How to Perform an AI Audit for Your Website
An AI audit checks how visible your website is across AI-driven tools, rather than just standard search engine results pages. These include Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT.
Below, you’ll learn how to measure your current AI visibility, pinpoint where your brand shows up, or doesn’t, and take steps to improve. This is important because AI answers take up more space in search results. This means fewer clicks and chances for people to visit your site. If your brand is part of the answers AI tools give, you have a better chance of being discovered or mentioned.
What Makes An AI Audit Different and Why You Should Care
An AI SEO audit looks at how your site appears in AI-powered answers, not just Google’s traditional search results. While a standard SEO audit focuses on rankings and traffic from organic search, this approach goes a step further.
Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity often answer user questions directly. That means people might never click a link at all. If your content isn’t included, or if your competitors are cited instead, you miss out on visibility.
Appearing in these answers influences how your brand is seen. It affects what people search for next, whether they look you up by name, and if they come back to you later. So even if clicks are down, you still want to be mentioned in AI answers.
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The fastest way is to use SEO tools that track AI Overviews. These show which keywords trigger an overview, whether your site is cited, and how you compare to competitors. If you don’t have access to these tools, run manual searches in private browsing, note when an AI Overview appears, and record which sources are cited.
Step 1: Track Where You Show Up in AI Overviews
Before you can improve your presence in AI results, you need to see where you stand. This step focuses on Google’s AI Overviews, which are the answer boxes that pull answers straight from websites to respond to search inquiries.
In fact, AI Overviews now appear in more than half of all Google searches, up from just 25% ten months ago. That’s a significant shift in how search works, and it’s why visibility in these boxes is more essential than ever.
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Related Article: How AI Chooses What to Cite and What That Means for Your Content Strategy
AI tools don’t pull only from top-ranked Google results—they lean on trusted, human-centered sources like Reddit, Wikipedia, and YouTube. This article explains how citation patterns are shifting and what content strategies help brands get cited more often.
Using AI Overview Tracking Tools
Some SEO tools now let you filter keywords that trigger AI Overviews. You can check which pages are cited, where your site ranks in the list of sources, and how often competitors are mentioned.
Begin by exploring a list that includes:
Keyword
If it shows an AI Overview
Your ranking in the overview
Competitor presence
This lets you spot missed chances, especially for high-intent keywords where you don’t appear at all, or rank low in the sources. These gaps are great places to focus your content updates.
Eyeful’s Expert Insight:
“The most important capability in a tracking tool is being able to find queries and the sources that they are pulled from given that AI overviews are dynamic and can surface different results based on location and in some instances, even experiment with where they are giving you information from.”
Manual Monitoring Methods
If you don’t have access to AI tracking tools or want to double-check a few key terms, you can run your own manual review.
Use private browsing to search a list of target queries. Make a note of whether an AI Overview appears and which websites are cited. A simple spreadsheet can track:
The query
AI Overview? (yes or no)
Sources listed
Your site’s presence and position
Notes for follow-up
This method works well for smaller websites, limited tool access, or niche terms that may not show up in tool databases.
Step 2: Check How You Show Up in AI Tools Like ChatGPT and Perplexity
Google isn’t the only place where people search. ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming part of the research process, particularly for product comparisons and how-to questions. This step focuses on tracking how often your brand is mentioned and how you fare compared to your competitors.
Tracking Brand Mentions in ChatGPT and Perplexity
Start with a short list of queries that are important for you. These can include:
“Best [product or service] for [audience]”
How to solve [problem your service addresses]”
“[Your brand] vs. [competitor]”
Run these queries in ChatGPT and Perlexity. Look at:
If your brand is mentioned
Where you’re listed in the response
The tone and accuracy of the mention
Which competitors are included if you’re not
You’ll also start to see which sources these tools pull from repeatedly. Those publications or websites are worth paying attention to and possibly reaching out to for future PR or content placements.
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Some SEO platforms now track brand mentions across AI assistants, showing when your site is cited in ChatGPT or Perplexity answers. If you don’t have access to those, you can also run queries manually and log results in a simple spreadsheet. This helps you spot gaps, competitor mentions, and opportunities to improve visibility.
Creating an AI Monitoring Schedule
Once you know what to check, create a schedule to keep it going. Here’s a simple structure:
Weekly: Spot-check 5-10 priority queries
Monthly: Run a deeper brand review
Quarterly: Look at competitor visibility and source trends
Real-Time: Monitor key queries if they’re tied to big launches or seasonal campaigns
Assign someone to run the checks, send alerts (via email or Slack), and keep a record of changes. You can document updates to your query list and what you’ve learned each round so you stay organized over time.
Step 3: Find Ways to Improve Your AI Visibility
Once you’ve tracked where your site shows up and where it doesn’t, the next step is to find opportunities to improve. This means spotting content gaps, updating existing pages, and ensuring your site’s structure allows for AI tools to gather information.
Research across 75,000 brands showed that brand web mentions had the strongest correlation (0.664) with AI Overview visibility, more than backlinks or structured data alone. Essentially, what’s on your site is important, but where your brand is mentioned across the web is important, too.
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Related Article: The Future of SEO and Web Architecture in the Age of AI Overviews
AI Overviews are reshaping how websites should be structured. Learn why intent-driven page design—separating informational, navigational, and transactional content—is now critical for both SEO and AI visibility.
