An AI Visibility Audit (also called a GEO audit — Generative Engine Optimization) measures how easy it is for AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and others to find, understand, and recommend your business.
Traditional SEO focuses on getting your website to rank in Google's blue-link results. GEO focuses on getting your business cited and recommended when someone asks an AI chatbot a question like "Who's the best plumber near me?" or "What landscaping companies are in Rochester, NY?"
The audit evaluates your domain across four categories — content quality, citation authority, technical schema, and local business data — and produces a score from 0–100.
Your overall score (0–100) is the sum of four category scores, each worth up to 25 points:
Depth, clarity, and expertise signals on your website — the foundation of AI citations.
How often your business is mentioned on third-party sites, directories, and news sources.
Structured data markup that tells search engines exactly what your business does.
Consistency of your name, address, phone, hours, and categories across the web.
Each category is assessed based on known best practices for AI-indexed content. The audit uses Claude AI to reason about your domain, industry, and location.
No — the audit is an AI-powered expert assessment, not a live technical crawl. It uses Claude AI to reason about your domain, industry, city, and business type based on established GEO best practices.
Think of it like getting a professional opinion from a consultant who specializes in AI search — they can identify common gaps for a business like yours without physically auditing every page. Scores are carefully calibrated estimates, and actual results may vary. A full technical audit would go deeper into your specific site content, backlink profile, and real-time SERP data.
The score is a well-reasoned estimate based on patterns common to businesses in your industry, location, and size category. It's designed to surface your most likely visibility gaps — not to be a precise measurement of every individual page or data point.
In our experience, businesses that score in the low range almost always have the same core issues: thin website content, missing schema markup, and inconsistent directory listings. Addressing these moves the needle meaningfully regardless of the exact starting score.
The score is most valuable as a direction indicator — it shows you where to focus, not a final grade to optimize to the decimal.
Your business is largely invisible to AI-powered search. AI engines are finding little or no reliable information about you. Immediate action is recommended — competitors in your area who do address these gaps will consistently show up in AI recommendations while your business is skipped.
AI search engines are finding some information, but it's incomplete or inconsistent. You may show up occasionally, but not reliably. Targeted improvements to your weaker categories can move you significantly up in AI-generated recommendations.
You have a solid foundation. AI engines can find and understand your business, and you likely appear in relevant recommendations. Fine-tuning your content and authority signals can push you to the top of AI-generated results in your market.
A low score means opportunity, not failure. Most small businesses haven't thought about AI search at all yet — so there's a real first-mover advantage for those who act now.
Here's the practical reality: when someone types "best HVAC company in Rochester" into ChatGPT or asks Google's AI Overview, the businesses that show up are the ones that have done this work. A business with a score of 30 today could jump significantly in AI recommendations within 60–90 days with targeted improvements.
The businesses with low scores aren't doing anything wrong — this is simply a new channel that most haven't optimized for yet.
Industry benchmarks vary, but here's a general guide:
- Highly competitive service industries (law, medical, financial): top performers score 75–90. Average small businesses in these categories often score 35–55.
- Local trades (plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping): top performers score 65–80. Most small operators are in the 25–50 range.
- Retail & restaurants: highly variable. Multi-location businesses with active online presence often score 70+. Single-location shops frequently score 20–45.
- Professional services (accounting, consulting, marketing): typically 40–70, depending on content investment.
The most important benchmark is your local competitors — not national averages. If the top plumber in your city scores 65 and you score 40, that gap is where leads are being lost.
A beautiful website and an AI-optimized website are not the same thing. Most websites are designed to impress human visitors — clean layouts, great photos, brief text. That's the opposite of what AI search engines need.
AI engines look for:
- Detailed, specific content — not "We provide quality service" but "We install and repair residential water heaters, including tankless systems, in the greater Rochester area."
- Structured data markup — code in your website that explicitly tells search engines your business name, address, phone, hours, and services.
- Third-party citations — your business mentioned on other sites, directories, news, and review platforms.
- Consistent NAP data — your Name, Address, and Phone number must match exactly everywhere it appears online.
None of these show up in a visual design review — which is why many businesses with impressive-looking sites still score low on AI visibility.
The GEO audit evaluates visibility across the major AI search platforms that consumers use today:
- ChatGPT (OpenAI) — with web browsing and the GPTBot crawler
- Google AI Overviews — the AI-generated answer boxes appearing above traditional search results
- Perplexity — a fast-growing AI search engine popular with professionals
- Microsoft Copilot (powered by Bing) — integrated across Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365
- Claude.ai (Anthropic) — with web search capability
- Gemini (Google) — Google's AI assistant with real-time search
The Citation Monitor panel in the audit shows projected visibility for each of these engines individually, based on your overall score and known indexing patterns.
