your own data, your method, or first-hand experience with customers you are allowed to describe. Generic advice is already on many other sites.

    Stage 2: trusted as a source

  4. Change "Last updated" only when the content changes in substance. Restamping unchanged pages misleads readers and engines.

    Audit guide: answer readiness

6. Third-party footprint

Do other sites talk about you where your buyers look?

  1. Reviews, articles, comparison lists and directories your buyers read. List where you appear and where competitors appear without you.

    Audit guide: third-party citations

  2. In our Google AI Overviews measurements: "YouTube is one of the few social platforms that regularly shows up as a source; posts on X almost never do".

    Where this comes from

Not on the list, on purpose: llms.txt. It is optional hygiene: facts only, live links. Our guide covers what it does and does not do, with a free generator. llms.txt guide and generator

Want to see where you stand first? Lenz, our free analysis, shows how ChatGPT and Gemini answer your buyers' questions. Get your free AI visibility report.

Want it done for you? Our managed AEO services work through this list with your team. Book a call.

Built by Elementera. More free tools on our free tools page.

Prefer paper? Download the two-page PDF in US Letter or A4. No email address needed.

Why check the points in this order?

Each layer depends on the ones before it. If an engine's crawler cannot fetch your pages, nothing on those pages can help, so access comes before content. If your site and your profiles describe two different companies, better content will still be attached to a confused record.

The first layer is the exception: write down what engines say about your category today, before you change anything. Without that record you cannot tell later whether your changes did anything.

Why isn't a good Google ranking enough?

Ranking well and being read by an AI answer are separate events. In our own measurements of Google AI Overviews on US non-branded searches: "Across the non-branded searches we measured, more than half of the sites AI Overviews cited weren't in Google's top 10. Good rankings don't guarantee your page is the one being read."

That is why the checklist starts with what engines actually say and ends with the sources they draw on outside your site. Our AI search visibility funnel walks through every place a company can drop out of an answer.

What is deliberately not on the list?

Three things people often expect to see are missing on purpose:

  • llms.txt as a requirement. It is optional hygiene: facts only, live links. Our llms.txt guide covers what it does and does not do.
  • Schema as a citation lever. Structured data gives machines one clear record of who you are. Google says: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."
  • Hidden instructions to AI models. Text that tells a model to remember, trust or recommend you is a manipulation attempt, and we never add it to a page.

How often should you run the self-audit?

Run it once now, then every quarter, and again after any redesign, platform move, CDN or firewall change, or rebrand. Those are the moments a crawler block or an outdated description can slip in unnoticed.

Keep the first layer's results each time. A single check is a snapshot; repeated checks of the same questions are what show a trend.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as an AI visibility audit?

No. The checklist is a self-check of the foundations. A full audit adds repeated measurement of many buyer questions across engines, a map of the sources engines cite, and a fix plan. Our guide to what an AI visibility audit covers describes each part.

Do I need a developer?

For most points, no. The crawler check, the schema generator and the question builder run in your browser. The CDN and firewall point and adding JSON-LD to your site template may need whoever manages your website.

Do I need to give an email address for the PDF?

No. The PDF is a direct download in US Letter and A4, free to share with credit.

Which AI engines does the checklist cover?

The access and structured data points apply to every engine that reads the web. The crawler points name the crawlers of OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude) and Perplexity, plus Googlebot and Bingbot, which matter for Google's AI features and Microsoft Copilot.

Work with us

There are two ways to work with us. Teams that want the work done for them can use our managed AEO services: Book a call. Teams that want to see where they stand first can start with Lenz, our free analysis of how ChatGPT and Gemini answer their buyers' questions: Get your free AI visibility report.

How this page was made

The checklist condenses the standard operating procedures we use for technical baselines, structured data and AI crawler access, and the six layers of our AI visibility audit guide. We used an AI writing assistant (Claude, made by Anthropic) to help draft the text. Soroush Mehri reviewed the page, and Mojtaba Ebadi approved it for publication.

Sources