AI Visibility Audit: 5-Minute Self-Check

Test 1 — Direct AI query (1 minute)

Open ChatGPT or Claude. Ask: "Who is [your business name]?"

Pass: AI gives a 2-3 sentence summary of what you do, where you are, what makes you distinct.

Fail: AI says "I don't have specific information about that business" or describes a different business with a similar name.

Why it matters: If AI can't summarize your business, it can't recommend you to a user. You're invisible at the first level of AI discovery.

Test 2 — llms.txt presence (1 minute)

Visit yoursite.com/llms.txt in your browser.

Pass: File loads. Contains a structured summary of your business, services, key URLs.

Fail: 404 page. (Your site doesn't follow the llmstxt.org standard.)

Why it matters: AI crawlers increasingly check this file first. It's a fast-path to inform them of your business identity without reading every page.

Test 3 — robots.txt for AI crawlers (1 minute)

Visit yoursite.com/robots.txt and look for these user-agents:

• GPTBot (OpenAI)
• ClaudeBot (Anthropic)
• PerplexityBot
• Google-Extended (Gemini training)
• Applebot-Extended (Apple Intelligence)

Pass: All listed with Allow: / or omitted entirely (default-allow).

Fail: Listed with Disallow: / or unlisted in a paranoid file. Your old WordPress security plugin may have blocked them by default.

Why it matters: Block AI bots and you're invisible to AI by your own choice.

Test 4 — Schema.org presence (1 minute)

Right-click your homepage → "View Page Source" → search (Ctrl-F) for application/ld+json.

Pass: At least 1 valid JSON-LD block with Organization or LocalBusiness schema.

Fail: Zero results, or only generic WebPage schema.

Why it matters: Schema.org is how AI engines learn your entity identity. No schema = no entity = no citations.

Test 5 — Perplexity citation test (1 minute)

Open Perplexity.ai. Search: "best [your service] in [your city]"

Look at the answer + the "Sources" list on the right.

5/5 pass: Your business is in the main answer AND in the sources list.

3-4 pass: Your business is in the sources but not the main answer.

1-2 pass: Your business is on page 2 of sources.

0 pass: You don't appear at all.

Why it matters: Perplexity is currently the most aggressive AI search engine. If you're not in their answer for your own service+city, you're invisible to the AI-first generation of buyers.