Your next client may never type your name into a search bar. They will ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Google AI Mode "who should I hire for this?" and get back a short list.
Either you are on that list or you are not, and most businesses have no idea which. An AI visibility audit answers the question with evidence instead of a hunch.
Why Buyers Now Ask AI Who to Hire
The old buying path was ten blue links and a lot of skimming. The new one is a conversation. A buyer describes the problem, adds a constraint like budget or location, and gets a recommendation back in a paragraph. Fewer clicks, and fewer chances to make your case on your own website.
Your website and rankings still matter, because AI engines draw from the same web everyone else does. But there is a new question to ask: when an AI engine summarizes your category, does it say anything about you?
What the Audit Checks
We look at your business the way a buyer's AI assistant would. We run the questions your buyers actually ask, across the engines they use, and record what comes back.
Whether you are mentioned. Do you show up at all, for which questions, on which engines? A company can be well known to one engine and invisible to another.
Who gets named instead. When you are missing, someone else is in your seat. The audit names them, question by question.
Which sources get cited. Engines that show their work point to the pages they relied on: directories, review sites, industry publications, forums, competitor pages, or your own site. That list is the map of where your reputation is being formed.
Whether the details are right. If an engine gets your services, prices, or location wrong, buyers tend to trust the summary. We flag every error we find.
The AI Visibility Matrix: Shadow, Signal, Authority
Every audit places your business in one of three tiers. They tell you where you are and what kind of work comes next.
| Tier | What AI engines do | What the work looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow | Do not mention you | Give engines a clear, corroborated picture of who you are |
| Signal | Mention you sometimes, often with gaps | Close the gaps so you show up every time |
| Authority | Recommend you and cite sources that back it up | Monitor and defend the position as things change |
A company in Shadow does not need advanced tuning. A company at Authority does not need a rebuild. The tier keeps the plan matched to where you actually are.
What You Get
- A set of buyer questions tailored to your services, market, and location, run across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Copilot.
- A record of every answer: where you appear, where you do not, and how you are described.
- The competitors named in your place for your most important questions.
- The sources each engine cites, grouped so you can see which ones shape your category.
- Your tier in the AI Visibility Matrix, with a plain explanation of why.
- A prioritized action list, ordered by which fixes will move the most answers.
Everything is documented, and you keep it.
What Happens After the Audit
From Shadow, the work is giving AI engines enough clear, consistent information to recommend you. From Signal, it is closing the gaps so you appear reliably. At Authority, it is monitoring, because a lead can erode quietly when a competitor starts doing the same work.
You can run the action list in-house, or we can do it with you through our AI SEO services. Either way, the audit gives you a baseline to measure against.
Start With a Free Mini Audit
The easiest way to see what this looks like is the free 30-minute call. We run a mini audit live: a handful of real buyer questions about your business, so you can see what AI engines say right now. You leave with a first read on your tier.
Book your free mini audit and bring the two or three things you most want buyers to find you for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an AI visibility audit?
An AI visibility audit checks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI features respond when buyers ask about your category: whether you are mentioned, how you are described, who is named instead, and which sources get cited. You get a baseline and a prioritized list of next steps.
How is an AI visibility audit different from an SEO audit?
An SEO audit looks at your website and where its pages rank. An AI visibility audit looks at the answers AI engines write and the sources behind them, which often include sites you do not control, like directories, review sites, and forums.
Which AI engines do you check?
ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot as standard. If your buyers lean on another assistant, we add it.
Can anyone guarantee my business will appear in AI answers?
No. No one controls what AI engines say, and anyone promising guaranteed placement is overselling. A good audit shows you exactly where you stand and which changes give you the best odds, then lets you measure the result.
Is the mini audit really free?
Yes. It happens during the free 30-minute call. We run a few real buyer questions live and walk through what comes back. It is a first look, not the full audit, and there is no obligation.