AI visibility audit (AEO audit) for ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews
An AI visibility audit, also called an AEO, GEO or AI SEO audit, measures whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude and Google's AI answers name your brand when buyers ask about your market, which competitors and sources they cite instead, and what on your website keeps them from reading it. You leave with a prioritised plan.
David Dao, Founder
Leads the product and the client work at Altis Koten SRL, the Belgian company that publishes this site.
Published Updated
AEO stands for answer engine optimization: making a brand easier for AI assistants to find, understand and cite in their answers. It is not about writing SEO content with an AI tool. The same work is called GEO (generative engine optimization) or AI SEO depending on the market. An audit is where the work starts: it measures before anyone changes anything. Below: what the GeckoBoost audit measures, what it checks on your site, what you receive, and how it differs from our free AEO checker.
What does an AI visibility audit measure?
The audit asks AI assistants the questions your buyers ask, reads the answers as a person sees them, and records who gets named. We agree the scope with you first.
| Dimension | What we record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer questions | Questions for your category, from discovery to comparison and decision | Buyers ask about a category, not a brand, and meet you or your competitors there |
| Engines | ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Claude | Each engine has its own sources, so a result on one says little about the others |
| Markets and languages | Each question asked from the country you sell in and in its language (English, French, Dutch or German) | Assistants localise their answers and their web searches |
| Competitors | The brands named next to you or instead of you, and their share of answers | Your mention rate only means something next to theirs |
| Sources | The pages and domains each assistant cites, and who runs them: a competitor, a directory, a media outlet, a forum | These are the sites where a mention can change the answer |
| Searches the assistants run | The web searches behind each answer, and whether your site is on Bing's first page for them, the index ChatGPT and Copilot search | Assistants that search the web can only cite what their search returns |
| Accuracy | False or outdated claims about your brand, checked against a fact sheet you approve | Being named with the wrong price or the wrong offer can cost more than not being named |
Answers are collected over several days: the same question rarely gets the same answer twice, and one screenshot can mislead. Our own data shows why: between 31 October and 10 November 2026, the agency named by all four engines on "best AEO agency" was named by only two, and four of Google's nine top organic results for that query changed.
What does the audit check on your website?
Before any content work, an assistant has to be allowed to read your pages. These five checks are documented: each one rests on the official documentation of an engine, quoted below with its link and the date we read it.
Crawler access (documented)
Your robots.txt must let in the crawlers that feed AI search: Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot. We also report what you allow for training crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot, which is a separate decision.
Firewall and CDN (documented)
A bot protection rule can turn crawlers away even when robots.txt lets them in. We check whether your home page answers automated visitors or returns a refusal.
Indexing and snippet directives (documented)
A noindex in the page or its HTTP headers, or a restrictive nosnippet or max-snippet, limits or removes your content from AI answers.
Text without JavaScript (documented)
Several AI crawlers do not run JavaScript. If your key text only appears after scripts run, they may read an empty page.
Entity data (documented for accuracy, heuristic for effect)
Structured data that describes your company or product, a clear description and a declared language. Search engines ask that markup match the visible text. Whether it raises citations is not documented.
“To be eligible to be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet, fulfilling the Search technical requirements. There are no additional technical requirements.”
“To make a website eligible for inclusion, allow OAI-Searchbot to crawl the site and confirm that the website host or content delivery network allows traffic from OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses.”
“Content that cannot be reliably rendered may not be indexed or selected for grounding results.”
“[Blocking Claude-SearchBot] prevents our system from indexing your content for search optimization, which may reduce your site's visibility and accuracy in user search results.”
We also check whether Google lists your pages at all and whether ChatGPT finds your site when asked its name. A site that fails either is left out of answers whatever its content.
What do you receive at the end of the audit?
- A written report: your mention rate by engine, language and question, with its margin of error, the competitors named instead of you, the sources cited, and the claims about you that were wrong.
- A prioritised action plan: technical fixes first (they can keep you out of every answer), then the sites where a mention would count, the pages to write for the questions where a competitor leads, and the searches where you are missing from Google or Bing. Each action is tagged documented or heuristic.
- A debrief meeting to walk through the findings with your marketing team or your agency, and to decide who does what.
- The raw answers behind every figure, so your team can read what the assistants actually said.
Heuristic actions are those no engine documents but our measurements point to. YouTube was cited in 24 of the 124 AI answers we collected on 10 November 2026, Reddit in 20 (31 queries, four engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews). A presence there is worth testing (heuristic), not a rule.
How long does an AEO audit take?
Before the start
A 30-minute call to agree the questions, engines, markets, languages and competitors. You approve a short fact sheet about your brand.