Traditional Google search returns a list of links. The user has to click, browse, and decide. AI search answers the question directly — often recommending just one or two businesses by name.
This changes everything about local business competition:
- In traditional search, being on page 1 means 10 blue links — 10 businesses get exposure.
- In AI search, the answer is often "You should call Main Street Plumbing at (585) 555-1234" — one business gets the lead.
The AI pulls its recommendation from whatever information it can find and trust about businesses in your area. Businesses that have made it easy for AI to understand them — with clear content, structured data, and consistent citations — are the ones that get recommended.
Adoption is growing fast. ChatGPT crossed 100 million daily users in early 2024. Google AI Overviews now appear in over 25% of search results. Perplexity is growing 50%+ quarter over quarter. Microsoft Copilot is baked into Windows and Office for hundreds of millions of users.
More importantly, the people using AI search tend to be higher-intent buyers — they're not browsing, they're asking a specific question and ready to act on the answer. That makes AI search referrals especially valuable for local service businesses.
This isn't a future trend — it's happening now. Businesses that optimize for AI visibility today are building an advantage that gets harder for competitors to close over time.
In order of impact for most local businesses:
- 1. Allow AI crawler access — Make sure your robots.txt isn't blocking GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot. This is the single fastest fix and takes about 5 minutes.
- 2. Add schema markup — Implement LocalBusiness and Service schema so AI engines know exactly what you do, where you do it, and how to contact you.
- 3. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile — This is the most cited source for local business data across AI platforms. Fill in every field.
- 4. Expand your content — Add service-specific pages with detailed descriptions. "Residential Water Heater Installation in Rochester, NY" performs far better than a generic "Services" page.
- 5. Build citations — Get listed consistently on Yelp, BBB, Angi, Houzz, local chambers, and industry directories. Name, address, and phone must match exactly.
Your priority actions list in the audit report is customized to your specific business — those are the improvements most likely to move your score.
Timeline depends on which changes are made and how aggressively:
- Immediate (days): Fixing robots.txt crawler access. AI bots re-crawl frequently and will pick up changes fast.
- 2–4 weeks: Schema markup additions, Google Business Profile updates, new directory listings.
- 4–8 weeks: Content expansion starts showing in AI citations as pages get indexed and referenced.
- 2–3 months: Meaningful improvement in how consistently your business appears in AI-generated local recommendations.
GEO is not a one-time fix — it's an ongoing effort, similar to traditional SEO. But the initial improvements for most businesses are concentrated in a focused 30–60 day sprint.
Some items you can absolutely do yourself:
- Updating your Google Business Profile — no technical skills needed
- Getting listed on free directories (Yelp, BBB, Angi) — takes a few hours
- Writing better content for your service pages — you know your business better than anyone
Other items typically require a developer or someone familiar with technical SEO:
- Editing your robots.txt file
- Implementing JSON-LD schema markup in your website code
- Auditing and fixing NAP consistency across dozens of directories
- Adding location-specific service pages that are optimized for AI indexing
If you'd like us to handle the technical side, we're happy to put together a no-obligation proposal for your specific situation. Email Nelson to request a proposal →
It depends entirely on your starting point and how much you want done. Some businesses just need a few technical fixes — others benefit from a full content and citation-building program.
At US WebSites, proposals are customized per business. A typical GEO improvement engagement ranges from a one-time technical setup to an ongoing monthly program. We'll give you a clear scope and price — no vague retainers or mystery billing.
The proposal is free and there's no obligation. We'll tell you exactly what we'd do, why, and what it costs. Email Nelson to get your free proposal →
When you request a proposal, Nelson reviews your audit results and puts together a plain-English document that covers:
- A summary of your current visibility gaps and their priority
- A specific list of recommended improvements for your business
- A clear breakdown of what we'd do and what you'd handle
- A flat-rate price — no hourly billing, no surprises
- An estimated timeline for implementation and measurable results
The proposal is free, takes about a business day to prepare, and comes with no sales pressure. If it makes sense to work together, great. If not, you still have a clear roadmap you can take to any provider.
US WebSites is a Rochester, NY web and AI services firm with over 30 years in business. We specialize in helping small and mid-size businesses build a strong online presence — websites, SEO, and now AI visibility.
Nelson Lopatin, the owner, works directly with every client. No account managers, no outsourced work — you get direct access to the person doing the work.
Phone: 585.789.1932 · nelson@uswebsites.com · uswebsites.com
Call or email Nelson directly — he's happy to talk through your specific situation without any sales pitch:
- Phone: 585.789.1932
- Email: nelson@uswebsites.com
Or email Nelson directly and include your question — we'll address it in the proposal.
Ready to Improve Your AI Visibility?
Request a free, no-obligation proposal. We'll review your audit results and put together a specific plan — with a clear price — within one business day.
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