The Complete Guide to AI SEO Auditing
The rise of AI-powered search has fundamentally changed what it means to be "optimized" for search. While traditional SEO focused on ranking in Google's blue links, AI SEO—also known as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—focuses on being understood, recommended, and cited by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.
An AI SEO audit examines your website through the lens of AI systems, identifying issues that prevent AI crawlers from accessing your content, factors that affect how AI understands your business, and optimization opportunities that can improve your visibility in AI-generated responses.
Why AI SEO Audits Matter
The shift toward AI-powered search is accelerating. Research shows that 70% of users now use AI assistants for product research at some point in their buying journey. When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best project management tool for remote teams" or asks Perplexity "compare CRM options for startups," the AI's response directly influences their decision.
Unlike traditional search where you might rank on page two and still get some traffic, AI responses are winner-take-all. The AI either mentions your business or it doesn't. There's no equivalent of "ranking on page two"—you're either in the response or you're invisible.
An AI SEO audit identifies the specific factors preventing your business from appearing in these AI responses and provides a prioritized roadmap for improvement.
The Five Pillars of AI SEO
Our audit examines your website across five critical categories, each contributing to your overall AI visibility:
1. Technical Foundation
Before AI crawlers can understand your content, they need to access it. Technical factors we check include:
- SSL/HTTPS: AI crawlers prefer secure sites. An insecure site may be deprioritized or skipped entirely.
- Page speed: Slow-loading pages may timeout during crawling, resulting in incomplete indexing.
- Mobile responsiveness: AI systems index mobile versions of sites, making mobile optimization essential.
- Server reliability: Frequent downtime means missed crawling opportunities.
2. AI Crawlability
This category examines whether AI crawlers can access and process your content:
- Robots.txt configuration: Are GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot allowed? Many sites accidentally block these crawlers.
- LLMs.txt presence: Do you have the emerging standard file that tells AI what your business does?
- XML sitemap: AI crawlers use sitemaps to discover and prioritize content.
- JavaScript rendering: Content that requires JavaScript execution may not be visible to all AI crawlers.
3. Content Structure
AI models need well-structured content to extract accurate information:
- Heading hierarchy: Clear H1 > H2 > H3 structure helps AI understand topic organization.
- Semantic HTML: Using proper article, section, nav, and aside elements aids AI comprehension.
- Content organization: Logical flow with clear topic delineation.
- Internal linking: Helps AI understand relationships between your content.
4. AI Optimization
Specific factors that help AI models understand and represent your business:
- Structured data: Organization, Product, FAQ, Article, and other schema types.
- Entity clarity: Clear identification of your business, products, and services.
- FAQ content: Directly addressable question-answer pairs that AI can surface.
- Author information: Clear attribution that establishes expertise.
5. Social and Sharing
How your content appears when shared and in previews:
- Open Graph tags: Title, description, and image for social sharing.
- Twitter Cards: Proper configuration for X/Twitter previews.
- Rich previews: How your content appears in Slack, LinkedIn, and messaging apps.
Understanding Your Audit Score
Your AI SEO score is calculated based on the weighted importance of each check. Not all factors are equal—blocking AI crawlers entirely has more impact than having suboptimal Open Graph tags.
Score interpretation:
- 80-100: Excellent. Your site is well-optimized for AI discovery. Focus on maintaining current practices and monitoring for new requirements.
- 60-79: Good. You've addressed core requirements but have optimization opportunities. Focus on high-priority issues first.
- 40-59: Fair. Common issues are affecting your AI visibility. Prioritize fixing critical issues like robots.txt and LLMs.txt.
- Below 40: Needs work. Significant issues are preventing AI from properly understanding your site. Start with foundational fixes.
Most websites score between 30-50 because they haven't specifically optimized for AI search. This represents a significant opportunity—improving your score moves you ahead of competitors who haven't yet adapted.
Prioritizing Your Fixes
Not all audit findings require immediate attention. Here's how to prioritize:
Critical Priority (Fix Immediately)
- AI crawlers blocked in robots.txt
- No SSL certificate
- Site returning errors
- Critical content not rendering without JavaScript
High Priority (Fix This Week)
- Missing LLMs.txt file
- No structured data
- Poor heading hierarchy
- Missing or incorrect meta descriptions
Medium Priority (Fix This Month)
- Missing FAQ schema
- Incomplete Open Graph tags
- No XML sitemap
- Missing canonical tags
Lower Priority (Ongoing Improvement)
- Page speed optimization
- Additional schema types
- Internal linking improvements
- Content structure refinements
Common Audit Findings and How to Fix Them
AI Crawlers Blocked in Robots.txt
This is the most common critical issue. Many sites have legacy robots.txt files that use broad disallow rules or specifically block newer AI crawlers. The fix is straightforward: update your robots.txt to explicitly allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot. Use our robots.txt generator to create an optimized file.
Missing LLMs.txt File
Without LLMs.txt, AI models must infer your business from scattered website content. Create a comprehensive LLMs.txt file that clearly describes your business, products, target audience, and use cases. Use our LLMs.txt generator to get started, then customize for your specific business.
No Structured Data
Structured data helps AI models understand entities and relationships on your site. At minimum, add Organization schema to your homepage and relevant schema (Product, Article, FAQ, LocalBusiness) to appropriate pages. Use Google's Structured Data Markup Helper or Schema.org documentation as references.
Poor Heading Hierarchy
AI models use heading structure to understand content organization. Ensure you have one H1 per page (your main topic), H2s for major sections, and H3s for subsections. Never skip levels (H1 to H3) and ensure headings accurately describe the content that follows.
Monitoring and Continuous Improvement
AI SEO isn't a one-time project—it's an ongoing practice. The AI search landscape evolves rapidly, with new crawlers, updated requirements, and emerging best practices.
We recommend:
- Quarterly audits: Run a full audit every quarter to catch issues and track progress.
- Post-launch audits: After any significant site update, verify you haven't broken AI accessibility.
- Competitive monitoring: Periodically audit competitor sites to understand the competitive landscape.
- Stay informed: Follow AI search news to learn about new requirements and opportunities.
Taking Action
Every day with unresolved AI SEO issues is a day when potential customers searching through AI assistants won't find you. The audit takes seconds to run and provides immediate, actionable insights.
Run your audit now, prioritize the findings, and start implementing fixes. Your competitors who haven't yet optimized for AI search are giving you an opportunity—the question is whether you'll take advantage of it.