Content Gap Analysis and Topic Expansion
Begin by identifying which search topics trigger AI Overviews in your space. If you notice your competitors being cited and your site missing, that’s a clear opportunity.
Focus on queries where people are researching or comparing options, as these are usually the ones where AI answers are most influential. Then, plan new content or updates that directly answer those questions in the format AI tools prefer: clear headings, short summaries, bullet lists, and Q&A style content.
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Start by tracking which queries trigger AI Overviews in your industry using SEO tools that filter for AI results. Look at where competitors are cited but your site isn’t—these are prime gaps to fill. You can also expand your keyword research to cover questions, comparisons, and how-to queries, since AI tools favor clear, answer-driven content.
Structured Data and Schema Markup Assessment
AI and search tools understand your content more clearly with schema markup. Check that the key page type includes the correct schema:
FAQ: for pages answering specific questions
How-to: for instructional content
Product: for specs, prices, and reviews
Article or Organization: for blog content and business info
Use schema testing tools to confirm everything’s in place. Also, make sure your author, organization, and review metadata are consistent. These details are clear identity signals for AI tools.
Step 4: Make Your Site Easier for AI Tools to Read and Cite
Once you’ve found opportunities to improve, the next move is to update your content and site setup. This step focuses on writing clearly for AI tools, improving your site’s technical health, and establishing authority through off-site mentions.
See how our SEO services can increase your visibility in both traditional and AI-powered search results.
Create Conversational, E-E-A-T-Driven Content
AI tools frequently pull answers from pages that are direct, well-structured, and simple to understand. Focus on writing that:
Answers questions clearly and up front
Uses subheadings, bullet points, and short sections
Includes quotes, real examples, and sources
Make sure your content includes bylines, credentials, and a consistent brand voice. These all support E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), which aids both search and AI visibility.
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Focus on clear, structured content that directly answers questions. Use schema markup so AI tools can parse your pages, strengthen E-E-A-T signals with author bios and credible sources, and build off-site mentions through PR and backlinks. Together, these steps raise the chances your brand is cited in AI-generated answers.
Technical SEO and Crawlability for AI Platforms
A clean site structure ensures both search engines and AI bots can understand and access your content. Review:
Headings, internal links, and Q&A sections
Mobile performance and page speed
Clear labeling of entities and topics (consistent names, semantic HTML)
Also, check your robots.txt and other crawler access settings. Some AI bots follow these rules, so allow or block them based on your goals.
Establish Authority Through Digital PR and Backlinks
AI tools typically pull content from trusted, widely mentioned sources. To improve your visibility:
Get featured in industry publications or expert roundups
Strengthen your brand profile across directories and review sites
Watch where competitors are getting cited, and look for similar opportunities
Track patterns over time and note which sources are showing up repeatedly in AI answers. Those are worth focusing your outreach on.
Step 5: Measure and Monitor Results
After you’ve made updates, you’ll need to track what’s changing. AI visibility means improving over time and knowing which efforts are working. This step measures progress and spots new opportunities as they come up.
AI Overviews in search results are linked to a 34.5% lower average click-through rate for top-ranking pages compared to similar queries without AI Overviews. That makes tracking your presence in these AI boxes even more imperative.
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Related Article: How to Track AI Traffic in GA4: Explorations & Primary Channel Group
AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity drive visits that GA4 often mislabels as direct or organic. This step-by-step guide shows how to build custom reports and channel groups in GA4 so you can spot AI-driven traffic and compare it to other sources.
Key AI Visibility KPIs to Track
Set up a few metrics to track regularly:
% of target keywords with AI Overviews
Your site’s position or inclusion rank in those Overviews
Frequency of brand mentions in AI answers
Overlap between AIO (AI Overview) wins and top organic keywords
Share-of-voice vs. competitors in AI tools
Conversions or traffic influenced by AI mentions
You can define “green” and “red” zones based on what’s normal in your industry. The goal is to spot shifts and take action before you lose ground.
Reporting and Competitive Benchmarking
Each month, track changes in:
AIO wins and losses
New keywords with Overviews
Brand mention movement
Competitor mentions and gaps
Once a quarter, take a step back and adjust your content and PR (Public Relations) plans based on what you’re seeing. Tie results to bigger goals like leads, search volume for your brand, or conversion trends to key queries.
Final Takeaways and What to Do Next
Staying visible in AI-driven search doesn’t just concern rankings. An AI SEO audit ensures you understand where your brand shows up, where it doesn’t, and what steps to take next. From tracking AI Overviews to improving your content and technical setup, this progress gives you a clear view of how AI tools present your business.
At Eyeful, we specialize in content strategy and SEO that keeps pace with search changes, including AI. Our team knows how to spot the gaps, optimize for AI visibility, and create content that gets cited across platforms.
Ready to take the next step? Connect with Eyeful today to discuss your AI audit and SEO strategy. Not feeling ready to do a self-audit, we offer AI Search/GEO audits to do the heavy lifting for you.
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Track how often your target keywords trigger AI Overviews, whether your site is cited, and your share of voice compared to competitors. Also monitor brand mentions across AI tools, overlap between AI Overview wins and top organic keywords, and any traffic or conversions tied to AI-driven exposure.