AI visibility audit: checklist for ChatGPT and Perplexity

Check in 6 steps whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI can find, read and cite your website: from robots.txt to repeatable measurement.

Key takeaways

Key takeaways: An AI visibility audit checks six things: crawler access, content in raw HTML, answers to real questions, structured data that matches visible content, external mentions and repeatable prompt measurement. The result shows current state and gaps; it does not guarantee citations.

What an AI visibility audit is and when to run one

It is a diagnosis of whether answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) can find, read and cite your website — and whether they actually do. It makes sense when clients say "I found you via ChatGPT" (or precisely never say it), when competitors appear in AI answers and you do not, or when you enter a market and want a baseline.

The audit result is a state and a gap list — not a promise of rankings or citations.

How to check your website's visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity

The simplest way: logged out, ask 3-5 questions your client would ask and note which pages the AI names as sources. For a page to appear there at all, each system has its own technical condition:

ChatGPT: for search, OpenAI uses the OAI-SearchBot crawler. If it is blocked in robots.txt or by bot protection, ChatGPT cannot link your site in search results. According to OpenAI, blocking GPTBot (model training) does not remove a site from search.
Perplexity: uses the PerplexityBot crawler, which according to Perplexity surfaces and links websites in its search results.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: according to Google, the page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. There are no additional requirements or special optimizations.

Sources: OpenAI: overview of OpenAI crawlers, Perplexity: Perplexity crawlers, Google Search Central: AI features and your website.

Check 1 — AI crawler access (robots.txt and bot protection)

Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and check the entries for GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended. Also check whether your firewall or CDN blocks AI bots globally — a frequent silent visibility killer.

One distinction matters: OAI-SearchBot = visibility in ChatGPT search; GPTBot = consent to model training, a separate business decision.

Check 2 — content in raw HTML

Ctrl+U on a key page: are your offer, answers and FAQ visible as text? If the page is an "empty div + JavaScript", it does not exist for part of the AI crawlers. We solved this on our own site with prerendering — full answers sit in clean HTML before any script runs.

Check 3 — do pages answer questions

AI cites answer passages. Walk through your 5 most important pages and check: can you point to the question the page answers? Does the answer come in the first sentences, or only after a wall of intro? A rich "about us" page loses to a "concrete question → concrete answer" page.

Check 4 — structured data without theatre

Schema should describe what is visible on the page: the organisation, the service, FAQ next to a real FAQ section. There is no special "schema for AI" — do not add markup on spec, it will not speed up citations and can hurt the credibility of your data.

Check 5 — external sources: where AI takes recommendations from

Review the answers for your own industry and note whether models cite directories, media, industry profiles or other external sources. Then check whether your company has credible mentions beyond its own domain. That is a common gap even when the website itself is technically sound.

Check 6 — prompt measurement (the most important one)

Write 3-5 prompts your ideal client would ask. Logged out, ask them in Perplexity and ChatGPT and note: date, prompt, whether your domain is cited and who gets cited instead of you. That is your baseline.

Record the result even when the brand is never mentioned. A zero point is useful for comparison after 2-4 weeks; it is not a result to publish.

How much you can do yourself — and when to get an expert audit

You can do checks 1, 2 and 6 yourself in half an hour. Checks 3-5 require judging content, schema and the mention profile — self-assessment inflates easily there.

A free first step: our automated AI visibility check. Our SEO and AI visibility service covers the full audit with a prioritised fix list — no ranking promises, with a measurable before/after state.

FAQ

How do I check my website's visibility in ChatGPT?

Write 3-5 prompts your client would ask, run them logged out in ChatGPT and Perplexity, and note whether your domain gets cited and who is cited instead. Repeat the same prompts every 2-4 weeks and judge the trend.

How long does an AI visibility audit take?

The basic checks (robots.txt, raw HTML, prompt measurement) take about 30 minutes on your own. A full expert audit additionally covers content quality, structured data and the external mention profile.

Why do competitors get cited in AI while my company doesn't?

Models often base recommendations on industry directories, media and company profiles. Alongside technical accessibility, check whether your company has credible mentions beyond its own domain.

Can I “buy” visibility in ChatGPT?

No. You can remove blockers and build signals; citations arrive (or not) over weeks, and the trend decides.

Are Google AI Overviews the same as ChatGPT?

No. They are separate systems with separate crawlers, which is why the audit checks access for each bot individually.

How often should I repeat the measurement?

The same prompts every 2-4 weeks; a one-off result says little.