The 30-minute AI visibility audit: check your website for Google and AI search with free tools

You need your home page address, your most important service page address, and 30 minutes. Optional but useful: access to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Keep a note open with three headings: Fix now, Fix this month, Fine. Each check below tells you where its result goes.

1. 1Open the free AI crawler checker and paste your home page.
2. 2Look at three groups: search crawlers (Googlebot, Bingbot), AI search crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot) and training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot).

Fix now if Googlebot, Bingbot or any AI search crawler you want is blocked. Blocking training crawlers is your choice; it doesn't remove you from ChatGPT search, which uses OAI-SearchBot.

1. 1Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. Scan the results: are your main service pages there?
2. 2If you have Search Console, paste your service page into the top search bar and run URL Inspection. It should say the page is on Google.

Fix now if important pages are missing. Check for a "noindex" tag, a page blocked in robots.txt, or a page nothing links to. Then use Request indexing.

1. 1Run your home and service pages through the meta tag checker.
2. 2Read the title and description it finds.

Fix this month if a title is "Home", just your business name, or the same on several pages. A good title: "Root canal treatment in Kothrud, Pune | SmileCare Dental".

1. 1Run your home page through the page speed checker. It uses Google's own test.
2. 2Look at the three Core Web Vitals. Google's good marks: main content within 2.5 seconds, a tap response under 200 milliseconds, layout shift under 0.1.

Fix this month if any is in the slow range. Start with the images: oversized photos are a common cause.

1. 1Run your service page through the AEO checker.
2. 2Then read the first two sentences of the page yourself. Do they answer the main question a customer has, with a specific fact?

Fix this month if the page opens with a welcome message or slogan. The Answer-First Rewrite shows how to fix it.

1. 1Run the page through the E-E-A-T trust checker.
2. 2Look for a named person, a date, contact details and sources.

Fix this month if there's no named person or no way to contact you on the page. These matter most for health, money and legal topics.

1. 1Run your home or contact page through the schema checker. Do you have LocalBusiness or Organization data, and does it match the page?
2. 2Search your exact business name on Google and Bing. Do your Google Business Profile and Bing listing show the same name, address, phone and hours as your website?

Fix now if any of these disagree. Inconsistent details are a common reason AI gives wrong information about a business. See how to fix wrong AI information.

1. 1Use the free "Does AI name my business?" check with your most important customer question, such as "best [trade] in [city]".
2. 2Note whether you're named and which sources Gemini used.

Fix this month: if you're not named, start a Source Map from those sources.

Work through Fix now first, in order. Crawler and indexing problems block everything else, so they always come first. Then Fix this month, starting with titles and opening answers on your two or three most important pages.

Repeat the audit every three months, or after any website redesign or platform move. A new theme, plugin or security setting is a common cause of new crawler and indexing problems.

If you'd like all of this run in one go on any page, with the fixes written out, SEARCH ONE's free audit covers most of the checks above.

[[faq:[["Is 30 minutes really enough?", "For one site and two pages, yes. You'll find the biggest problems. Fixing them takes longer, and a full site needs every important page checked."], ["Do I need Search Console?", "It's not required for this audit, but it's free and it's the only place Google shows you indexing problems and AI Overview impressions for your site. Set it up if you haven't."], ["What should I fix first?", "Anything that blocks crawling or indexing. After that, business details that disagree, then titles and opening answers."], ["How often should I repeat it?", "Every three months, and after any redesign, new theme, new plugin or platform move."], ["Is this the same as a full SEO audit?", "No. It's a fast check of the most common problems. A full audit also looks at every page, links, content gaps and competitors."]]]