Week 1: measurement
Answers are collected over several days and your website is checked.
Week 2: analysis and debrief
We write the report and the action plan, then present them in the debrief meeting.
The exact schedule depends on the scope and is written in the quote. First answers arrive the same day, but a figure built on several days is more reliable.
How much does an AI visibility audit cost?
The audit is priced on quote. The price depends on the number of questions, markets, languages and competitors, not on a promised outcome. Book a 30-minute call and you get a written quote after it.
If you would rather run the measurement yourself, the GeckoBoost software is publicly priced from €79 a month excluding VAT, with a 14-day free trial (see pricing). For what audits and ongoing AEO work cost on the market, and how agencies price them, read our AEO pricing guide.
How is the audit different from the free AEO checker?
| Free AEO checker | AI visibility audit | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 3, written automatically for your sector | A full set agreed with you |
| Engines | ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini | Seven engines, including Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot and Claude |
| Answers | One per question and engine, while you wait | Collected over several days |
| Competitors and sources | Brands named in the answers | Share of answers, cited sources, searches behind the answers |
| Website checks | Not included | Crawler access, firewall, directives, text without JavaScript, entity data |
| Deliverable | A results page you can share | Report, prioritised plan and debrief meeting |
| Price | Free | On quote |
The checker answers one question in two minutes: are you named at all? The audit tells you why, against whom, and what to do first.
What can no AEO audit promise?
No one controls what an assistant says. An audit can remove what blocks you and point to what tends to help, but it cannot promise a rank or a citation. The engines say so themselves.
“Third-party tools don't have access to our internal ranking data. They can't guarantee performance.”
“SEO does not guarantee rankings or traffic, and GEO does not guarantee grounding or citations in AI experiences.”
A serious audit offers a stable method instead, so you can see whether your actions move the numbers.
What did we find when we measured our own brand?
We ran the same measurement on ourselves. On 10 November 2026, across 31 queries about AEO and GEO agencies and tools in English, French and Dutch, and four engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews), GeckoBoost was named in 0 of 124 answers. That is our starting point, and our case study follows it at each measurement.
The same collection showed how differently engines source their answers: on the same query, the domains two engines cited overlapped by 0.08 on average (Jaccard index, 154 engine pairs). A plan aimed at one engine leaves the others untouched.
Who is the audit for?
- Marketing managers who need to know where their brand stands in AI answers before they set a budget.
- Brands, SMEs and software publishers whose buyers now ask ChatGPT or Gemini before they visit a website.
- Agencies that want an independent measurement for a client before they start AEO work, or after it.
For the work itself after the audit, see our AEO and GEO services. To understand the discipline first, start with what AEO is or the ten actions to boost your AEO.
Tell us your market and your competitors. You get a written quote for the audit.
Book a 30-minute callQuestions
What is an AEO audit?
An AEO audit (answer engine optimization audit) measures how AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews answer the questions your buyers ask, whether they name your brand, who they name instead, which sources they cite, and what on your website keeps them from reading it. It ends with a prioritised action plan.
Is AEO legit?
Yes, as long as it is sold for what it is. Google and Bing both describe what helps a page appear in their AI answers, and both say no one can promise a citation. Google even warns that many AEO and GEO "hacks" are not supported by how Search works. A sound audit sticks to what is documented, labels the rest as heuristic and measures the outcome.
What is the difference between an SEO audit and an AEO audit?
An SEO audit looks at rankings in classic search results. An AEO audit looks at AI answers: whether your brand is named, next to whom, from which sources, and whether AI crawlers can read your site. The two overlap, because Google's AI features and many assistants build on a search index, so the audit also checks your position on the searches the assistants run.
What is the difference between AEO, GEO and AI SEO?
They name the same goal: being found and cited by AI assistants. AEO (answer engine optimization) is the usual term in English, GEO (generative engine optimization) in French and Dutch, and AI SEO is used in both senses, SEO for AI answers or SEO done with AI. The audit is the same whatever the label.
Can you guarantee that ChatGPT will cite us after the audit?
No, and no honest provider can. OpenAI writes that ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors and that placement is not guaranteed. The audit removes the blocks you control and points to the actions most likely to help, then measures whether they did.
Is this the AEO customs status?
No. In customs, AEO means Authorised Economic Operator, a certification for companies that trade across borders. This page is about answer engine optimization, the visibility of a brand in AI answers.
Can I run an AI visibility audit myself?
Partly. The free AEO checker tells you in two minutes whether three assistants name you. The GeckoBoost software runs the full measurement and builds the action plan, and its 14-day free trial shows a preview of the results. The guided audit adds our analysis, the site checks explained, and a debrief with your team.