How to Perform a DIY AI SEO Audit to Improve Your Brand Visibility in AI Search.

Before investing in AI SEO (GEO) tools, it’s critical to understand your current AI visibility baseline. This comprehensive DIY audit will help you identify immediate AI brand visibility issues, understand your AI presence, and decide if professional AI brand monitoring tools are necessary.

Time Required: 2-3 hours
Cost: Free
Tools Needed: Access to different AI models (GPT, Grok, Perplexity, Gemini, Cloude)

Many business professionals express confusion about their AI brand presence, asking:

• “Why are we not visible in AI search results?”
• “How can we fix our AI brand visibility issues?”

This audit addresses these common questions by guiding you through a step-by-step process to analyze your AI SEO health and improve your AI-driven brand reputation.

Why Perform an AI SEO Brand Audit?

Many brands only realize they have serious AI representation issues when potential customers mention “hearing something” about their company through AI-powered research tools. Conducting this DIY AI SEO audit helps you:

• ✅ Uncover how AI models currently describe your brand
• ✅ Identify misinformation or outdated information
• ✅ Understand which competitors AI models prefer
• ✅ Determine if you need automated monitoring tools
• ✅ Create a baseline for measuring improvement

This proactive audit is essential for brands that want to leverage AI search to attract new customers and maintain a positive, accurate AI brand reputation.

Phase 1: Basic Brand Mention Analysis

Step 1: Test Core Brand Queries

Run these exact prompts across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot:

• "Tell me about [Your Company Name]"
• "What does [Your Company Name] do?"
• "Is [Your Company Name] a good company?

Document for each response:
✅ Accuracy of basic company description
✅ Correct industry categorization
✅ Accurate founding date/location
❌ Any factual errors
❌ Outdated information
❌ Missing key products/services

Step 2: Product/Service Recognition

Use product-focused prompts such as:

• "What is the best [Your Main Product] in the market?"
• "How does [Your Product] compare to [Top Competitor]?"
• "What are the pros and cons of [Your Product]?"

Red Flags to Watch For:

• AI doesn't recognize your main products
• Outdated pricing informationIncorrect feature descriptions
• Security/reliability concerns mentioned without context

Phase 2: Competitive Positioning Analysis

Step 3: Category Leadership Tests

Check your brand’s ranking with these prompts:

• "Who are the top companies in [your industry]?"
• "What are the best [your product category] tools?"
• "Which [industry] companies should I consider?"

Scoring System:

Step 4: Purchase Intent Queries

Test buyer-focused prompts critical for sales:

• "I need [product category] for [use case]. What should I consider?"
• "What's the best [product type] for [company size/industry]?"
• "Should I choose [Your Brand] or [Top Competitor]?"

Watch for:

• Your position in AI recommendations
• Tone of recommendation (enthusiastic, neutral, cautious)
• Criteria used for choosing your brand
• Any highlighted concerns or limitations

Phase 3: Sentiment and Reputation Check

Step 5: Reputation Deep Dive

Reputation Prompts examples:

• "What do people say about [Your Company]?"
• "Are there any issues with [Your Company]?"
• "What are the complaints about [Your Product]?"
• "Is [Your Company] trustworthy?"

Evaluate:

• Overall sentiment (positive, neutral, negative)
• Specific issues mentioned
• Recency of the information
• Whether concerns remain relevant

Step 6: Crisis/Issue Scanning

Look for mentions of:

• Past security incidents
• Customer service problems
• Product recalls or issues
• Legal or leadership controversies

Ask:

• Is old negative news presented as current?
• Are resolved issues still prominently displayed?
• Does AI provide balanced context?

Phase 4: Source and Citation Analysis

Step 7: Understanding AI's Sources

Note the types of sources AI models cite when describing your brand
Source Types:

• Company websites and official sources
• News articles (check dates)
• Review platforms like Trustpilot and G2
• Forum discussions (Reddit, Quora)
• Competitor blogs
• Industry reports

Source Quality Assessment:
✅ Authoritative, recent sources
✅ Balanced, factual reporting
❌ Outdated information (2+ years old)
❌ Competitor-authored content
❌ Unverified forum posts

Phase 5: Content Gap Analysis

Step 8: Information Architecture Review

Check for missing or outdated info on your website:

• Current product features and capabilities
• Accurate pricing information
• Recent company achievements/milestones
• Updated customer testimonials
• Current team/leadership information
• Recent product updates or launches

Step 9: AI-Readability Assessment

Evaluate your main website pages:

• Are key facts stated clearly and concisely?
• Do you have FAQ sections addressing common questions?
• Is information structured with headers and bullet points?
• Are there quotable statements about your unique value?

Results Interpretation Guide

When to Invest in Professional AI SEO Monitoring Tools

Consider professional monitoring if:

• You track 50+ keyword variations or multiple products
• You operate in multiple geographic markets
• You need daily or weekly tracking
• Your DIY audit reveals significant issues
• You’re in a competitive industry with AI-influenced sales objections
• You want historical data and trend analysis
• You need automated alerts and detailed competitor analysis

Stick with DIY if:

• Your audit results are mostly positive
• You have a simple product line and industry
• You have time for regular manual audits

Action Steps Based on Your Audit Results

Immediate Fixes (Week 1)

• Update your website with clear, AI-friendly descriptions
• Create FAQ pages addressing any misconceptions found
• Publish recent news to push down outdated information
• Add structured data markup to key pages

Short-term Strategy (Month 1)

• Content creation plan targeting gaps identified
• Competitor analysis of their AI-optimized content
• Source building to improve citation quality
• Regular monitoring schedule (monthly DIY audits)

Long-term Considerations (Months 2-3)

• Evaluate monitoring tools if issues persist
• Develop AI content strategy for ongoing optimization
• Train sales team on AI-related customer concerns
• Create measurement framework for tracking improvement

Do It Yourself Audit Template

Is your Brand ready for AI revolution?

Knowledge is Power. This audit gives you crucial intelligence about your current AI brand presence. If you discovered significant issues, don't panic—you're ahead of most brands who haven't checked at all.
Remember:
❗AI brand representation changes constantly
❗Manual monitoring becomes impractical at scale
❗Early detection of issues prevents larger problems
❗Professional tools helps to prevent crisis prevention

If your audit revealed yellow or red zone issues, it's time to consider professional AI SEO solutions that can track these metrics and provide you solutions to fix it.