You can get a useful first read on your AI visibility in about 15 minutes, with no tools to buy. Ask the assistants a few customer-style questions, then check the sources they depend on: your Google profile, your details across the web, your website and your reviews. Write down what you find and fix the biggest gap first. Think of it as a quick AI visibility audit you can repeat every month.
Minutes 0 to 5: Ask the assistants
Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and try Google’s AI Mode if you have it. Ask five questions a customer might ask, for example: An AI visibility audit like this takes minutes and costs nothing.
- “Best [your service] in [your area]”
- “Who should I call for [common problem] in [your city]?”
- “[Your service] near [landmark or sector]”
- “Is [your business name] good?”
- “[Your service] open now in [your area]”
For each answer, note whether you’re named, who else is, what the assistant says about you and which sources it cites. Expect differences: in a small UK test, three assistants agreed on the top pick in none of 12 questions, and answers also vary by account, location and time. One miss means little. A pattern means a lot.
Minutes 5 to 8: Check your Google Business Profile
- Is it verified and complete?
- Is your primary category specific and correct?
- Are hours, phone and website right?
- Are there recent photos?
Google recommends keeping Business Profile information current, and local ranking depends on relevance, distance and prominence.
Minutes 8 to 10: Check consistency
Search your business name and compare the name, address, phone and website shown on Google, Apple Maps, Facebook, LinkedIn and any directories. Mark every mismatch. Small differences, like “Sector 17” versus “Sec-17” or an old phone number, are common and worth fixing.
Minutes 10 to 13: Check your website
- Does each main service have its own page, with the key facts in text?
- Is your address, phone number and area served easy to find?
- Does it have a short FAQ with real customer questions?
- Is it indexed? Search “site:yourdomain.com” in Google to see which pages appear.
- Does robots.txt block anything important?
Google’s AI features guidance says pages must be indexed and eligible for a snippet, with crawling allowed and important content in text.
Minutes 13 to 15: Check your reviews and score yourself
Count your Google reviews, note your rating, and look at the last three months. Are you getting new ones? Are you replying? Then score each area below.
| Area | Strong | Needs work | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named in AI answers | Most prompts | Some prompts | None |
| Google profile | Verified, complete | Gaps | Not claimed |
| Consistency | Matches everywhere | A few mismatches | Widespread |
| Website | Clear, indexed pages | Thin pages | No service pages |
| Reviews | Steady and answered | Sporadic | Few or none |
How do you read your AI visibility audit results?
Fix from the top of the list down: profile, consistency, website, reviews. Those are what the assistants and Google both rely on. If you’re not named in AI answers but your profile and reviews are weak, that’s the likely reason. If everything looks strong and you still don’t appear, widen your presence in the directories your industry uses and retest in a month.
Repeat this AI visibility audit monthly to see what is improving. If you’d like us to run this properly across more prompts and build a fix list, look at our AEO and GEO service and packages, or book a short call.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if ChatGPT recommends my business?
Ask it the questions customers would ask about your service and area, and note whether you appear. Repeat on different days and in other assistants, since answers vary.
Why does my business appear in Gemini but not ChatGPT?
Assistants use different sources and methods, and often disagree. Independent testing shows low agreement between engines, so a difference isn’t unusual. Work on the shared foundations rather than one assistant.
How often should I run this audit?
Monthly is enough for most small businesses. Keep a simple log so you can see trends instead of reacting to one-off results.
Do I need paid tools for AI visibility?
Not to start. The manual prompts above give a useful baseline. Paid tracking tools can help at scale, but they follow the same logic of prompts, mentions and sources.
What is the single most useful fix?
For most local businesses, a complete, verified Google Business Profile with consistent details elsewhere. It’s free and supports both search and AI answers.